Raising awareness about the critical importance of online safety for women has never been more pressing. Documentaries like The Tinder Swindler, and TV shows such as Catfish highlight how digital crimes disproportionately affect women. This draws attention to the need for more vigilance and education on digital safety, as well as efforts to combat technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV).
Valentine’s Day is a time to celebrate love, but sadly, cybercriminals often use it to manipulate people’s emotions for their malicious purposes. As we prepare to share tokens of affection with loved ones this month, it’s important to be aware of the tactics employed by cybercriminals, who craft enticing emails, messages, or social media posts that appear to be from a secret admirer or a long-lost love interest. Their goal is to trick the recipient into clicking on malicious links or downloading infected attachments, which can lead to scams.
Cybercrime costs the country an estimated R2.2 billion annually, with women especially vulnerable to online scams, harassment, and digital exploitation. A recent Rutgers report also reveals connections between online violence and the offline world. It highlights a lack of understanding about the range, prevalence and legal status of TFGBV in the seven African countries sampled, including South Africa. This is worsened by low digital literacy, particularly among women and girls, and limited educational campaigns on digital hygiene. The report highlighted the gender gap in digital access, with only 25% of people in the least developed countries using mobile internet, and most of the 3.4 billion without access being women.
Moreover, romance scams are on the rise locally, with one recorded loss in the Western Cape costing the victim R24 million. This alarming statistic emphasises the urgent need for comprehensive online safety measures.
“The world is more connected than ever, thanks to social media and dating apps that enable people to stay in touch with old friends worldwide and forge new relationships online. With the rise of online scams, it’s essential for women to educate themselves and others about the latest phishing tactics and to spread this knowledge. Awareness is a powerful tool in combating cybercrime, helping protect both their hearts and personal data from falling victim to these scams,” says Taylor Kwong, Head of Marketing at Vuma.
To help safeguard against online scams, and protect your personal information online and on social media pages, keep the following tips from Kwong in mind:
- Create complex, long and unique passwords, set up a two-authentication factor (2AF), and never share your password with anyone.
- Be cautious with camera and microphone permissions on new apps and websites, as granting unnecessary access can allow malicious code to secretly record audio or video.
- Only open links from trusted sources and do not follow any prompts to install applications shared over email chat boxes by just anyone, no matter how friendly they seem.
- For features such as who can view your profile, posts, join groups, tag, and more, you can adjust privacy settings to filter out unwanted friend requests or romantic proposals. Block suspicious accounts on social media and WhatsApp contacts, as perpetrators often use fake profiles to target victims.
- Whether you’re tracking your fitness goals or are an avid foodie who loves sharing new restaurant options limit sharing personal information like your location, address and contacts details. Also, when meeting in-person choose a well-lit, populated location for your first meeting.
- Overall, avoid sharing sensitive information, like personal sensitive documents (ID, Passport, driver’s license or ban card details) pictures or anything which can potentially become a reason for embarrassment, blackmail or extortion later with your followers on your feed or even in private chat rooms.
“Access to the internet offers many benefits, but it can also come with hidden dangers, especially for women who may not feel as comfortable online. We believe that everyone deserves to enjoy the advantages of connected world safely.” says Kwong.
