We’ve got news! Gone are the days of feverishly Googling your match before a date or recruiting your best friend to find them on IG or LinkedIn with just a first name and location.

In a move to promote transparency and safety in online dating, we’ve teamed up with our trusted, accredited background check partner, KarmaCheck, to integrate 100% background checks into CarpeDM’s dating platform. That’s right, we’re on a mission to redefine what is safe dating and become one of the first dating apps to vet 100% of our members with required verifications and background checks.

Long before the pandemic made every dating app scramble to integrate video chatting, we changed the dating scene by requiring users to video chat before they could text. Why? Because having that quick and easy video date is efficient and safe. Always ahead of the curve, we’re again redefining the way singles find love online by starting the next wave of online dating-verified membership-only dating communities! Our dating service not only creates an exclusive community of high quality singles, but it also seamlessly marries the convenience of a dating app with the personal touch of a dedicated human matchmaker created for professional Black women and all singles seeking meaningful relationships with them.

What can we say, we’re here to give the people what they want. Our CEO, Naza Shelley, explains “Singles have been asking for more accountability from dating apps and services for years, but most have not stepped up to the plate leaving both their female and male users vulnerable to being scammed, defrauded, and physically violated. While it’s always important for singles to do their own due diligence, we’re committed to doing our part to help curate a safe dating community with the highest quality members.”

We’ve anticipated you may have questions about what this all means for your safety and privacy. Who wouldn’t? Have you read the news lately with headlines about whether or not dating apps are safe, scams on internet dating sites and fake profiles, privacy concerns, and data breaches? Let’s get to what we know is important for you to know.

Is this all really necessary? The facts speak for themselves as to why our mission to make online dating safer is so important. Did you know around 1 in 10 online dating profiles is fake? What about that 60% of all online profiles are inactive? Still not convinced? What if we put a dollar amount to the problem? In 2020, the FTC reported that romance scams defrauded singles out of a record $304 million, up about 50% from 2019! Alright, but is online dating actually dangerous? Well, 10% of sex offenders use online dating to meet people and internet predators commit over 16,000 abductions, hundreds of murders, and thousands of rapes annually.

While some of our competitors have concluded selfie verification is sufficient to “vet” members (e.g., Tinder). We disagree. It’s one thing to verify using a selfie, it’s another to verify whether the person in that selfie really is who they purport to be. We conducted male focus groups and 80% of the participants said having a member’s identity verified is most important to them when speaking to a match on a dating app or site. And for that, we got you, fellas. At CarpeDM, we conduct a thorough background check to verify every member’s identity.

As no shock to anyone, the women in our female focus groups overwhelmingly said knowing a match’s relevant criminal history is most important. For that, Google and Instagram “background checks” ain’t it ladies. Now, we realize we may be putting your designated, investigative best friend out of work but we gotta say we’re just better at this. It’s our job. Let us handle it so you no longer have to look up how to do a background check on someone you are dating or how to avoid catfishing tips.

We appreciate the effort by our sisters over at Bumble who advocate for women’s empowerment in online dating. But we believe that having women message first doesn’t make online dating any safer. We’re taking it three steps further and implementing a service that actually contributes to a safer experience. This is especially important for our members because Black women face higher rates of intimate partner violence, rape, and homicide! That’s why protecting our community, by checking whether potential members have histories of violent behavior, is of the utmost importance! Through our interview process and accredited background checks, CarpeDM verifies every member’s criminal history and weeds out applicants with histories of violence, domestic abuse, and sex offender registry.

What do CarpeDM verifications include? They include member identity, employment, income, sex offender registery, and criminal history. Key criminal history markers include, but are not limited to: sex crimes, domestic violence, violent crimes, financial crimes like fraud and theft, and identity theft. While membership invitations are extended at our discretion, low-level infractions, traffic violations, and misdemeanor drug offenses are not alone disqualifying; the team is more focused on key markers that meaningfully impact a potential member’s dateability and fitness for membership.  

What about verifying other things like credit and marital status? We tried! Seriously, we really tried to include credit score and marital status as part of CarpeDM’s verification and background check process. After working through industry bureaucracy for a year… ultimately, like in dating… sometimes you get rejected.

Credit data is highly sensitive and regulated and the big three credit reporting bureaus that provide the data needed are ultimately responsible for its use and have final say in which companies this data is shared with. Unfortunately, online dating companies, no matter the motivation for requesting such information, are categorically denied access.

Now marital status, that’s another type of rejection story. We know marital status is of particular importance to you ladies. One study shows that 42% of Tinder users interviewed were either married or in a relationship (yikes!). We feel your frustration and understand how helpful marriage verification would be to your dating peace of mind. However, we’re unable to verify marital status because marriage license data, unlike criminal history, is not centralized, digitized, or reliably tracked or reported. Instead, it is typically kept in county clerk’s offices at the local level requiring in-person document searches that, due to unreliable record keeping methods, could still yield incorrect results related to an individual’s marital status. Despite this, we do ask each applicant to attest to their single, non-married status during our one-on-one interviews.

But wait, is my data safe? Yes! KarmaCheck’s CEO Eric Ly says “We’re excited to partner with CarpeDM to help make the online dating experience safer and more trustworthy for singles. While quickly and accurately verifying user data, KarmaCheck goes to great lengths to ensure that user data is protected for users and privacy concerns are addressed.” During the CarpeDM application process each member submits the personally identifiable information (PII), like your social security number, needed to conduct the background checks and verifications directly to our accredited partner, KarmaCheck. CarpeDM does not maintain member PII. It is seamlessly transferred to our partner and stored in an encrypted database.

How long does it take to complete member verifications and background checks? The length of time to verify a member varies. However, we endeavor to complete membership verifications in a timely manner. Applicants can track the status and progress of their application, all applicants are notified by our team when their background check results are received, and applicants can review their results via KarmaCheck’s secure website.

Do you have more questions about verified safe online dating and online dating sites with background checks? Check out our FAQs or contact ask@carpedmdating.com.

Seize the Dating!