Dating Apps Must Send Fraud Warnings Within 24 Hours If Your Match Gets Banned

The new Romance Scam Prevention Act is designed to put a much-needed speed bump in front of online romance scams. Essentially, if you’re chatting with someone on a dating app and the service bans that person because they suspect them of trying to commit fraud, the app can’t just ghost you on the issue. They are now required to send you a warning notification.

This isn't just a polite heads-up. The law mandates that the service must send this alert—via email, text, or another agreed-upon method—within 24 hours of initiating the ban. This warning has to be clear, giving you the banned user’s ID and explicitly stating that the person might be using a fake identity or attempting to scam you. Crucially, the notification must include a strong warning: never send cash, money, or personal financial details to any other member. This entire section takes effect one year after the Act is signed into law, giving dating services time to update their systems.

The 24-Hour Clock for Safety

For anyone who has ever been sucked into a long, emotionally manipulative exchange with a scammer, the timeline here is the biggest deal. The general rule is a 24-hour turnaround for the warning, which is fast. Imagine you're a busy project manager who only checks the app once a day. If your match gets flagged for trying to run a “send me a gift card” scheme, you’ll know before you even have time to reply to their next message. This speed is intended to cut off the scammer before they can reel you in.

There are a couple of exceptions to that timeline. The dating service can delay the notification up to three days if they truly need the extra time. More importantly, law enforcement can ask the service to temporarily hold off on sending the alert if they are actively investigating the scammer. While this delay is necessary for catching bigger fish, it does mean that in rare cases, a user might be left in the dark a little longer while police work to build a case. However, once the police-requested delay ends, the service still has to send the warning within three days.

Who’s Watching the Watchmen?

This Act gives the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) the authority to enforce these new rules. If a dating service fails to send the required warning, it's treated as an unfair or deceptive business practice under the FTC Act. State Attorneys General can also sue on behalf of their residents. This shared enforcement mechanism ensures that if the FTC is tied up with a massive case, state officials can still step in to protect local users.

One thing the bill is very clear on is creating a single, national standard. This means states and local governments can't create their own separate rules about how these fraud warnings must be handled. For the dating apps, this is a win—they only have to comply with one set of federal rules, not a confusing patchwork of local ordinances. For users, it means the level of protection should be consistent whether you live in a big city or a small town.

The Fine Print for Platforms

For the dating services themselves, this means new compliance costs. They have to build the infrastructure to track “fraud bans” and send timely, detailed warnings. The definition of a “fraud ban” is based on the service's own judgment that there is a “significant risk” the user will try to get cash fraudulently. This reliance on the platform's internal judgment introduces a bit of a gray area, as different services might define “significant risk” differently.

However, the bill provides a crucial “safe harbor” provision. If a dating service follows all the rules—sends the warning on time with the right information—they are protected from liability related to sending that notification. This is a good trade-off: in exchange for taking on the responsibility of warning users, they get legal protection against lawsuits from either the scammer or the potentially scammed member.