The internet is useful, fun and necessary in this day and age but it can also can be a very dangerous place. Below we present some advice for you to keep you a little safer, but please remember, the list is not exhaustible and you should do your own research on taking precautions for your own safety.
Firstly!
If you see anything suspicious or anyone violating our policies, image standards or content standards, please report it. There are report links available on profiles and posts etc. If you do not know how to report please click here.
Login Safety
Keeping your credentials safe is very important, because allowing access to our account will give access to all your personal messages, friends and much more. Below we have set out just some of the ways you can protect your login.
- Use a complex password. Using a complex (hard to guess) yet easy to remember password is really not as difficult as it sounds. We always advice using a mixture of capitals, lowercase, numbers and special characters. Always better to use hard to guess phrases instead of one word.
As an example something in these formats: "MyCatHenryIs8YearsOld" or "(%)I(%)love(%)My(%)Car(%)"
- Do not write down your password. If you forget it, you can always reset your password using your email account that you registered with. Click here to reset your password (obviously, you must be logged out for the reset link to work).
Never use your pet's names, place names, relative's names, date of birth or other easy to guess passwords which someone that knows you may know answers to or you may have revealed in a conversation.
It is also important to use different password for different accounts across the web. Never use the same password on more than one account because if one of your online accounts get compromised, hackers will try that password on other account.
Financial Information
Never give your credit card, financial or personal information to others. If making an online transaction, make sure the website is secure and uses a reputable payment vendor like CCBill or PayPal.
Be aware of spoof sites that will try and steal your login credentials. Always double check the url of the website and ensure it starts with:
https:// and not http://
The letter "s" in the https:// shows the site is secure server.
Romance Scammers
Never fall for sad or sob stories from Scammers. The ones who lurk in dating sites are generally called "Romance Scammers". Romance Scammers are people who usually make up fake profiles and slowly lure you in by using attractive photos of individuals. Their aim is to make you fall in love with them or make you feel sorry for them. Then eventually asking for your hard earned cash or bank details to steal from you. While we try and delete any fake profiles when ever we can, we can never be 100% sure all profile is real. You need to treat everyone with caution.
Passwords
Never ever give out your passwords to others for obvious reasons such as the ones above.
Downloading
Always be careful what you download. Hackers are clever and attach viruses to innocent looking files. This includes file sharing and images. Never open links you are unsure about, these can lead to malicious websites that can download viruses onto your device or computer.
Secure Passwords
Choose strong passwords. Do not use date of birth, simple words or things like pets names. Use a combination of lower and upper case letters, numbers and symbols eg: u@&5s5%rKNu4*fu^PM
Posting Content
Be careful what you post online. You may never be able to remove it again. Even if you do get it removed, people and other search engines may have copied it by now.
Personally Identifiable Information
Never use your real name, contact information or any other personally identifiable information on your profile. Granted you may have to put a photo of yourself but ensure there is nothing in the background to give away any personally identifiable information.
Uploading Your Photos
Like above, never upload a photo on your profile or anywhere on the internet that shows your address or private information, including your real name and if you are shy, hide your face. Remember, there is no real way of stopping images being stolen by others. To help with this, we add our little watermark to add toward your protection of being used on other sites.
Other's Photos
Please never assume that a profile photo is the person you are talking to without being 100% sure. Unfortunately it is almost impossible to verify a person is who they say they are.
Protection
Always have an Anti-Virus software, firewall, and keep them and your Operating system up to date. This includes any apps or other software.
The list above is by no means complete and there are so many other ways to keep you safer online. We strongly advise you to do your own research as there are a lot of credible websites out there that give strong advice about staying safe online.