Dating Apps Scams

New to online dating or want to learn the threats associated with dating apps or websites? Find out here.

Online dating is the new norm for our generation, but it is also now a cesspool for scammers looking to take advantage of lonely and horny people looking for a fling. It is convenient and accessible to anyone with a computer or smartphone. However, with the rise and popularity of these services, scammers are looking to exploit their popularity.

One way to protect yourself is to be familiar with a girl called Sabrina Nichole, the “Women whose face launched a thousand catfish scams” as reported by Vice. Sabrina Nichole is a former playboy model and now an OnlyFans creator, scammers have been using her images to set up dating profiles, including on Instagram to lure potential victims. The scammers would chat up the victim and then eventually asks the victim for money. You might be telling yourself this won’t happen to me, but you’ll be surprised as to how convincing these scammers can be. According to ScamWatch, Australians have lost 4.8 million dollars in July 2021. Sabrina does get impersonated a lot however, there are lots of profiles using more unknown people, just be sure about the type of information you provide to an online stranger, and if you are talking to an interesting person and they ask for any kind of money, that is a red flag.

The second type of scam you should be aware of is extortion. Say you are talking to a girl/guy, things are going really well and then they ask you to take it off the app/website such as using Snapchat. One thing leads to another and now your sexting with”nudes”. Here’s when things get messy, they will extort you with the threat of releasing the photos and videos to your friends and family if you do not pay the ransom. There are countless stories of people not paying and nothing really happened, and people not paying and the photos and videos were sent to family and friends on Facebook.

The third type of scam involves using malicious websites to steal credentials. After matching, they will ask you to take this off the app and use a third-party chat app like Snapchat. This particular scam I came across, the scammer says they are a model and have a show on, I can watch it by clicking on a link that was sent on Snapchat. They provided a link, and when I told them it wasn’t working, they provided many alternatives. I ran the website through URL scan and they show some dodgy Russian websites.

Protect yourself, read more about Dating & Romance scams on ScamWatch.