Online dating faces a pivotal challenge: ensuring the authenticity and safety of its users. A staggering 50% of dating profiles are suspected to be fraudulent on some sites, diminishing user trust and creating poor experiences by bots. Add to this the alarming 800% increase in romance scams over three years, and the need for stringent verification and background checks is undeniable. It's no wonder that Match Group attempted to address these needs with Garbo, but why did it fail?
Garbo embarked on a mission to bolster trust and safety in online dating by facilitating background checks. Its collaboration with Match Group and Tinder, however, met with several challenges despite its massive reach:
Even with over 2.5 million users accessing Garbo’s services within Match Group dating sites, the user experience had fundamental flaws: users had to leave the primary platform. This disjointed experience, while still engaging millions, potentially lost many more, and it hurt retention for Match and damaged its credibility.
In order to run a background check, Garbo required users to possess a significant amount of information about their prospective matches, an impractical expectation for initial interactions in the dating sphere.
Even though there is an enormous problem of fake users in these dating services, Garbo never provided a simple way to determine users are real which is also necessary to provide accurate background check lookups.
While Garbo made strides in the realm of online background checks, The Real Me simply has a more integrated, seamless, and robust solution that dating customers and services really need. If Match Group integrated Real Me, it would undoubtedly be successful, and here's why:
The Real Me has a simple, and elegantly integrated solution, ensuring that users remain within the app, enjoying a consistent and uninterrupted journey to verify themselves and check backgrounds for others. Why does this matter? - Several studies including those from PEW and Google have highlighted that the most desired consumer service is background checks to enhance safety and trust on these platforms. Additionally, a 2025 TransUnion report revealed that 70% of dating app users are concerned about scams, with 38% of women and 41% of men expressing willingness to pay for background checks for both themselves and potential dates.
Simply by clicking the link in any profile starts the search process with encrypted data being passed to process the search. No need for the consumers to know the identifying information for the other user.
With each search The Real Me scans 389 data sources, including Court and Criminal records, histories of violence, sexual offenses, and more. Users are provided a complete background check from the same data sources that are used by law enforcement.
Profiles verified through The Real Me display a distinctive badge, fostering genuine interactions and heightening user trust, but help eliminate fake users and scammers.
With resources like a REST-based API and mobile SDKs, integration of The Real Me into existing platforms takes as little as a couple of days, not months as it did for Garbo.
While Garbo’s integration into Match Group platforms witnessed significant user engagement and demand, its potential was never realized due to user experience failures and incomplete offering. The Real Me, on the other hand, comprehensively addresses user demands, backed by data such as the Google study, promising a safer, more authentic online dating experience for the benefit of online daters and the companies that serve them.