Mashable

Your Tinder Crush Might Be a Spambot

Tinder literally refers to a flammable material; a dry substance ready to burn. That name couldn’t be more suitable for a dating app with a problem that could leave users steaming.

Tinder, the addictive online matchmaking instrument, is plagued by fake accounts luring unsuspicious users into pricey phishing schemes. And they ruse is effortless to fall for, because it plays into our desire for effortless flirtation.

Here’s how it works: Scammers set up fake profiles with photos of attractive women. Once a user contacts them, a spambot sends enticing programmed messages, tempting to you to join a private session with a live feed of the person undressing. If you fall for the ploy, you are sent a shortened URL that leads to a site asking for your credit card information to verify your age and begin the cam session.

The landing page invite features a picture of a smiling black-haired; if you click to accept the invite you’re redirected to a sign-up page requesting your individual information. And here’s where the scam indeed happens: At the top of the page it says your credit card is needed — just to make sure you’re over Legitimate. Everything is free, it says.

But it’s not: On the bottom of the page, in little print, details say you’re truly being charged as much as $80 a month by a company called csapprove.com. Attempts at finding out more from the contact number on the csapprove site led to a terse exchange with a Florida-based customer service agent and manager who said they couldn’t talk unless I had an account and was charged.

Back in late May, Satnam Narang, a single, 31-year-old security response manager at Symantec (a cybersecurity rock-hard that wields Norton anti-virus) was rolling through Tinder in his Santa Monica apartment. After months of no success, all of a sudden, he had a stream of matches. But they all had sketchy bios and no collective interests.

"This looked very suspicious," he told Mashable. "I sent them messages and out of the three accounts I encountered in that string of that session, I got a reply from two of them. And they were both the exact same reply."

Narang figured it was a hoax. But since he worked in web security, he was nosey to go after the trail. He played along, researched the link and discovered it had over 8,000 clicks since it was created in January.

Link baiting and phishing are common practice online. "It’s part and parcel of what to expect when a social network gets popular," he says.

My very first tinder match was a scam. I guess finding a good woman on the Internet is too good to be true. pic.twitter.com/lwY4aDLjvl

This type of thing happens often in talk services like Twitter and AIM: The trend isn’t a total disaster for Tinder, but it’s been late in addressing the issue. And the app doesn’t have a streamlined process to fix spam. There’s no way to report it in the app; instead Tinder only permits users to block spam accounts. Meaning, if you have concerns, you have to send Tinder an email or tweet.

In March, Tinder co-founder Sean Rad told the L.A. Times Tinder didn’t have problems with fake or spam accounts because users must have Facebook accounts. "Not only do you know there is a high likelihood that this is a real person because it’s connected to their Facebook profile, Tinder also tells you who your common friends are, which helps solve that legitimacy issue."

But an experiment a few months ago by Brigham Youthful students, who created a dummy account with only a handful of Facebook friends, dispelled Rad’s claim. Our requests for comment were not returned by Tinder.

On Twitter, it’s not hard to find users complaining about the practice:

Some damsel on Tinder attempting to get me to sign up to a webcam site.. #tinder #webcam #banter http://t.co/c2r6dEnAvT

And months of hearing about this practice have people wising up:

@Tinder your app’s been over run, by webcam spammers

— Jeremiah Boehner (@sfboehner) July 8, 2013

Still, Narang says there’s another problem. With an Android version of the app on the way, he says it’s possible the app will be more bogged down by spammers than the iOS version. He says he’s found a correlation inbetween freshly released apps and spam, with a larger percentage for Android.

Narang has practical advice: "Remain cautious and remain skeptical. If you look at some of the profiles and there’s some sketchy aspects: they don’t have any collective interests, the pictures are kind of risque, the tag lines are very strange, when you engage with a person and they ask you to click on links and go to a webcam, that’s a scam."

If you’re having problems with the app, let us know in the comments.

