Social-Guard: Detecting Scammers in Online Dating

Scamming users of online dating sites has rapidly increased in recent years. According to the Federal Trade Commission, 21,000 online dating scams were reported in 2018, with total reported losses of $143 million. A common tactic used by scammers to trick dating site users is using celebrity profile photos to increase attractiveness. In this paper, we present a prototype tool to assist online dating users in identifying scammers and interacting safely on online dating platforms. The tool recognizes celebrity photos in online dating profiles and identifies the associated profiles as possible fakes, thereby equipping online dating site users with a method to discover scammers. We created fake profiles using celebrity and non-celebrity photos to evaluate the tool's effectiveness. The tool evaluation results were satisfactory. This work aims to increase public awareness of and alert users to signs of scams on online dating websites.