The mission to find love is becoming increasingly dangerous for Kiwis using dating apps, with one in four users worldwide reporting being targeted by a scammer.
A global survey by cyber security company Norton showed dating scams surged by 60% last year, with over 20,000 profiles blocked per month.
Loneliness was a driving force behind many app users’ risky decisions while swiping.
Amor Apps founder Emily Hazlewood said the report highlighted an alarming trend.
“Seeing suspicious profiles weekly, that is super high, that is incredibly high, and then was it one in three people [experiencing] suspicious activity, or they are being scammed? This is an incredibly high statistic for an industry that’s very vulnerable.
“I know one person that actually lost his property over it, and then there are other ones where they’ve done the exchange of photos, and then the photos get blackmailed for money.”
Hazelwood advised Kiwis to swipe with caution.
“Put your guard up a little bit, but trust your gut. If they don’t want to meet in the first three weeks, that’s concerning. If they don’t want to FaceTime, another alarm bell.
“There are so many means to connect with someone nowadays that if they’re not willing to do that, I think you’ve got to really ask yourself, ‘What’s actually going on here?’
“Kiwis are quite introverted, so we’re actually going along with these things for longer because we’re not trying to meet them as quickly.”
The most common dating scams were romance and catfishing, where scammers create fake profiles, often using AI-generated photos. Almost half of those surveyed couldn’t identify an AI-generated photo.
1News hit the streets in Napier, conducting its own survey where only three out of 10 identified the actual photo.
“Oh, I’m going to fail; they both look real,” said a Napier local while looking at the two photos.
Netsafe’s Chief Online Safety Officer Sean Lyons said improvements in technology were causing a wide range of online harm.
“We don’t need to be necessarily a tech wizard to use some of these tools to make actually pretty amazing results.
“Scammers will make better and better profiles, better and better attempts, more and more realistic stories to try and entice us in to try and convince us that what’s in front of us is real and not a scam.
“So I think it is certainly something we all need to be concerned about. quickly more aware of of what exactly is a scam and what is not a scam.”
