All people want to feel loved, right? Humans crave social contact and interaction if it’s with friends, family, or a special someone. It’s important for society to have a connection and be able to share experiences and moments with people they care about.

This need has become bigger during the pandemic, due to the lack of human contact, without being able to go out with friends or to meet new people. This has become a very difficult thing to face for everyone, but mostly for the more social out there. So how can these people cope with the pandemic and the little to no human interaction it carries with it? Well, you probably already know the answer: social media apps.

Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are probably on the top pick for those that want to talk to new people. With these apps you have access to direct messages or DM’s. These are the most convenient ways to communicate; you can send pictures, audio, videos, and even files through them, and you can also reply to stories or search for names to find friends or soon-to-be friends. If you find a piece of content you love, you can share it with your friends and acquaintances. These platforms are great for that.

If you’re looking for a more personal connection or a bigger social group, you can check out platforms like Discord. These apps are the best option to chat with a lot of people at the same time, at least at the moment. In particular, Discord is mostly used by gamers, due to group calls that can help them plan a game strategy without losing time typing.

Now, these platforms aren’t targeted at meeting new people, but there are ones that are. There are also platforms made to create more personal connections. One of the most popular out there is Tinder.

Tinder is a social media dating service where you can meet new people. Originally called MatchBox, Tinder started out as the product of a hackathon by creator Sean Rad. With many rebrandings, Tinder grew to the giant that it is today, being available in 56 languages and serving 75 million monthly active users. Tinder is currently creating a metaverse called “Tinderverse”, following on the steps of Meta.

On Tinder, you are presented with the simple profiles of other users. In these profiles, you can see a photo, a short description, and a list of interests. Users can swipe right or left to like or dislike a person’s profile. After two users give each other consent, they can start chatting and calling via the platform’s messaging service. This way, people can use Tinder to meet new people with similar interests. People that are looking for dates can find people that live nearby and eventually meet in person. Tinder also has a lot of features like Instagram and Facebook integration, searching for users looking for wedding dates, and a panic button that gives emergency assistance and location tracking.

This all sounds good, right? Well, unfortunately, Tinder has been strongly criticized for many reasons. All in all, online dating seems to be a polarizing subject for a lot of people, with some considering it not moral. There are also the same criticisms made to other social media platforms: privacy of your data and security. What is the company doing with your data, for example, or what exploits are being used by criminals to take advantage of Tinder’s stored data? In 2016, a flaw in the app allowed hackers to detect the exact location of user’s matches and was not fixed for a few months. 

Scams are another issue, it’s not a surprise to anyone that meeting someone in person that you first met online can be dangerous. You truly never know the intention of someone, but online you can’t really tell. There are ways to be safer when meeting someone in real life, you can try to talk to them by video chat to see if that’s really the person you began talking with, at least physically.

Unfortunately, there are a few scam methods at the moment, and if you’re active on the platform (or plan on doing so) it’s recommended to be careful and watch out for the most common scam methods. The most obvious and probably most popular among scammers and fraudsters is catfishing.

In a nutshell, catfishing is pretending to be someone you’re not. What scammers do is use made-up information in their description and a profile photo that doesn’t belong to them, then they’ll try to manipulate you into chatting on another platform, like email, phone, or text. That way, the criminals can bypass Tinder’s security system against scammers. The reason for scammers to use this method is to access your personal data and information, which can eventually lead to identity theft and hacker attack.

Another scam technique to look out for is phishing, you might’ve made a match with someone and want to know them better. They send you a link to another social media profile of theirs, like Instagram or Facebook. But here’s the thing, that link isn’t legitimate. By clicking on it you’re immediately sent to a website full of malware and to which the scammer has complete access, this can lead to identity theft, and if the website asks you to provide information, and you do, the scammer has this information that can later use to enter on any other platform you have, stealing private information from you and even lead to financial fraud.

So, how do you protect yourself against these scammers and criminals? The best way is to be educated about how they operate. This way, you can prevent falling for their tricks, and you can find and use the best tools to protect your privacy and data. Among these tools, some of the bests are virtual numbers.

Here on Major Phones, we offer US and UK Tinder virtual numbers for you to stay protected against every scam that happens in and outside of Tinder. Go ahead and try us out!