Have you or anyone you know fallen victim to a romance scam? Unfortunately, these scams are becoming more prevalent everyday and to solve that problem Scott Bright, risk mitigation specialist, has created Bright Swipe!
With a handful of information and a small fee you can find out if your next date is a real person, has a criminal background and all about their social media presence. This app is changing the game in online dating…for the better! You do not want to miss this week’s episode!
In this week’s episode, we discuss:
[1:19] About Scott Bright
[2:27] The inspiration behind Bright Swipe
[5:26] How Bright Swipe works
[10:09] Is there a way for a parent to use this to verify who their child is speaking to online?
[13:02] Typical fraud stories when dating online
[15:57] What if someone is a criminal but there is no record of it?
[17:25] When Bright Swipe will be officially launched
[18:29] How much the app costs
[22:01] How Bright Swipe manages the data they receive
[23:27] Does misreporting ever happen?
[27:04] Scott’s favorite date
About Scott Bright
Scott has over 20 years of experience in risk mitigation and was the former head of Global Risk Strategy at Visa. He is known for his ability to create personalized user experiences that scale quickly. Right now, he focuses on the online dating sphere trying to stop the growing threat of romance scams. He is trying to protect people with his new app, Bright Swipe.
The inspiration behind Bright Swipe
For many years, the bad actors were focusing on the finance sector. Because of the recent installation of system solutions in those areas, they have moved into the romance space where there is low security.
Reported from the FTC and FBI, there was 1.5 billion dollars reported loss in romance scams. Also, there’s a public safety risk because there are many convicted rapists using these platforms in addition to people who are already married. Primarily women and gay males are at risk and although there is so much risk and issues no one is doing much about it.
Scott and his team decided to take this problem under their wing and start protecting people.
How Bright Swipe works
This is a direct to consumer app and they are launching in app stores now. There are no requirements to get the app, you just download it through the app store.
With the information you provide, there are three different checks. The first one is Anti Catfish Check which verifies who the person is, where they live, their age and marital status. The next is a criminal check, which spans the whole United States.
Lastly, they do a social media check which looks at the top 20 platforms that they are on and if they are a real person not a fraudster.
Their goal is to have Bright Swipe in dating apps and to have a way for people to be shown as verified through these platforms.
Is there a way for a parent to use this to verify who their child is speaking to online?
Due to many privacy laws, if they are 18, they can’t return that information but if you are suspicious that they are an adult you could put their information in and at least see if they are really a child vs adult. Unfortunately, it is quite prevalent that people lie about their age.
We also see children using our product to help their parents who might be starting to date again and are naive about what’s going on in the dating culture.
Typical fraud stories when dating online
They hear a lot of fabricated stories about people in the military or on oil rigs who need money to help them return home. Sometimes it can get as bad as people giving up their life savings because they think this person will be coming home and marrying them.
The frauds have been evolving and publicized because of things like “Tinder Swindler” and “Inventing Anna”. There is also a new one called, “Pig Butchering” and is usually associated with crypto. They befriend them and offer them an investment into crypto where they can get 20% return and then these people fork up quite a bit of money and the person disappears.
What if someone is a criminal but there is no record of it?
In this situation, the anti catfishing check will be able to see if they are a person at all. If after putting in the information and you see it is not verifiable then people should be extremely cautious with this person. Most of the time if they are asking for funds they will not be using any real person’s name and the identity will be completely fake.
When Bright Swipe will be officially launched
The goal was to have Bright Swipe officially launched by March 2023 and to do a social media campaign as well.
How much the app costs
You can buy all three checks or you can do a la carte, if you buy all three it’s $7.99. They wanted to stay away from subscription models because they are painful to cancel for consumers. They also pride themselves in being in real time and not checking old records.
They have a very hard stance around selling with honesty and transparency while providing a fair product. They are not selling information and they are providing a solid service that nobody is doing in the industry.
How Bright Swipe manages the data they receive
They use it to verify a person and then because of state level regulations the data is protected. Their terms and conditions are very explicit that they are not selling data to a third party or marketing companies. They also do not ask for a lot of information to sign up, just an email and phone number.
They keep the information very sensitive and they do regular purging of data so it’s not sitting in a database. Also, Bright Swipe is not retaining this information, all of the information they get is a part of the public record that they pull from.
Does misreporting happen?
This happens all the time and they are only as good as government data which isn’t always super clean. They pull from many sources so they can be as accurate as possible.
Scott’s favorite date
He took his fiance to a nice and beautiful french restaurant on Valentine’s Day last year where he gave her some gifts for their trip to Paris where he planned to propose to her.
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