APAC, October 3, 2023 – Today Tinder and its parent company, Match Group (NASDAQ: MTCH), are collaborating with Mean Girls actor Jonathan Bennett to help remind users how to avoid online financial scams and toxic behaviours – from the man who knows a thing or two about toxic behaviour.

Tinder is launching a new campaign that finally confirms Bennett’s question: What day is it today? Today is October 3rd, which is now known as World Romance Scam Prevention Day. This commemorative day was created to help fuel more education and awareness around an issue that impacts millions of people of all ages around the world to remind them to never send money or invest with people they’ve never met.

“Fans have a lot of fun celebrating all their favorite memes and quotes every October 3, but it’s also important that we can take this day to acknowledge some important lessons about how we interact with others online,” said Jonathan Bennett. “We want everyone to continue to recognise this day, while also being more aware of the types of common behaviours of online scammers to watch out for.”

According to the FBI, crypto scams, such as “Pig Butchering”, now serve as the largest financial scam in the US, totaling over $3 billion. Additionally, while older adults have the highest percentage of romance scams reported, investigators say reports made by younger adults are increasing each year.

"At Tinder, we are proud to lead on safety efforts and create campaigns that are both beneficial and culturally relevant that can help drive more awareness and make dating safer on our app and across online platforms,” said Stephanie Danzi, SVP of Global Marketing at Tinder. "On World Romance Scam Prevention Day, we are educating our users of all ages on ways to protect themselves, so they do not fall victim to online fraudulent scams.”

"World Romance Scam Prevention Day aims to squash stigmas that prevent approximately 97% of victims from reporting and obtaining justice,” said Kathy Waters, Executive Director, Advocating Against Romance Scammers. “Advocating Against Romance Scammers created this day to help bring together every global entity affected by the scams to increase awareness and help others understand the severity of the controlled manipulation in order for the fraud to succeed. We appreciate that Match Group and Tinder have joined our efforts and are doing their part to help raise awareness for their users on their platforms."

This campaign follows the recent in-app safety messages that rolled out across Southeast Asia as well as the public awareness campaign Match Group launched in January to help remind users of ways everyone can protect themselves from online scams.

Over the last few years, brands across Match Group have taken proactive steps to help prevent and warn users of potential scams or fraud, from the introduction of new product features like selfie verification and video chat, to sending popup messages with safety tips if certain language is detected in conversations between users.

To learn more about Advocating Against Romance Scammers, click here.