Mumbai: Valentine’s Day can surely make one feel that love is in the air but beware the air, since it can be a scam, a fraud or a phishing attempt. As the day of love comes closer, the instances of cyberattacks usually increase under the guise of ‘festival spirit’.
It has not been long since the ‘Tinder Girls’ scam was the talking point in Mumbai after reports revealed that multiple women target vulnerable men on dating applications. These women allegedly connect with the ‘ideal victims’ on dating apps, ask them out for a date at shady restaurants, where the inflated bill makes a big hole in the victim’s pocket.
Cybercrimes related to Valentine’s Day is not restricted to ‘Tinder Girls’ scams. These scams can range from paid dating services to well-organised financial frauds.
In May last year, a 48-year-old man from Raigad, had lost over Rs1 crore in stock trading investment fraud after he connected with an unknown woman on a dating app. The victim, working at a senior position in a private company, was informed by the woman that she had been trading in stocks for the past two years and had earned 20% profits in intraday trading. She then induced the victim to invest and earn a huge profit.
Similarly, a 26-year-old Andheri resident was duped by a gang of scammers to the tune of Rs 29.57 lakh under the guise of online dating in May.
The victim, a data engineer, had called a dating company which said to recommend high society people for dating. The victim paid multiple amounts at different stages for registration, profile selection, privacy and legal agreement. The victim continued to pay more until he realised that he had been duped.
The central government’s cyber department has recently issued an alert for citizens, warning them about scams that can target during the Valentine’s Day season.
“Valentine’s Week is here. One should stay cautious of dating scams and protect themselves from cyber frauds. If someone is meeting any anonymous person on a date then the victim should ensure it’s a legitimate meeting spot. The meeting place should be well-populated and well-lit area. The victim should also keep an eye on what’s being ordered and don’t trust dating app profiles blindly. The victims should report such scams to 1930 or complaint to cybercrime.gov.in,” the alert stated.
The alert also stated that in some cases, the cyber-criminals target victims showing love interest on dating sites and induce the victim to send money promising high returns on investment. Scammers usually contact victims through social media, dating apps, or messaging platforms, pretending to form a relationship or friendship. Once trust is established, the scammer persuades the victim to invest in fake cryptocurrency, stocks, or other financial schemes.
Talking to The Free Press Journal, Gautam S Mengle, assistant vice president and security awareness strategist at CyberFrat, called these acts as seasonal cybercrimes, where the crime is engineered to capitalise on a social convention or norm. He said that there is some sort of cybercrime strategy for everyone.
For couples, there’s the chance to rob them of their money in the name of romantic getaways, discounts, sales or customized gifting through spoofs of popular e-commerce portals, paid ads on social media and cold calls or messages or emails from cybercriminals posing as sales executives.
For singles, the scammers cash in on the loneliness or hope, through bogus or ‘catfish’ profiles on dating apps and social media that can lead to sextortion or other forms of financial fraud. Dating apps in particular are awash with traps in the form of offers of intimacy or romantic dates, or ‘fun’ on a video call that soon leads to blackmail.
“The best way to stay safe from such scams is to implement something we call a zero trust policy. Do your shopping only on official websites, click no links and make no payments to anyone you are not 100% sure about. On dating apps, telltale signs include the other person taking an undue interest in you but not revealing anything about themselves, asking to move the conversation to WhatsApp or Telegram immediately and being in a hurry to be intimate, either virtually or physically. If it sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is!”
Similarly, Ritesh Bhatia, cyber crime investigator and data privacy professional, said that PDF or APK files claiming to be a creative Valentines’s Day wish can be a big red flag as they might steal personal as well as banking details. He also highlighted that couples are scammed in the name of booking fancy villas for a romantic staycation during the Valentine’s Day, where a fake website is created giving unbelievable offers to customers, for the properties which do not exist in reality.
“Everyone should adopt the rule of POV which says pause, zero trust and verify. Pause before going ahead without panicking, look at the offer with no trust and then verify it from different sources. We can carry out a simple internet search to check if the product actually exists,” added Bhatia.
