Online Safety
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peopleDating Safety
HI2HELLO DOES NOT CONDUCT CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECKS. PLEASE BE SAFE WHEN INTERACTING WITH USERS.
Take caution when communicating with strangers and be careful about the information you provide
Never include your last name, e-mail address, home address, phone number, place of work, or any other identifiable information in your profile or messages
Stop communicating with anyone that pressures you for personal or financial information
If you choose to have a face-to-face meeting, always tell a friend or family member where you are going and when you will return, meet in a public place with many people around, provide your own transportation, do not agree to being picked up at your home
Dating and romance scammers lower your defenses by appealing to your romantic or compassionate side. They play on emotional triggers to get you to provide money, gifts or personal details.
COMMON WARNING SIGNS:
The person you just met asks to chat outside of Hi2hello, using email or instant messaging applications such as Skype
They write about how meeting you is "fate" or "destiny"
Their writing is crude; spelling and grammatical errors abound. They start with a generic message, often calling you "Dear" or "Pretty"
They claim to be from the United States but are "working" overseas
They ask for money
They often state they are a widow with a small child to care for
They often state they are trying to get home when their deployment is over, but there is a difficulty that you can help them with
The scams often involve carefully worded romantic requests for money from the victim to purchase special laptop computers, international telephones, military leave papers, and transportation fees to be used by the fictitious “deployed Soldier” so their false relationship can continue.
DON’T EVER SEND MONEY!
Common Scammer Characteristics/Behaviours
Contact is at unusual hours for your time zone (they are often in Africa)
If you ask them complex or direct question, they often go offline.
They tend to ignore personal questions you post, keeping things generic
The details they give you are often different from what was stated on their profile, one of the more common inconsistencies is giving different answers to is their birth date, height/weight, and age etc.
They often misspell the cities/towns they claim they are from and are unfamiliar with any of the local landmarks and attractions
Recently, military scams have become more popular. Scammers steal pictures of members of the military and contact people on different dating sites. They abuse the trust people normally have for the integrity and credibility of men and women serving their country. They have even been known to steal and abuse pictures of fallen heroes.
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reportBeing safe
Hi2hello users can contribute to their own safety online. The following are simple yet effective tips how to enjoy Hi2hello safely:
Don’t post or share private information
Stop communicating with anyone who presses for private or financial information
Only post things you would be comfortable with the whole world knowing
If meeting someone in person, tell a trusted friend or family member when and where. Meet in a public place and arrange independent transportation
Besides being available to users seven days a week, Hi2hello also stringently enforces our Terms of Service. This enforcement is meant to protect all users and is taken very seriously. Specific safety concerns and reports of site misuse are routed to the appropriate teams and Hi2hello takes action on content or activity found to be in violation.
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flagReporting a Profile, Comment or Photo
There are many ways to report abuse from wherever you maybe on the site. Read below for more info.
Profile:
Go to the user’s profile and click on ‘Report Abuse’
Photos:
Go to the Photo and click on ‘Report Abuse’ on that page
Photo Comments:
Go to the photo and locate the comment you want to report
Click ‘Report Abuse’ underneath the comment
Messages:
Go to Messages
Once in your inbox, open the conversation with the other user and click ‘Report abuse' on that page
Groups:
Go to the Group
Click ‘Report Abuse’ on that page
If you like to report anything else, contact us
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lock Clicking on links and Avoid Phishing
Remember to report, then Delete the Suspicious Messages!
What is 'Phishing'?
Phishing is one type of online identity theft. Phishing uses several techniques, including email and fake websites, to try and steal your personal information. In the case of Hi2hello, this can mean the log in credentials to your Hi2hello account, along with the personal information contained therein.
Crooks may send millions of fake email messages with links to fraudulent websites that appear to come from websites you trust, like for example, www.hi2hello.com, and ask that you provide personal information, such as the email address and password registered to your Hi2hello account. Criminals can and will use this information, if obtained, to gain access to your private online data for their own illegal purposes.
How can I identify a 'Phishing' message?
You can learn to see through a 'phishing' scam by being familiar with some of the common indicators and clues that are present in these scam messages.
Scam messages may contain the following give-aways:
Misspellings and poor grammer
Promises to award prizes, or 'money for nothing'
Messages threatening to close your account unless you verify data
Requests for a charitable donation
Requests that you download safe or useful-sounding software
Requests to click a link that takes you outside of Hi2hello
OK, but what do they look like?
Here is an example of what a phishing scam message might look like:
"Hello! I am a representative for Hi2hello's promotions team and you have been randomly chosen to participate in our most active members apple ipad 3 give-away, supported by People Spot's advertising team! This is a limited time offer, navigate to => http://very.suspicious.link. You're not obligated to anything, just be certain to that you left people know about our incentives =). Thanks for your your participation!"
Another type of phishing scam may appear as a blank message with only a suspicious link, like this:
http://suspicious.cam.womans.name.link
Keep in mind there are many different types of scams, and new ones appear frequently. If you see a suspicious message promising something that sounds too good to be true, or asking you to 'click here' or 'visit this link', play it safe and don't click any links!
OK, I've got it...don't click links...so what should I do?
We encourage you to both Report any suspicious messages to Hi2hello, and then Delete them from your profile.
We will investigate any reports and remove suspicious content when we find it, and your report helps us to identify these scams.
To report, then delete any suspicious messages you receive, use the 'Report Abuse' and 'Delete' buttons
If you believe you have been the victim of a phishing message on Hi2hello and need further assistance, please contact us.
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cancel Blocking and Unblocking a User
If another user is bothering you, or you just don’t want to communicate with them, there are a number of ways to block them from contacting you:
User’s Profile Page
Go to the user’s profile page and click on ‘Block User’ on that page
While viewing a message conversation with that user
Open the conversation in your inbox and click on ‘Block User’ on that page
Friend Request page
Go to alerts and then Friend Requests
Click the ‘Requests’ tab
Click ‘Block User’
Note: Blocking a friend will block AND remove the user from your friends list.
After you've blocked a user, they will appear on your ‘Blocked Users’ list. You can view this list at anytime by doing the following:
Hover your cursor over ‘Account’ in the top right corner of the Navigation bar
Click ‘Settings’ and select the 'Privacy' tab
Scroll down to ‘Blocked Users’ and click ‘Edit Blocked Users’
If you wish to unblock a user, just visit your Blocked Users list and do the following:
Click ‘Unblock’
Confirm you would like to unblock
The user will then be unblocked and allowed to communicate with you on the site again.
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