According to Kaspersky’s survey (www.Kaspersky.co.za) devoted to using dating apps during the pandemic*, fraud is an increasing problem for those who use such platforms in Kenya. Almost 29% of them faced fraud attempts last year. Almost three quarters (72%) of them said the fraudster tried to get money allegedly for the arrival from a remote area, and 63% allegedly because of a difficult life situation. Some Kenyan users encountered blackmail attempts. Thus, 25% said the fraudster threatened to leak or to publish intimate photos. A significant part of respondents talked about phishing attempts: 41% said that the fraudster tried to get personal data, for example asked to register on a particular website.

“Our survey shows that 56% 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% create fake accounts for the same reason — they consider it a good security measure,” comments Bethwel Opil, enterprise sales manager for Kaspersky in Africa.  

Kaspersky’s experts share the following recommendations to help people use dating apps more securely:

• Be careful if you get digital Valentines 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 (https://bit.ly/3BgzUA8);
• Do not publish too much private information (surname, place you work in, photos with your friends, your mobile phone number etc.)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 fraudulent created to aim at stealing users’ money
• Use a reliable security solution such as Kaspersky Total Security (https://bit.ly/3gH5iya) on all your devices. It helps to detect fraudulent or suspicious activity and check the security of visited websites.

Reference:

* The survey was conducted globally in 2021, in Kenya there were 1158 respondents.