Valentine’s Day: how to protect yourself against imposters and scammers in online dating apps?

Valentine’s Day is the day couples celebrate their love, but it’s also a day many singles step up their search for romantic connections. In the pandemic, looking for the other half has become synonymous with using dating applications through the ‘smartphone’.

YOU CAN SEE: Valentine’s Day: what to do and what to give on the feast of love | SPECIAL

These tools, which in 2020 were used by 270 million adults around the world -according to data from the Adjust platform- and whose market is expected to exceed 8,400 million dollars in 2024, also carry risks that expose those who seek virtual encounters to situations undesirable.

Cybersecurity company WatchGuard has put together a list of tips to avoid risks in the world of online dating and keep out scammers looking to take advantage of those looking for love.

YOU CAN SEE: Valentine’s Day without the internet: the most corny and romantic love letters that our grandparents wrote to each other

“Fraudsters can use stolen personal information or create a fictitious identity to target victims and present themselves as someone they are not”said Sam Manjarres, Director of Product Marketing for WatchGuard Technologies.

In cases where a dating app’s ‘matches’ seem more interested in demographic data, such as where the user lives, where they work and if they live alone, instead of asking other more everyday questions, it can be an indicator of that it is a ‘catfisher’.

YOU CAN SEE: Valentine’s Day: the best love songs to dedicate to your partner today, February 14

Catfishing is a threat in which criminals use dating to impersonate other people or build trust with victims, who they can then ask for money or even move someone else’s money.

This is a booming phenomenon in recent years with the spread of dating ‘apps’. Romance scams were ranked among the top ten categories of fraud in 2020. According to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the number of romance scams nearly tripled from 2015 to 2019.

In addition to widely used applications such as Tinder, these threats also affect other dating platforms, such as those used by the LGBTQ+ community, such as Grindr or Feeld, as the FTC has recently warned.

DO NOT MIX ACCOUNTS OR PASSWORDS

The rest of WatchGuard’s recommendations for those who want to have safe dates for Valentine’s Day go through separating work accounts from personal ones, and never using professional profiles in dating ‘apps’ to avoid information theft or cybercriminals accessing a company network.

Users of dating apps should also avoid sharing their passwords through these tools. Due to the common use of the same key in several services, this can also expose other profiles such as financial ones.

The cybersecurity company has recalled that, despite everything that dating applications have to offer, users should not forget on Valentine’s Day that they are also more exposed to ‘hacking’ and that it is always advisable to contact the ‘matches’ in more ways, such as talking on the phone, to avoid scares.

• Valentine’s Day: what to do and what to give on the feast of love | SPECIAL
• Valentine’s Day without the internet: the most corny and romantic love letters that our grandparents wrote to each other
• Valentine’s Day: the best love songs to dedicate to your partner today, February 14
• Memes for Valentine’s Day: jokes to celebrate the ‘day of love and friendship’ with joy
• They left the office to embark on a romantic adventure: to see the world together

Source: Elcomercio

Deshawn