14 DAY TRIAL // Tinder is a highly popular mobile dating app that has reportedly served over 50 million matches between its users. However, as always, an app’s growing popularity attracts cybercriminals and scammers.
Security researchers from Symantec have spotted several spam accounts on Tinder. The spam bots are not designed to make the first move, but when someone interacts with them, they send out the following message: “hey. have we spoken before? 22 female here. you?”
The age varies, but the messages are usually the same. After the initial message, the bot attempts to convince the victim to join “her” for “some fun.”
“going to change my underwear. want to see??” reads the message posted by the bot before things become interesting.
By “interesting,” we don’t mean that anyone changes their undergarments. Instead, the bot sends out a link that allegedly offers access to the woman’s webcam.
However, before the webcam can be accessed, the victim is instructed to verify his age by providing personal and financial information.
Interestingly, in case the victim is curious why he must hand over his credit card details, the bot has the answer ready, explaining that the credit card is just to “prove your age.”
Besides handing over their financial details to a shady company, victims can also end up subscribing to premium services if they’re not careful to deselect the “Upgrade me to a premium membership” checkbox.
The platinum membership is free for a few days, but after that, if it’s not cancelled, victims are billed up to $80 (€61) per month.
Unfortunately, for the time being, Tinder doesn’t offer users the possibility to report spam accounts. However, customers can block the spam bots.
Currently, Tinder is only available for iOS, but its creators want to roll out an Android version soon. The launch of the Android version will likely attract even more spam, experts warn.
