CAPE TOWN - A survey by global cyber security and digital privacy company, Kaspersky shows 25% of users of dating services in South Africa have reported facing fraud attempts more often during the Covid-19 pandemic.
A total of 1 358 of the survey’s respondent were from South Africa. The survey was conducted globally in 2021.
About 64% of the respondents said the fraudster had asked them for money because of a difficult life situation, while 54% said it was because of arrival from a remote area.
Some of the respondents had encountered blackmail attempts, with 17% saying the fraudster had "threatened to leak or to publish intimate photos".
This as an explosive Netflix documentary, Tinder Swindler – which features three women who all went on the popular dating app and matched with “Simon Leviev”, who appeared to be the man of their dreams, but ended up swindling money from them – has been trending on social media.
SADC territory account manager at Kaspersky, James Gumede, urged dating app users not to share their personal information.
“Our survey shows that 25% of users of dating services in South Africa 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 selfies with documents, [and] not to give the dating app access to your contacts and accounts in social networks. It is interesting that 5% create fake accounts for the same reason – they consider it a good security measure,” Gumede said.
Cape Times