By Adedapo Adesanya
In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, a cybersecurity firm, Kaspersky, has advised the use of secure dating apps, noting that from a survey, with Kenya as a case study, it was discovered fraud is an increasing problem for those who use such platforms in the country.
It was revealed that 29 per cent of them faced fraud attempts last year. Almost three quarters (72 per cent) of them said the fraudster tried to get money allegedly for the arrival from a remote area, and 63 per cent allegedly because of a difficult life situation.
Some Kenyan users encountered blackmail attempts. Thus, 25 per cent said the fraudster threatened to leak or to publish intimate photos. A significant part of respondents talked about phishing attempts: 41 per cent said that the fraudster tried to get personal data, for example, asked to register on a particular website.
Commenting on this, Mr Bethwel Opil, enterprise sales manager for Kaspersky in Africa said, “Our survey shows that 56 per cent of users of dating services in Kenya faced fraud attempts more often since 2020 when the world knew about COVID-19. We all need to follow basic security rules to protect our privacy. Yes, there is still a dilemma, we would like to get to know new people and trust them but in the digital world, we often do not know who is there, on the other side of the screen.
“We highly recommend not to share detailed information especially bank card details and selfie with documents, not to give the dating app access to your contacts and accounts in social networks. It is interesting that 9 per cent create fake accounts for the same reason — they consider it a good security measure.”
Providing recommendations, Kaspersky warned people to “Be careful if you get digital Valentine’s cards from unknown senders: a card may lead to phishing or fraudulent website.
“Before buying gifts online and entering payment data check the title of the website and HTTPS-connection;
“Talk with your partner about digital borders: it is important that both members of a couple realise that the right for privacy gives assurance of trusted relationship;
“Think which passwords you are ready to share with your partner: there are good tools helping to manage passwords such as Kaspersky Password Manager;
“Do not publish too much private information (surname, place you work in, photos with your friends, your mobile phone number etc.) and do not connect your social accounts to your profiles in dating apps.
“Do not visit unknown dating services especially if you saw them in ads: they may turn out to be fraudulently created to aim at stealing users’ money.
“Use a reliable security solution such as Kaspersky Total Security on all your devices. It helps to detect fraudulent or suspicious activity and check the security of visited websites.”
Aduragbemi Omiyale