Cyber frauds are on the prowl on dating app Tinder
Twenty-one-year-old Ranchi girl Rhea recently came across a profile named Mi Max 2 on Tinder, a popular app that helps connect likeminded people. The smartphone was described as a man — tall, dark, handsome, and with a long battery life. She swiped right out of curiosity, and soon a message popped up on her chat bar – “Woohoo, it’s a match! Get a chance to win the Mi Max 2 by sharing your details here.”
Rhea, a mass communication graduate, was smart enough to not click the link sent to her.
According to cyber experts, it was likely to be embedded with malware, which could have infected her smartphone and given fraudsters access to her net banking app. Sharing her details would have obviously landed her in trouble, they added.
She is not the only one who came across such a profile on Tinder. Twenty-five-year-old Shashwat Sinha, a bank employee in Ranchi, saw a profile named Sony Xperia Z3 on Tinder. This time, the phone was described as a woman. When he clicked on it, a similar message seeking his personal details was sent to him.
Cyber frauds are prowling the dating application to dupe gullible youngsters by creating fake profiles. “The fraudsters may have been targeting this app, as a majority of users are in the age bracket of 18 to 25 and likely to fall for the trap due to their desire for latest gadgets,” said cyber security expert Vineet Kumar.
Vineet, president, NGO Cyber Peace Foundation, has been holding awareness campaigns against potential cyber traps on different online platforms in collaboration with various law enforcement bodies across the country. He has also ran an awareness campaign with the online classified platform, OLX, and Gurgaon police in the national capital region.
“A link offering smartphones for free is likely to at least get a click from the potential victims, and one click is enough to infect your device,” he said.
Not only does sharing details on such links make you susceptible to bank frauds, but also makes your personal details available to potential cybercriminals for misuse in future, he added.
“We come across such cases on a regular basis. Even OLX, which only provides a platform for buying and selling products, has received criticism of late for presence of cyber frauds on the app purporting as buyers and sellers,” said Vineet.
The police say that a majority of cases involving cyber frauds on OLX, Quickr and Tinder are reported from outside Jharkhand, but the culprits are tracked down to the state’s Jamtara district. “We have received many cases wherein users of such apps were duped, and the cybercriminals involved were tracked down to Jamtara district here,” said Ranchi cyber superintendent of police (SP) Sunil Bhaskar.
Jamtara, about 260km from Ranchi, is said to be the Indian equivalent of world’s cybercrime hub — Ramnicu Valcea of Romania. Over 32 cases of cyber fraud were registered in the district this year and over 100 were arrested.
A source from the cyber police station in Ranchi told HT that around three to four such cases of fraud on mobile apps were reported to the police station in the past three months.
“In most of the cases, the fraudsters used Paytm and Airtel Money like e-wallet platforms for duping people,” she said.
Only cases that involve fraud of over ₹2 lakh are directly reported to the cyber police station in Jharkhand. Other cases are lodged with the police station concerned and reported to the cyber cell.
The girl was allegedly raped over seven months. Her parents got to know of it when they took her to a doctor after she complained of a stomach pain.
Srivastava quoted a gynaecologist and a member of the “American Society for Reproductive Medicine” to argue that the pregnancy girl should be terminated to save the girl’s life.
The Supreme Court has been receiving a string of petitions, including from rape victims, to terminate pregnancies that have gone beyond 20 weeks. Some mothers with underdeveloped or malformed foetuses have also challenged the abortion ceiling.
The court has referred these cases to medical experts before pronouncing its orders.
Recently, the court gave a 10-year-old rape victim from Haryana the permission to abort.
Meanwhile, the father of the girl told HT that the only thing on his mind right now was justice for his daughter and death penalty to his accused brother-inlaw.
“Mujhe nyaya chahiye aur kuch nahi. Main chahta hoon ki use phansi par chara diya jaye. Aur kisi bhi tarhan ki madat nahi chahiye mujhe (I want justice. The accused should be hanged. I don’t want any other help),” said the agitated father.
The fraudsters are targeting Tinder since majority of the users are in the age bracket of 18 to 25 and likely to fall for the trap