Don’t fall for cyber crooks on dating sites
There's lots to be wary of with online dating.
NAVIGATING dating apps in search of love is convenient, but can be fraught with problems as insidious cyber criminals prey on the innocent. So have your wits about you.
According to a Mellisa Lin’s article on Toptal.com, there are more than 1 500 dating apps. Although a lot of them are failed start-ups, it’s still a remarkable statistic.
The dating app we’re all familiar with is Tinder. According to the Business of Apps, the gargantuan dating app has more than 50 million users.
It’s safe to say that Tinder is the most popular dating app in the world.
The app caters for people of all ages but has a reputation of being just a “hookup” platform and not a place where people can find genuine ”love”.
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I spoke to 20-year-old Meekah, who feels the app has an unfair representation at times.
“Although I’ve never taken Tinder seriously, I match with people for the fun of it but I feel like people stigmatise dating apps. It’s a legitimate way of meeting people.” Kayla Gaylord, who met her current boyfriend on the app said:
“Tinder is fun and exciting and luckily my experiences with it were pretty decent, considering I met the love of my life on it.” said the 21-year-old. “Meeting someone special is hard in real life and online but it’s nice that we have a platform and ways to meet people we would’ve never met otherwise.”
Dominic Linnetts (22) said: “I only use it for hook-ups but one thing I wasn’t warned about was the amount of scammers on the app. The ones I’ve encountered ask you to follow them on Instagram and request your credit card details.”
One thing people need to be wary of with these dating apps comes with its concerns, and areas of danger and it’s essential that we know what signs to look out for, to avoid cybercrime of any kind.
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“A few things are sacred to today’s cyber criminals – and true love certainly isn’t one of them. Dating scams are a fast-growing area of cyber crime and ranging from fraud, to identity theft to malware attacks,” said Carey van Vlaanderen, CEO at ESET South Africa.
Van Vlaanderen also warns users not to give away information bit-by-bit and not to share “racy” images with people you haven’t met.
“Do not hand over pictures you would be embarrassed to publish online, otherwise you’re at risk from blackmailers. Even racy messages can be a tool for criminals – particularly if you’re attached. Keep things clean until you know your ‘romance’ is real.”
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