The Alpharetta Department of Public Safety recently took a report from a citizen who was using a dating app and made a decision to send intimate pictures to the person they connected with, the city said. Cyber dating and the apps that make it possible attracts millions of people.
Many in search of companionship, many seeking long-term relationships, and many seeking to steal identities or worse, the city said. Could this person be a predator?
In early detailed user records of more than 42 million dating app users were found on a Chinese database that was not even protected by a password. The user records found on the data base contained everything from IP addresses and geo-locations to ages and usernames, giving potential hackers plenty of information to take advantage of. But, there are also many stories of people who found each other via online dating apps and are in very happy relationships today, Alpharetta wrote.
So, the city said it does not want to scare any adult away from using them. The city said it wants everyone to be safe with their online dating activities. Beware of anyone sending you links, and especially links using shortened URLs. Hackers will try to lure you away from the dating app to sites that can more easily harvest your data. This is one of the most common Tinder scams. Rest your cursor over any link before you click it to see the address. Only ever access your dating app on a secure WiFi network.
An even better option is to protect the Internet connection of your dating app with a trustworthy VPN. Never share your full name, address, or place of work in your profile.