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, deyangeorgiev; Screenshot courtesy of Symantec

Your Tinder Crush Might Be a Spambot

Mashable

Your Tinder Crush Might Be a Spambot

Tinder literally refers to a flammable material; a dry substance ready to burn. That name couldn’t be more adequate for a dating app with a problem that could leave users steaming.

Tinder, the addictive online matchmaking implement, is plagued by fake accounts luring unaware users into pricey phishing schemes. And they ruse is effortless to fall for, because it plays into our desire for effortless flirtation.

Here’s how it works: Scammers set up fake profiles with photos of attractive women. Once a user contacts them, a spambot sends enticing programmed messages, tempting to you to join a private session with a live feed of the person undressing. If you fall for the ploy, you are sent a shortened URL that leads to a site asking for your credit card information to verify your age and begin the cam session.

The landing page invite features a picture of a smiling brown-haired; if you click to accept the invite you’re redirected to a sign-up page requesting your individual information. And here’s where the scam truly happens: At the top of the page it says your credit card is needed — just to make sure you’re over Legal. Everything is free, it says.

But it’s not: On the bottom of the page, in little print, details say you’re truly being charged as much as $80 a month by a company called csapprove.com. Attempts at finding out more from the contact number on the csapprove site led to a terse exchange with a Florida-based customer service agent and manager who said they couldn’t talk unless I had an account and was charged.

Back in late May, Satnam Narang, a single, 31-year-old security response manager at Symantec (a cybersecurity stiff that possesses Norton anti-virus) was spinning through Tinder in his Santa Monica apartment. After months of no success, abruptly, he had a stream of matches. But they all had sketchy bios and no collective interests.

"This looked very suspicious," he told Mashable. "I sent them messages and out of the three accounts I encountered in that string of that session, I got a reply from two of them. And they were both the exact same reply."

Narang figured it was a hoax. But since he worked in web security, he was nosey to go after the trail. He played along, researched the link and discovered it had over 8,000 clicks since it was created in January.

Link baiting and phishing are common practice online. "It’s part and parcel of what to expect when a social network gets popular," he says.

My very first tinder match was a scam. I guess finding a good woman on the Internet is too good to be true. pic.twitter.com/lwY4aDLjvl

This type of thing happens often in talk services like Twitter and AIM: The trend isn’t a total disaster for Tinder, but it’s been late in addressing the issue. And the app doesn’t have a streamlined process to fix spam. There’s no way to report it in the app; instead Tinder only permits users to block spam accounts. Meaning, if you have concerns, you have to send Tinder an email or tweet.

In March, Tinder co-founder Sean Rad told the L.A. Times Tinder didn’t have problems with fake or spam accounts because users must have Facebook accounts. "Not only do you know there is a high likelihood that this is a real person because it’s connected to their Facebook profile, Tinder also tells you who your common friends are, which helps solve that legitimacy issue."

But an experiment a few months ago by Brigham Youthful students, who created a dummy account with only a handful of Facebook friends, dispelled Rad’s claim. Our requests for comment were not returned by Tinder.

On Twitter, it’s not hard to find users complaining about the practice:

Some doll on Tinder attempting to get me to sign up to a webcam site.. #tinder #webcam #banter http://t.co/c2r6dEnAvT

And months of hearing about this practice have people wising up:

@Tinder your app’s been over run, by webcam spammers

— Jeremiah Boehner (@sfboehner) July 8, 2013

Still, Narang says there’s another problem. With an Android version of the app on the way, he says it’s possible the app will be more bogged down by spammers than the iOS version. He says he’s found a correlation inbetween freshly released apps and spam, with a larger percentage for Android.

Narang has practical advice: "Remain cautious and remain skeptical. If you look at some of the profiles and there’s some sketchy aspects: they don’t have any collective interests, the pictures are kind of risque, the tag lines are very strange, when you engage with a person and they ask you to click on links and go to a webcam, that’s a scam."

If you’re having problems with the app, let us know in the comments.

