Tinder match? Don’t get too excited..

I suppose everyone knows what Tinder is. It’s this interesting location based hook-up app which is very simple to use. You either swipe right to like someone or swipe left to dislike someone. And when you swipe a person right, and that person has already seen your profile and swiped you right, there you go, you two are a match. Then you can chat with that person and take if further if you want.

Few days ago, when I was swiping left and right in Tinder, I got a match. That happens very rarely so I got all excited. She was from NYU, same age and was pretty. Anyways, she started chatting with me. “My first match!” was her first message. I thought “alright” let’s do this and started replying. After a few messages, I felt that there’s something wrong, she’s coming too strong on to me. And a little bit later the topic “Anal sex” came into discussion. Whoa! Yeah, I was like she’s like super straight forward and looking for sex or this is all a fake. Alas! The next message was a website which contained a “Secure dating” service. I felt embarrassed that I fell into this trap like a fool. I immediately reported the account and unmatched, forgetting that I didn’t even take screenshots of this interesting encounter with the Tinder Bot.

Later today, the exact same thing happened. A pretty lady who was closer to me and from a US university, matched. And like the last time she started chatting. Guess what, “My first Match” was her starting line too. And I knew the rest, but I wasn’t so sure whether this is the same bot so I put a random question as the reply. By her second message I knew it’s the same bot. Then I wanted to play a little knowing that it wasn’t going anywhere but at least I can record this interesting conversation and write about it in a blog.

It starts the convo in a very mild and polite way. And does not work too hard to keep it that way, but turns into a sex chat. Then suddenly it asks for a “safe date code” and sends a link to the website which offers something called “secure dating”.

To start with, the website is not HTTPS. And the title goes “Tinder’s Free Service! Get verified today. Start meeting people”. The home page contains snapshots of some news articles on Tinder related Sexual Crimes. And believe me, the whole page is one PNG image which links to a register page.

And on the bottom, there’s a “get my code” button. Upon clicking this button or anywhere on the home page, a form pops up to insert Username, Password and Email. After Inserting those details, another form pops up saying “Verify your age and get your free access today”. This contains a field to enter the Credit Card number, expiry date and the CVV number. And unfortunately, if you enter these information, I believe nothing good will ever happen. So, I didn’t go any further.

Please be very careful of these scams. These scammers have made the most vulnerable human qualities into exploitation opportunities. Someone who’s not very fond of these has a very good chance to go the extra mile and submit their credit card information. So be very careful.