I’ve been phished, spearphished and trolled via Email, facebook, LinkedIn and whatsapp. But even I was surprised to find someone trying to social engineer me on Quora.

How do you know you are successful? You draw young, exotic women… this maybe true (and positive) for James Bond, but in the online world, the more people want to be close to you the more suspicious you should be. So one day not so long ago I received this comment to one of my answers on Quora:

Two things caught my eyes- first of all, people don’t usually respond to answers, let alone with a “glad meeting you” header. Second- People on Quora usually use the platform and it’s built in messaging system to communicate. So someone asking you to contact her on email (and a Hotmail account nonetheless!) is highly suspicious. Lastly- people don’t usually take a “romantic” angle on these type of semi-professional platforms (LinkedIn included). So I declined, deleted and reported this.

While I don’t think this is any serious security threat to my safety or privacy, it is an alarming development- it means fraudsters realize there is a new hunting ground for fresh meet, and I’m sure this is not the last we’re seeing of it. The next phase usually evolves to cybercrime, and I can imagine several innocuous looking methods to trick and infect Quora users (I will save these to myself- no one said we need to make the hackers lives easier).

I advise you all to be vigilant and don’t let your guard down even on such trust evoking platform: don’t reveal personal information, don’t connect and interact with people you don’t know and don’t do anything which feels suspicious. If you encounter any suspicious activity- you can always ask the community what people think about it. Worse case- you’ve raised awareness. Best case? You prevent fraud. Good luck!