How to avoid being easy prey for online romance scams

Social media is a fun and easy way of keeping in touch with friends, but the access such platforms offer to one’s personal details and images means they can attract criminals too. Fresh concerns over cybersecurity arose recently after several high-profile politicians, including former lawmaker James Tien Pei-chun and former commerce minister Greg So Kam-leung, discovered their photos on Facebook profiles they had not created.

Tien has ended up as the face of “George Gavino”, who studied at the University of Liverpool; Tai Wing-keung, a private contractor living in Ontario, California; an offshore oil rig worker called Ryan Chang Lin; and four other Facebook accounts – none of them made by him.