The male-dating service and application Grindr is being used by cybercriminals and hackers to lure unaware Grindr users to malicious environments. Grindr is an application which has been crafted in order to allow (make it easier) for males to meet other males.
The Grindr application allows the users to send messages towards eachother, these messages often contain links to external websites which hold pictures and other type of information – the hackers are using this to their advantage.
Instead of sending legitimate links, the cybercriminals and hackers will try to lure the unaware Grindr users to malicious websites, which will serve malware to the device which is being used by the victim.
The hackers and cybercriminals try to make an online revenue by infecting the devices of unaware users – once an device has been breached / hacked, the cybercriminal or hacker will be able to fully control the infected device.
Allowing them to use the microphone and camera of the infected device, and much more. So if you use Grindr, please take extra care when you click on links – always verify that it is a genuine website before you proceed to provide information on those sites.
The fastest way you can check if an site is genuine is by using the VirusTotal URL scan service. This service allows you to scan an URL / domain – and VirusTotal will then report back to you if it is an malicious environment or not.