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Human Trafficking: How Immigration Officers at Alimoso Passport Front Office Burst Girls’ Trafficking Syndicates

by Women Times on
Criminally-minded persons in their desperate bid to get rich quick are not relenting in their crook means and methods despite the concerted and tough measures being taken by the federal, state and local governments to rid Nigeria of illicit and criminal methods of material wealth acquisition.

Trafficking in persons especially criminal recruitment and sponsorship of unsuspecting young girls and even sometimes male and female adults to  foreign countries for financial exploitation in disguise of education, work and better life, is one of such illicit trades that has continued to boom in Nigeria.

Luck, however, ran out on some human trafficking syndicates recently when officers of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) attached to the recently-established Alimoso Passport Front Office in Lagos, apprehended scores of the human traffickers, who came to the office to obtain the Nigerian travel passports for some young girls they planned to traffic overseas for illicit activities.

For instance, the NIS officers, few weeks ago, successfully burst the plan by a suspected human trafficking ring to take two underage girls out of the country.The alleged trafficker – a woman- had taken the girls to the passport office claiming they were her daughters, who needed the international passports to travel out of Nigeria.

But the eagle-eyed immigration officers detected that the woman’s age gap and the ages of the two girls did not match her claim that she gave birth to the teenage girls.

On further investigation, the suspect admitted that the girls were recruited for trafficking abroad, for commercial exploitation. Sources at the NIS revealed that many suspected human traffickers had been apprehended at the Alimoso Passport Front Office since it commenced operation on January 30, this year.

According to the sources, the traffickers might have wrongly assumed that they could have their way easily because the front office was new.

“It seems traffickers think because this passport office is new , they will have it easy. It is not possible here as we scrutinise every form and ensure due diligence.

“We have had instances where people wanted to procure passports for adopted children for the purpose of taking them overseas. Those who have legal documents of adoption were directed to Abuja because only the CGI (Comptroller General of Immigration) has the final say on such issues,” a senior officer, who begged not to be mentioned, said.

The officer added, “For those who did illegal adoptions, they came posing that the babies were their biological kids but were uncovered by our diligent officers. When certain documents were required from them, some of them didn’t come back.”

Confirming the arrest of the latest suspected trafficker,  the Passport Control Officer (PCO), Mrs. Ayoola Malaolu, said several human traffickers, who came to the Alimoso NIS Passport Front Office, had been apprehended upon being detected that they came to obtain the Nigerian travel  passports for unlawful purposes.

She commended the officers for their professionalism and dedication to duty, assuring that her team would continue to work professionally and stop traffickers and others with criminal intentions from getting travel documents with which they can perpetrate their evil work.

Mrs. Malaolu appealed to applicants for passports, whether fresh or reissue,  to always go through the online application process and payment platform, as well as to exercise patience and follow the queue, assuring that they would be courteously attended to.

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News

Women’s Month 2023: Kuda Celebrates Progress in Gender Equity

by Women Times on

To promote equity and raise advocacy for women’s inclusion and visibility, Kuda, the money app for Africans, has announced a month-long series of activities to commemorate this year’s International Women’s Day.

International Women’s Day is a global event celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point for giving proper attention to the rights of women and issues about their wellbeing such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and protection against violence and abuse. The global theme for this year’s IWD is, ‘Embrace Equity.’

Built around the theme, the goal of Kuda’s IWD activities is to seek more opportunities for women to make progress in their personal and professional lives, as well as to reposition women for economic growth and success in career and business.

The IWD activities planned to stretch the entire month of March include a showcase of the impact that Kuda has made in promoting gender equity from 2022 to 2023. The showcase will also include the company’s further commitment to gender equity.

Speaking on this year’s IWD, Rosie Hewat, the Chief People Officer at Kuda, said, “As an equal opportunity-promoting organisation, we are passionate about promoting a healthy work environment where everyone irrespective of gender can aspire, reach the top of their career and realise their personal goals. We have always been intentional about building an organisation where gender equity is an obvious norm and we are excited to report that we have made progress with reflecting this core essence particularly within our Engineering and Product teams. This is a part of our growth process and we will continue to work towards building the type of workplace we dream of.”

