Dear Romance Fraudsters, Pack Your Bags — Simon Newman writes for The Sumsuber
ODDA CEO Simon Newman has written a Spotlight feature for The Sumsuber, Sumsub’s expert-led compliance publication, with a blunt message for romance fraudsters – time is up.
The piece opens with Kirsty, a smart, successful business owner who lost more than £80,000 to a romance scam. Her story makes an uncomfortable point, that romance fraud doesn’t discriminate. More than half of adults worldwide have encountered an online scam, and one in four have become a victim. The emotional cost often outlasts the financial one by years.
But the article’s central argument is one the headlines rarely make room for – the industry is fighting back, and it’s paying off.
A standout example is Tinder’s Face Check, a mandatory, liveness-based verification tool rolling out in the UK since March 2026, which confirms a real, present person sits behind every new profile. In markets where it’s live, Tinder reports that exposure to bots, fake profiles and scam accounts has fallen by more than 60%, with user reports of those accounts down more than 40%.
For ODDA, these results show what becomes possible when we build safety by design. And that’s the standard we want to make ordinary across the sector, from the largest platform to the smallest.
As Simon writes, the battle isn’t over. Scam tactics will keep evolving, but the tide is turning, and the ODDA members have every intention of keeping it that way.
