Internet Safety Advocate Advises Internet Users To Investigate Before Adding People As Friends Online

The CEO of Onadipe Technologies and founder of Internet Safety Magazine, Mr. Rotimi Onadipe has advised all internet users to do a thorough investigation on the people they meet online before adding them as friends on social media.

Onadipe shared his expert opinion with internet users at his organisation’s weekly lecture on online safety which was held in Ibadan on Saturday June 18th, 2022.

In his opening remarks, Onadipe said most internet users feel good every time they add new friends on social media, unknown to them that there are many impostors on different social media platforms that have impersonated innocent individuals with the aim of using their identities for fraudulent and criminal activities.

Onadipe, an advocate of internet safety who has been counseling and educating the public on internet safety for several years said we must be very careful with the kind of people we add as friends on social media.

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He said: “Don’t be in a rush to add anyone as your friend on social media no matter how good, interesting or attractive the person’s profile is. You must be informed that online criminals impersonate innocent people for various criminal purposes e.g. identity theft, cyber extortion, child sexual exploitation, drug trafficking, blackmail, online child pornography, email or password hacking, intellectual property theft, among others.”

“Don’t be enticed by the attractive captions or beautiful profile pictures you see on social media because in most cases, criminals use such attractive images to convince unsuspecting victims to trust them.”

“Before you add people as friends on social media, do a thorough investigation about their personal information so as to avoid being vulnerable to online abuse or cyber crimes,” he added.