She revealed that over the past year, steps taken by Kuda to promote gender equity include fine-tuning its school-to-workplace internship programme aimed to imbue young engineers and product managers with the requisite skills for career progress. Other steps include the development of a recruitment model that incentivises peer referrals; offering more opportunities for product management trainees to become product managers at Kuda, and the expansion of the Engineering and Product teams to onboard more women into leadership roles. More progressive initiatives are being championed by the company’s woman-led Diversity, Inclusion and Equity committee.

Hewat disclosed further that the company in 2022 bolstered career growth for 20 young women it sponsored to the Africa Girls In Tech bootcamp. The programme in partnership with Africa Agility afforded the beneficiaries opportunity to learn tech and product skills and helped them get internships at tech startups or start freelancing.

“As a result of these equity-promoting initiatives, Kuda remains a workplace of reference. Over the past year, we have increased the number of female hires by 133%, grown the number of women on our Product team by 87% and increased the female membership of our Engineering team by 144%. We’re also proud to announce that the ratio of female-to-male employees at Kuda is now 1:1,” she stated.

Kuda is a fintech company operating in Nigeria and the United Kingdom. Co-founded by Babs Ogundeyi and Musty Mustapha in 2019, the company is valued at US$500 million and has raised over US$90 million from institutional investors including Target Global and Valar Ventures. Kuda was listed as one of the seven WEF African technology startups in 2021.

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News

Institute of Counseling in Nigeria Pays Tribute to Hilda Adefarasin

by Women Times on

The Institute of Counseling in Nigeria (ICN) has paid tribute to Hilda Adefarasin, the mother of Pastor Wale Adefarasin, the institute’s board President, who passed on at the age of 98 years and was buried in Lagos at the weekend after the service of songs & Tribute Night.

 

The Provost of ICN, Dr. Tolulope Oko-Igaire said Hilda Adefarasin’s contributions to humanity would be missed as she remains a perfect example for many to emulate.

 

A statement signed by the institute’s Board Members;Dr. Lekan Ajisafe, Dr. Tola Winjobi, Dr. Micheal Pinder, H.E. Mrs Ibikunle Amosun, Rt. Hon. Mohammed Umar Bago and Mr. Augustine Ebose reads, “The Provost of the Institute of Counseling in Nigeria, Dr. Tolulope Oko-Igaire on behalf of the management, staff, students alumni, and board joined the President of the board Pastor Wale Adefarasin to celebrate the life of elegance, poise, achievement, and impact as lived by Mrs. Hilda Adefarasin.”

 

The Provost restated that most of the values Pastor Wale holds so dear like integrity, humility, and fear of God were unsurprisingly evident in the life of his late mother.

 

“Pastor Wale’s love for humanity has made him champion the cause of mental health counseling as he throws his weight behind the institute.

 

“We celebrate the life and time of this woman of virtue, who has made an impact, and the fact that she left us with a blessing like Pastor Wale,” the ICN statement reads.

 

Hilda Adefarasin was born on 9 January 1925 and died on 5 February 2023. She was a Nigerian women’s rights activist who was the president of the National Council of Women’s Societies (NCWS). She left her nursing profession in 1969 to concentrate on the professional activities of the NCWS. In 1971, she was the council’s treasurer and in 1987, she became the president.

 

The Institute of Counseling was founded in 2010 as a not-for-profit independent educational charity. The passion to help people achieve their dreams of becoming professional counselors birthed this vision; the aim is to fill the vacuum of lack of access to professional training in the field of clinical counseling and the inability to acquire professional certificates in the field of counseling and psychotherapy in Africa.

 

 

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News

IWD: AAAN Celebrates Women in Advertising, Restates Commitment to Equity

by Women Times on

As the world celebrates the 2023 International Women’s Day, the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), has restated its commitment to equity for Women in Advertising (WIA) and celebrating their contributions to the growth of the advertising industry in Nigeria.

WIA is the female focused network that has the responsibility of championing the cause of female members in Nigeria advertising industry. International Women’s Day is an annual global celebration held on March 8.

