Dating app safety review

Is Pairs safe?

StrongRegional favourites· Checked 28 September 2026

What is Pairs?

Japan's largest mainstream dating app, operated by Eureka, Inc. (a Match Group subsidiary); integrates with Japan's national "My Number" ID system and convenes an external advisory board on dating-app safety with Japanese municipalities.

Category: Large-scale matching app, Japan's #1 by claimed match rate (Asia) · Most popular in: Rest of World

Safety rating: Strong

Strong

Government-ID-linked verification (My Number card) plus biometric authentication and an external, government-adjacent safety advisory board represent an unusually robust trust infrastructure.

Ratings are qualitative (Strong, Moderate or Basic) and based only on safety features we could verify from the app’s own help pages and reputable reporting. How we rate apps.

Pairs safety features

Optional verification via Japan's official My Number ID card
Biometric authentication to filter fake accounts
In-app voice/video calls so phone numbers are never shared
External advisory board on dating-app safety (with local government input)
Active public warnings against SNS/email impersonation scams

A red cross marks a feature that has ended, is missing or could not be confirmed.

Features and pricing

Compatibility matching, structured profiles, in-app calling, community events/seminars run with municipalities

How to report a scammer or harassment on Pairs

Report the profile inside the app first, then use Pairs’s own help and safety pages:

support.pairs.lv/hc/ja (responses within 2 business days per own help articles)

Screenshot the profile and messages before you block or unmatch, because the conversation may disappear. If you have lost money, contact your bank straight away and report it to the police or national fraud service listed on this page.

Staying safer on Pairs

Use Pairs’s verification and give more weight to verified matches. Verification confirms a face matches the photos; it says nothing about intentions.
Keep the conversation in the app until you have met. Scammers push early for WhatsApp, Telegram or text because the app can no longer see or moderate the chat.
Ask for a live video call before meeting. Repeated excuses, a camera that never works or a face that looks off are all reasons to stop.
Never send money, crypto, gift cards or a verification code to someone you have only met online, whatever the story.
Meet somewhere busy and public, arrange your own travel and tell a friend where you will be.

Scams to watch for

Pig butchering

A friendly or flirtatious contact – often on a dating app, social media or a 'wrong number' text – builds a relationship and casually mentions success trading crypto, gold or forex as a 'side job'.

Woman reading a message on her phone in bed

Romance scams

A scammer builds an online relationship using a fake or borrowed identity, often over weeks or months, and invests heavily in attention and affection.

Catfishing and impersonation

Scammers build profiles from photos stolen from real people – often soldiers, professionals or celebrities – and invent a life that explains why they cannot meet: deployed overseas, working on an oil rig, with an international organisation, or too famous.