CBS News
Match Group CEO Bernard Kim on romance scams: “Things happen in life”
The CEO of the nation’s largest online dating company told CBS News that his company cares deeply about protecting its customers, though his response for those who have lost their life savings to overseas romance scammers, was more nuanced: “Things happen in life.”
“Look, I mean, things happen in life,” said Bernard Kim, the CEO of Match Group, when asked how he would address his customers who had been scammed. “That’s really difficult. I have a tremendous amount of empathy for things that happen, but I mean, our job is to keep people safe on our platforms; that is top foremost, most important thing to us.”
Kim spoke in response to questions stemming from a yearlong CBS News investigation into the widening threat posed by overseas-based criminals who managed to steal more than $1 billion last year from victims they have wooed into online romances. The investigation is the subject of a CBS Reports documentary that streams on the CBS News app and CBSNews.com beginning at 9 p.m. ET Sunday, April 28.
Senior U.S. law enforcement officials told CBS News the scams are not a new problem — but they have been supercharged by the easy access that con artists have to vulnerable, lonely Americans, who go looking for companionship on social media and dating apps.
“We see from 2017 to 2023 is when we had the sharp increase in romance frauds,” said James C. Barnacle Jr., the financial crimes section chief for the FBI. Asked what changed, Barnacle replied: “The proliferation of the dating sites.”
The cases, federal officials report, have ensnared tens of thousands of victims — many of whom are too embarrassed to report the crime. The range of victims has broadened to include younger, wealthier and better educated people who go online in search of partners. By some estimates, as many as 40% of the victims are men.
Match Group, which operates an array of popular dating websites and apps, says it has expanded its security posture and invests more than $125 million a year to protect customers. The company says it succeeds in removing 96% of fraudulent accounts within a day.
The company disputes an allegation the Federal Trade Commission leveled in a 2019 lawsuit, which claimed the agency’s independent review of data from 2013 to 2018 showed as many as 25 to 30% of profiles on the flagship website, Match.com, were opened in order to commit fraud. In defending against the lawsuit, Match Group argued that it did not believe the FTC claim had merit and that it was not legally responsible for the interactions between scammers and their victims because of a broad immunity law that protects internet platforms from legal action.
In ruling on the case, U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade wrote that the provision known as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act granted web-based service providers, like Match, immunity from liability for content posted by third parties on their sites. The judge dismissed the portion of the FTC case that tried to hold Match Group responsible for fraud activity on their platforms.
Last month, Match Group hired Yoel Roth, the former head of trust and safety for the company then known as Twitter, to take on the role at the online dating site. On LinkedIn, Roth said, he first took an interest in what the industry calls trust and safety 15 years earlier, “because the then-new world of dating apps felt like the Wild West.”
“It’s truly a dream come true to get to roll up my sleeves and work to protect the millions of people making connections on our apps worldwide,” Roth said.
Kim told CBS News the company has sought to bulk up its protections for customers out of a recognition that doing so is “existential to our business.”
“It is the first and foremost top priority for us as an organization,” Kim said. “We’re working really, really hard every single day to make sure that people are authentic.”
More from the CBS News Investigation:
CBS News investigative reporters Pat Milton, Clare Hymes and Alyssa Spady contributed to this report.
If you or someone you know has been affected by a romance scam, please share your story with us at RomanceScams@CBSNews.com
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Renad Atallah is an unlikely internet sensation: a 10-year-old chef, with a repertoire of simple recipes, cooking in war-torn Gaza. She has nearly a million followers on Instagram, who’ve witnessed her delight as she unpacks parcels of food aid.
CBS News
We interviewed Renad via satellite, though we were just 50 miles away, in Tel Aviv. [Israel doesn’t allow outside journalists into Gaza, except on brief trips with the country’s military.]
“There are a lot of dishes I’d like to cook, but the ingredients aren’t available in the market,” Renad told us. “Milk used to be easy to buy, but now it’s become very expensive.”
I asked, “How does it feel when so many people like your internet videos?”
“All the comments were positive,” she said. “When I’m feeling tired or sad and I want something to cheer me up, I read the comments.”
We sent a local camera crew to Renad’s home as she made Ful, a traditional Middle Eastern bean stew. Her older sister Noorhan says they never expected the videos to go viral. “Amazing food,” Noorhan said, who added that her sibling made her “very surprised!”
After more than a year of war, the Gaza Strip lies in ruins. Nearly everyone has been displaced from their homes. The United Nations says close to two million people are experiencing critical levels of hunger.
Hamada Shaqoura is another chef showing the outside world how Gazans are getting by, relying on food from aid packages, and cooking with a single gas burner in a tent.
Shaqoura also volunteers with the charity Watermelon Relief, which makes sweet treats for Gaza’s children.
In his videos online, Shaqoura always appears very serious. Asked why, he replied, “The situation does not call for smiling. What you see on screen will never show you how hard life is here.”
Before dawn one recent morning in Israel, we watched the UN’s World Food Program load nearly two dozen trucks with flour, headed across the border. The problem is not a lack of food; the problem is getting the food into the Gaza Strip, and into the hands of those who desperately need it.
The UN has repeatedly accused Israel of obstructing aid deliveries to Gaza. Israel’s government denies that, and claims that Hamas is hijacking aid.
“For all the actors that are on the ground, let the humanitarians do their work,” said Antoine Renard, the World Food Program’s director in the Palestinian territories.
I asked, “Some people might see these two chefs and think, well, they’re cooking, they have food.”
“They have food, but they don’t have the right food; they’re trying to accommodate with anything that they can find,” Renard said.
Even in our darkest hour, food can bring comfort. But for many in Gaza, there’s only the anxiety of not knowing where they’ll find their next meal.
For more info:
Story produced by Mikaela Bufano. Editor: Carol Ross.
See also:
“Sunday Morning” 2024 “Food Issue” recipe index
Delicious menu suggestions from top chefs, cookbook authors, food writers, restaurateurs, and the editors of Food & Wine magazine.