In a statement released by WIA, the Chairman of WIA, Mrs. Biodun Adefila, said the vision for WIA is to transform female practitioners into outstanding leaders who can contribute broadly to their firm’s success and provide mentoring and professional guidance.

She explained that WIA has organized some programs and initiatives to continue to educate women on how to navigate within the industry, work life balance and celebrating their success.

AAAN Publicity Secretary, Mrs Tope Jemerigbe, said the association is committed to gender equity, development, and celebration of achievements of women in the industry.

She said “As we celebrate International Women’s Day, we will continue to seek ways to nurture, develop, recognize, and celebrate females who are pushing the limits and changing the narratives of advertising. We will continue to embrace and champion equity for the women within our Industry. As AAAN celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, we are celebrating with our first female director, Mrs. Kemi Fabusoro,”

Advertising is traditionally a male dominated industry, however, the industry is witnessing the arrival of female amazons on the scene, with several female Managing Directors leading the charge in many top agencies.

AAAN Director, Mrs Kemi Fabusoro stated that this year’s IWD theme, ‘Embracing Equity’, is deep and powerful and applies to everyone whether male or female. “It means that it can’t be one size fits all, it’s all about recognizing individual needs and the necessary resources required to make the person successful and we will challenge our members to make this a reality,” she said.

“WIA is partnering with like-minded organizations such as the Street Projects Foundation to groom and mentor talented young women into the fold. The association is also an active member of the United Nations’ Unstereotype Alliance which has the vision to eradicate stereotypes in advertising materials in Nigeria and globally,” Adefila said.

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News

FirstBank Restates Commitment to Empowering Women, Dedicates March to Celebrate Women

by Women Times on

In furtherance of its leading role in promoting the socio-economic inclusion of women in society, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Nigeria’s premier and leading financial inclusion services provider, has announced its dedication of the month of March to the celebration of women across the world, as it commemorates the globally celebrated International Women’s Day, scheduled for 8 March 2023. 

 

Kicking off the series of internal and activities designed to celebrate women is The First Women Network (FWN), Mentoring, Coaching and Sponsorship Pillar Webinar scheduled to hold on Friday, 3 March 2023. The event is organized by the Bank’s First Women Network, an initiative that seeks to address the gender gap and increase the participation of women at all levels within the organisation.

 

On Wednesday, 8 March 2023, the Bank will join the rest of the world to celebrate the 2023 International Women’s Day themed: “Embrace Equity” as it convenes its International Women’s Day 2023 event.

 

As a member of UN Women, FirstBank employs the relevant women empowerment tools including the Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs) Gender Gap Analysis Tool in the process of assessing its performance and provides progress reports that feeds into the WEPs performance indicators. FirstBank has a ratio of about 39%:61% female to men employees while 32% women in management driving a deliberate policy consistent with the WEPs – Equal Opportunity, Inclusion, and Nondiscrimination.

 

In line with this commitment, FirstBank is partnering with UN Women on 15 March 2023 and is set to play a key role in a scheduled event driven by UN Women that will showcase young women and men between the ages of 18-35 in Nigeria who are using technological innovations and tools to promote gender equality, women’s empowerment and inclusion. This is in line with the UN International Women’s Day theme for 2023 is “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality’’.

 

The conversation on ‘’Embrace Equity’’ as well as ‘’DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality’’ will be reinforced on Twitter Spaces with notable speakers including Foluso Gbadamosi, the Executive Director of Junior Achievement Nigeria.

 

Amongst the activities scheduled to round off the Women’s Month commemoration is the Bank’s support of the Heroism of Erelu Ota – a play which aligns with the Bank’s First@arts goal of supporting the arts and women. Heroism of Erelu Ota is an untold story of a legendary goddess in Ikorodu Kingdom who travels on the sea with a mat, and her ability to see what the enemies of Ikorodu are planning in their town, played a huge role in assisting the people of Ikorodu during the Agbala war.

