Day 3: The Digital World
Every fake profile, every message, every stolen photo, it all starts on a platform or service that needs to improve.
This day is a direct call to action for dating apps, social media networks, and other tech companies: you are not neutral. We need a way to strengthen to stop scammers exploiting.
If trust and safety aren’t built in, then harm is guaranteed.
Because the dating or social media platform may be where the victim first encounters the character, but it may be only one piece of an enormous digital ecosystem.
What’s Happening on Platform Accountability Day:
Toolkit Drop: “What Platforms Need to Know About Romance Fraud”
- A practical, data-informed guide to recognising romance fraud as abuse, not just a ‘Community Guideline’ violation.
- Includes prevention recommendations, flagging patterns, and system-level accountability actions.
Day 3 Question: What did the digital world make the victim believe was real?
WHO SAW IT?
Who saw the person behind the profile?
A dating profile.
A social media account.
Friends who weren’t real.
A job that didn’t exist.
A website that looked legitimate.
Photographs. Videos. Voices. Digital identities.
The victim saw a person.
What did the digital world see?
And what could it have seen?
The Digital Ecosystem is the Responsibility of All not just One
Criminals are utilising every aspect of our digital world, to legitimise their lies and exploit their victims.
Dating Platforms
Social Media
Digital Infrastructure & Technical Facilitators
Technology
- fake profiles
- stolen photographs
- fabricated biographies
- multiple identities
- mass messaging
- fake friends
- fake family
- fake employment histories
- photographs
- posts
- comments
- apparently established identities
- mass messaging
- fake businesses
- fake professional websites
- fabricated companies
- fake investment or property opportunities
- fake organisations
- manipulated photographs
- AI-generated images
- voice cloning
- manipulated video
- increasingly convincing video calls
- fabricated documents and other digital artefacts
- Conversational AI
What could they see?
What could they see?
What could they see?
What could they see?
Video
Video
Video
Video
Today, we take a walk through what the victim saw under manipulation and what the businesses saw through their platforms and portals.
The Online Dating and Discovery Association
Embrace the Journey
Find your path: Downloadable Resources
Online Dating & Discovery Association (ODDA)
We want your dating experience to be fun, enjoyable and safe. Follow our tips for a safe and great experience.
Millions go online as a start point to new relationships, whether serious or more casual. Most have a great time, making new important relationships. But, sadly, we have to remember there are some who try to use social media, dating and other services to develop relationships where their intention is to scam their new online friend. Our safety advice will help you stay date safe.
Simon Newman, CEO of the Online Dating and Discovery Association (ODDA), delivered a provocative talk at the Global Anti-Scam Summit London 2025, challenging the current approach to corporate accountability in online fraud. Speaking from his background in government and industry, Newman argued that existing laws and regulatory efforts have failed to stem the growth of scams.
He proposed a more radical solution: introducing corporate liability for scams, similar to corporate manslaughter laws. Companies that show a willful disregard for user safety online should face serious consequences, including criminal charges against executives. He also advocated for better information sharing between industries, the use of real-time scam data, a national-level agency dedicated to tackling scams, and stronger government leadership in fraud prevention efforts.
Newman showcased a pilot project with Scamalytics, where scammer IP addresses were shared across dating platforms to block bad actors across multiple sites. Early results show significant promise for cross-platform collaboration.
Closing his talk, Newman called for bold government action, deeper private sector collaboration, and greater investment in research to build a truly hostile environment for scammers.