Picture courtesy of iStockphoto, deyangeorgiev; Screenshot courtesy of Symantec

Your Tinder Crush Might Be a Spambot

Mashable

Your Tinder Crush Might Be a Spambot

Tinder literally refers to a flammable material; a dry substance ready to burn. That name couldn’t be more suitable for a dating app with a problem that could leave users steaming.

Tinder, the addictive online matchmaking device, is plagued by fake accounts luring unsuspicious users into pricey phishing schemes. And they ruse is effortless to fall for, because it plays into our desire for effortless flirtation.

Here’s how it works: Scammers set up fake profiles with photos of attractive women. Once a user contacts them, a spambot sends enticing programmed messages, tempting to you to join a private session with a live feed of the person undressing. If you fall for the ploy, you are sent a shortened URL that leads to a site asking for your credit card information to verify your age and begin the cam session.

The landing page invite features a picture of a smiling black-haired; if you click to accept the invite you’re redirected to a sign-up page requesting your private information. And here’s where the scam indeed happens: At the top of the page it says your credit card is needed — just to make sure you’re over Legal. Everything is free, it says.

But it’s not: On the bottom of the page, in lil’ print, details say you’re indeed being charged as much as $80 a month by a company called csapprove.com. Attempts at finding out more from the contact number on the csapprove site led to a terse exchange with a Florida-based customer service agent and manager who said they couldn’t talk unless I had an account and was charged.

Back in late May, Satnam Narang, a single, 31-year-old security response manager at Symantec (a cybersecurity hard that wields Norton anti-virus) was rolling through Tinder in his Santa Monica apartment. After months of no success, all of a sudden, he had a stream of matches. But they all had sketchy bios and no collective interests.

"This looked very suspicious," he told Mashable. "I sent them messages and out of the three accounts I encountered in that string of that session, I got a reply from two of them. And they were both the exact same reply."

Narang figured it was a hoax. But since he worked in web security, he was nosey to go after the trail. He played along, researched the link and discovered it had over 8,000 clicks since it was created in January.

Link baiting and phishing are common practice online. "It’s part and parcel of what to expect when a social network gets popular," he says.

My very first tinder match was a scam. I guess finding a good woman on the Internet is too good to be true. pic.twitter.com/lwY4aDLjvl

This type of thing happens often in talk services like Twitter and AIM: The trend isn’t a total disaster for Tinder, but it’s been late in addressing the issue. And the app doesn’t have a streamlined process to fix spam. There’s no way to report it in the app; instead Tinder only permits users to block spam accounts. Meaning, if you have concerns, you have to send Tinder an email or tweet.

In March, Tinder co-founder Sean Rad told the L.A. Times Tinder didn’t have problems with fake or spam accounts because users must have Facebook accounts. "Not only do you know there is a high likelihood that this is a real person because it’s connected to their Facebook profile, Tinder also tells you who your common friends are, which helps solve that legitimacy issue."

But an experiment a few months ago by Brigham Youthful students, who created a dummy account with only a handful of Facebook friends, dispelled Rad’s claim. Our requests for comment were not returned by Tinder.

On Twitter, it’s not hard to find users complaining about the practice:

Some woman on Tinder attempting to get me to sign up to a webcam site.. #tinder #webcam #banter http://t.co/c2r6dEnAvT

And months of hearing about this practice have people wising up:

@Tinder your app’s been over run, by webcam spammers

— Jeremiah Boehner (@sfboehner) July 8, 2013

Still, Narang says there’s another problem. With an Android version of the app on the way, he says it’s possible the app will be more bogged down by spammers than the iOS version. He says he’s found a correlation inbetween freshly released apps and spam, with a larger percentage for Android.

Narang has practical advice: "Remain cautious and remain skeptical. If you look at some of the profiles and there’s some sketchy aspects: they don’t have any collective interests, the pictures are kind of risque, the tag lines are very strange, when you engage with a person and they ask you to click on links and go to a webcam, that’s a scam."

If you’re having problems with the app, let us know in the comments.

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, deyangeorgiev; Screenshot courtesy of Symantec

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