 

Speaking ahead of the events, Folake Ani-Mumuney, Group Head, Marketing & Corporate Communications, FirstBank said that “we remain committed to diversity and inclusion as well as women empowerment through digital education and the provision of opportunities for women to access digital tools to bridge the gender digital divide and achieve gender equality. Therefore, as in previous years, FirstBank has dedicated March 2023 as a month set aside to celebrate women and all their remarkable achievements over the years which include their leadership roles and pace-setting standards in Science Technology Entrepreneurship, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM).  We are deliberate about partnering to ensure more impact – ensuring that we touch as many women as possible in Women’s Month and beyond.’’

 

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Why Women Don’t Engage in Politics – Ali Baba

by Women Times on

By Ada Osadebe

Nigerian comedian, Atunyota Akpobome, often known as Ali Baba, has revealed why women don’t engage in Nigerian politics.

He stated this in a post on his Instagram page on Tuesday, claiming that certain women avoid politics because they do not want to lie, to be in a position of service.

He further asserted that the women who later pursue politics are “frustrated out” of the system.

He said, “See why women run away from politics? Women don’t want to be part of a flawed system.

“Or lie to be in a position of service… and the few women who brave it are frustrated out.

He further captioned the post saying, “The structure in politics is made in away to demotivate the women from participating in politics.”

 

 

 

Credit:  Vanguard

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Relationship

Valentine’s Day: The 4 Pillars of Successful Relationships

by Women Times on

By Kim Walker

 

The month of love is upon us and convenience stores and garage forecourts are preparing for the annual rush for the last tattered bunch of roses and box of chocolates . Meanwhile, the single – by choice or otherwise – are gearing up to either ignore the hyper focus on the romantic, or to find their own version of it within their families, friendships and communities. Must be February.

Essentially Valentine’s Day is a focus on relationships, generally romantic relationships but this definition has been broadened and deepened. Galentine’s Day has now become a culturally accepted phenomenon, complete with entry into the Urban Dictionary, and of course, many a marketing campaign encouraging women to celebrate all things BFF. No word yet if a male equivalent is in the offing (Brolentine’s doesn’t have the same ring) or a gender-neutral expression (Palentine’s?) but here at Aprais, we think every day is a day to focus on relationships. Specifically, business relationships.

As it turns out, any successful relationship broadly boils down to the same key elements, even if what that success looks like is different. We (generally) don’t want to marry or be BFFs with our clients or agencies. But we do want to work together to achieve the best possible outcome for both parties. Stronger business relationships, that lead to stronger business.

Let’s take a deep dive, then, into what makes a successful relationship.

1. Trust

There’s no getting away from it, trust is king. In our global database of more than 25,000 client-agency evaluations we not only hold scores on the strength of these relationships, but also on specific behaviors exhibited within these relationships. There are seven in total, and year after year, one always emerges the highest-ranked behavior for both clients and agencies. Trust.

Between romantic partners and friends, trust is essentially the attribute of doing what you say you’ll do, and not doing what you say you won’t do. Generally trust is related to other prized characteristics and behaviors such as fidelity (within monogamous relationships) and honesty. In the context of client-agency relationships, we define trust as, ‘The team is trusted to deliver and behaves with integrity.’ Our data consistently shows that without trust business relationships can’t hope to flourish. It’s not the only ingredient, as successful relationships are the result of a multitude of factors, but it remains the universal ingredient.

2. Empathy

The ability to perceive things from another’s frame of reference – see what others see – is a key attribute of general emotional intelligence, and a crucial factor within relationships. For couples, arguments arise when partners cannot empathize with the other’s point of view, whether or not they agree with it.

For business partnerships, empathy is essential in order for individuals to appreciate and understand the complexity and challenges of the respective roles occupied. But there’s another form of empathy our data shows is vital to successful business relationships and we call it financial empathy.

Our figures show that marketers who are rated highly by their agencies for their financial regard, rate their agencies 20% higher for staff allocation. This suggests clients that take a fair approach to agency remuneration feel they get better value from the relationship with their agency. This fair approach comes from understanding the financial pressures facing

agencies and acting with these pressures in mind.

3. Communication

Truly the cornerstone of all relationships, communication is one of those essential ingredients that it’s easy to get wrong. How to communicate, when to communicate, how much to communicate and how often to communicate are all up for debate.

