Dating App Users Vulnerable to Stalking and Doxing Risks
Are Stalking and Doxing Risks Worth Taking for Dating App Users?
Dating apps are a great place to find friends or even soulmates. Especially in the current era, when dating has become a common way to meet new people, the popularity of dating apps is increasing. However, this has also increased stalking and doxing risks.
You need to distribute various personal information to the dating apps for verification and be entirely open to other users for proper connection. Therefore, it is pretty dangerous that your personal information could reach another unknown person who can misuse it for various reasons.
Coming to the question of whether dating app users are actually vulnerable to stalking and doxing risks is something that many want to know about. In this thread, we are going to discuss the same in length, so keep reading!
Primary Ways of Doxers to Dox The Dating App Users
There are various ways a boxer can dox you. Actually, they are highly trained and can misuse that information online to pose a threat to you.
Packet Sniffing
It is a traditional method of doxing. When information is sent through the web, it travels in small packets. Once the packets reach the designated address, they are reintegrated into complete information.
Doxers intervene in the lines of the travel of the packets and intercept them midway. With coding and technology, they can open these packets to steal your personal information, passwords and much more. Doxers snug and break the security measures and deviate these packets into their systems to steal the data.
IP Logging
IP stands for Internet Protocol. Every computer or point of the network has a specific and unique IP allocated to it. This IP address is linked to various information regarding the network, the computer, and the user.
IP logging is a specific technique to steal information. Doxers use special IP loggers and send them via emails without the receiver knowing. Once this email is opened, the IP logger tracks all sorts of information attached to that particular IP address. Then, the information automatically reaches the doxer, who can misuse that information to pose problems to the user.
Reverse Cell Phone Lookup System
The internet has a specific service known as Whitepages Service. With it, anyone can access basic information such as the name and address of a person if they have their cell phone number.
Doxers are always on their toes to access your personal information and financial information through these Whitepages. Furthermore, they offer more information with subscriptions. Hence, users are highly recommended not to leave their phone numbers exposed on dating apps and other social media forums.
Stalking Through Social Media
Social media platforms are a sweet spot to extract personal data. Hackers and doxers scavenge through all social media platforms and stalk particular people to derive personal information from them.
Many social media platforms like Facebook contain fields where you can enter your phone number, address, schooling and jobs. Be intelligent and do not fill these fields. They reveal a lot about your interests and tasks that can ultimately lead to leakage of personal and vital information, which in the long run can be pretty costly.
Information Through Governmental Records
Governmental records are a goldmine for personal information such as name, address, phone number, specific dates, and much more. Hackers break into governmental databases through their apps and websites and hack them to derive crucial information about individuals.
This, specifically, can be very dangerous because all your sensitive including citizenship information is under the government’s radar. Hence, it can be very costly for someone to lose all sorts of privacy and essential information if these databases are doxed or hacked.
Phishing
Phishing is a prevalent form of doxing, and many people fall into phishing traps. These are more like clickbait but through your emails. Phishing emails are specially designed to read about the inactivity of your bank account or the unusual activity of a personal account. Along with that, a redirecting link is provided that takes you to another webpage.
Here, the web page can contain multiple credentials to fill in, starting from your details to your passwords and other cryptic codes to gain access to your financial or private accounts. Once you fill in the credentials and submit or move forward with that specific page, the hacker receives all the crucial data.
WHOIS
WHOIS is a method of looking up information through a domain name or domain provider. Websites contain valuable information, and doxers can access this information through the WHOIS service and hack into the website’s system and steal information regarding individuals.
So, Be Careful
Users should be conscientious while posting personal information on dating apps and social media platforms. When it comes to using online sources, one should not go blind and click or share any information anywhere. After all, your safety is in your own hands indeed.
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