Just ask any couple what they argue about most and after ‘money’, it’s probably communication. They talk too much, they don’t listen, they bottle it all up and then explode, they never talk but expect me to know what they’re thinking….the list goes on.

Given that all relationships are different, it’s impossible to have hard and fast rules around communication, but our data shows that improving communication will improve the relationship overall. This is particularly true given that we are all in the business of communications, and therefore meant to be experts in this behavior.

What our data also shows, is that quality of communication is more important than quantity. Daily check-ins can have a detrimental effect on the mental health of individuals within teams and lead to an ‘always-on’ mentality. And multiple channels – email, WhatsApp, Teams, Zoom, face-to-face, telephone, text message – can create confusion and overwhelm.

Communication also comes in the form of regular evaluations between partners. Aprais advocates evaluations every six-months. A year is too long. It allows problems to fester and worsen if left unsaid. More frequent evaluations risk survey fatigue leading to compliance challenges. Quarterly reviews arguably don’t afford enough time for corrective action between evaluations.

4. Challenge

Trust, empathy and communication all tend to promote harmony. Challenge is the outlier, in that it’s the process of questioning the status quo rather than going along with it.

You might think we’re talking about arguments but here again is where communication comes in – it’s possible to challenge the way things are done, without

being argumentative’. And it’s worth it. Our data consistently shows that the best business relationships are characterised by a willingness to challenge the status quo, and the poorest-performing, by a lack of challenge.

It’s become more important over the last decade too, as the business and wider cultural landscape has changed. Challenge has become more demanded of agencies and their marketer clients. At its core challenge takes us out of our comfort zones, which is a required element for growth, personally and professionally.

5 reasons why relationships matter

1. Stronger relationships produce higher quality work.

2. Stronger relationships build valuable shared knowledge.

3. Stronger relationships motivate staff to go the extra mile for each other.

4. Stronger relationships bridge the gap between corporate cultures.

5. Stronger relationships are more cost efficient.

 

 

 

 

Credit: The Drum

 

 

 

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Trending

5 Ways To Spend Valentine’s Day Without Breaking The Bank

by Women Times on

Valentine’s Day is a time to celebrate love and every year, lovers take out time and extra resources to make the day super special for their partner. The day is almost synonymous with expensive, and it can be for those who are coupled up.

 

While taking the time to celebrate your love is a good thing, spending a fortune is often not the smartest move. So, this year we took our time to put together a few tips to help you celebrate your love without breaking the bank. Check them out:

 

  • Go somewhere new

You don’t necessarily have to visit fancy restaurants to make the day memorable. Create new memories by visiting inexpensive places like museums, art galleries, the beach and other affordable places.

 

It’s the perfect opportunity to visit places you and your partner have always intended to get to but never seem to have the time.

 

  • Play some board games

There are a lot of engaging games to keep you and your love super busy and entertained. The board game world is quite vast, and it might be the perfect time to try out Monopoly, Scrabble, Chess and others. To make it more fun, you can pair up with another couple.

 

  • Make your partner’s favourite foods at home

Go all out with a beautiful dinner at home! No rule says you have to go out to have an amazing meal together. Light the candles, pour some wine and cook a meal your partner would love. Or better yet, you can cook together and make the other’s favourite food.

 

  • Watch your favourite shows or movies on Showmax

Stay home and binge-watch all your favourite movies on Showmax. Nothing says cosy more than cuddling up and binge-watching your favourite shows or rewatching classics with your favourite person. You can pick a romantic movie or series to set the mood right.

 

  • Spend time rediscovering each other

Even after many years, your partner may still surprise you! Try the question game, where you ask the other person something you don’t know about them.

Just remember that your partner’s happiness is the most important thing and it can cost little to make them happy.

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News

‘More Women and Girls in Science Equals Better Science’, UN Chief Declares

by Women Times on

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said that gender bias in science has resulted in drug tests that treat the female body as an aberration, and search algorithms that perpetuate discrimination, but the solution is simple: increase the numbers of women working in the field and support the girls hoping to join them one day. 

In his message for the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, observed this Saturday, who appealed for concrete action to increase their ranks.

“On this International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we highlight a simple equation: More women and girls in science equals better science,” said Mr. Guterres.

“Women and girls bring diversity to research, expand the pool of science professionals, and provide fresh perspectives to science and technology, benefiting everyone.”

Theoretically, science should be open to everyone, yet it is still overwhelmingly male.

Even though more girls are in school today than ever before, women and girls are underrepresented in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education, according to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Just one in three researchers is a woman, and women account for just 35 per cent of graduates in STEM-related fields.

Their numbers are even smaller in cutting edge fields such as Artificial Intelligence, where only one in five professionals is a woman.

“If these gender inequalities are so significant, it is because they are deeply rooted in our societies,” said Audrey Azoulay, the UNESCO Director-General, in her message for the Day.

“It is because of the persistence of gender stereotypes and prejudices, which sometimes persuade girls that scientific studies are not for them, despite their tremendous potential.”

 

 

 

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Trending

From Dating to Defrauding: Online Romance Scams Surge As Criminals Cash in on Lonely South Africans, Others

by Women Times on

Catfishing, sextortion, phishing and other romance scams are big business for fraudsters. Carey van Vlaanderen, Chief Executive Officer at ESET Southern Africa says knowing how to spot red flags can mean the difference between being deeply in love and knee-deep in debt. 

Dating sites can be a wonderful place to meet new people, make connections and find a romantic partner, but as the popular Tinder Swindler documentary showed, it’s easy to fall in love and fall victim to dating scams involving romantic con artists. With February being the month of love, it’s important that online daters know how to protect themselves in the digital dating space.

Data from the Federal Trade Commission in the United States showed that in 2021 reported losses to romance scammers were up nearly 80% compared to the previous year. This was followed by an alert issued by the FBI which noted victims of romance fraud lost $1 billion in 2021 alone. While current reliable figures are difficult to establish, romance scams, both in South Africa and across the globe, are likely to be underreported because of the personal nature of the crime and victims’ feelings of embarrassment.

According to the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC) some terror groups have been targeting South Africans to finance their criminal acts through romance scams. It also reports that online dating scams are used by fraudsters to launder the illicit proceeds of crime. In 2021, eight suspects were arrested in Cape Town in connection with an online dating scam and stealing more than R100 million from victims in various countries.

 

Don’t fall for the rom-con

Online dating or romance scams are financially and emotionally costly as fraudsters exploit people’s vulnerabilities, trust, and feelings of loneliness. When visiting online dating platforms, be aware of photos that look too good to be true. An image search on Google can help you determine if the photo is authentic or a stolen or stock photo. Other red flags include requests for private information such your ID number, declarations of love alarmingly early in the relationship, or a request for money to help them out of a situation.

Another new trend in 2022 was an increase in reports of romance scammers luring consumers into fake cryptocurrency investment schemes.

Falling for deception

While dating scams have multiple layers of deception, they all rely on gaining a victim’s information which should give everyone pause to think about how the management of personal information can allow criminals to build a detailed profile of their target.

A common modus operandi is scammers using emotional manipulation to get a victim to send money, gifts, or personal information. Another common, and extremely traumatising, form of deception is sextortion. This begins as a seemingly normal relationship before the scammer pressures the victim into sending intimate photos or videos which are used as material to blackmail the victim.

Catfishing is another common trick scammers use which lures the victim into a relationship based on the attacker’s fictitious online persona. Once the victim is on the hook, the scammer will send messages about being in financial trouble with promises to pay the money back later.

How to protect your feelings and your finances

  • Scammers seldom ask for money at the beginning of an interaction. Instead, they may express money worries in casual conversation or use financial trouble as a reason not to meet.
  • Carefully consider the decision to leave verified dating apps to message privately. Not only does this give the fraudster access to your mobile number, but dating apps also provide mechanisms to report scammers and unsafe behaviour.
  • Don’t send a person money. No matter how convincing their story may be. Talk to someone you know and trust for their perspective on the situation.
  • Never share any information that may compromise you, including photos or videos.
  • If you decide to meet someone in person that you’ve met online be sure to set up the meeting in a safe, public place, and ensure a trusted friend or family member is aware of your arrangements.

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