Protecting women online: Scams, stalkerware, and digital threats in 2026

Happy International Women’s Day!

Today is about celebrating strength, progress, leadership, and resilience. It’s about recognizing the achievements of women across every field, from science and technology to education, art, journalism, and entrepreneurship.

But in 2026, empowerment also includes something else: digital resilience.

Women increasingly build careers, friendships, communities, and movements online. And while those spaces create a lot of opportunities,  they also create exposure to scams and digital harassment.

Key takeaways

• 2025 data shows that online violence and abuse affecting women and girls are part of a growing global trend.
• Reports of online violence or discrimination against women jumped 224.9% in 2025, totaling 8,728 documented incidents in specific reporting from SaferNet.
• 44% of women and girls worldwide lack access to legal protection from online violence.
• Roughly 38% of women globally report experiencing online violence.
• Artificial intelligence is amplifying these threats, enabling more sophisticated romance scams, deepfake image abuse, voice cloning, impersonation schemes, and large-scale harassment campaigns targeting women

AI Scams: A Rising Digital Threat

According to the Bitdefender 2025 Consumer Cybersecurity Survey, more than seven in 10 people encountered a scam in the past year, and one in seven confirmed they fell victim. At the same time, 37% say AI-powered scams are now their biggest concern, with social media emerging as the leading scam delivery channel.

This shift matters, especially for women and girls, who are often more active on visual and community-driven platforms. Artificial intelligence enables criminals to scale romance scams by creating highly convincing fake personas, generating realistic profile photos, automating emotionally manipulative conversations, and even using voice cloning to build trust.

AI can also enhance image theft and sextortion schemes by creating deepfake content, repurposing stolen photos for impersonation, or fabricating compromising material. In short, the same technology that makes online interaction seamless can also make deception faster, more targeted, and harder to detect — reinforcing why digital resilience

Digital Threats That Often Target Women

Women and girls encounter scams that blend emotional manipulation with financial or reputational harm, among others.

Romance and Dating Scams

High-profile cases like the Tinder Swindler and real-world examples such as Ayleen Charlotte’s experience highlight how dating platforms can be exploited. Scammers build trust, cultivate emotional bonds, and manipulate victims into sending money, sharing access, or compromising their privacy.

Image Theft & Sextortion

In recent reported cases:

• A hacker pleaded guilty to stealing women’s private Snapchat photos.
• A man from Alabama pleaded guilty to stealing private photos to extort hundreds of teens

Once personal photos are stolen, they are often used for sextortion, fake profile creation, or emotional blackmail.

WhatsApp ‘Hi Mom/Hi Dad’ Scam

Criminals pretend to be a child who lost their phone and urgently needs help. Because this plays on familial trust — especially toward mothers and grandmothers — it’s become one of the most successful impersonation tactics.

Virtual Kidnapping Scams

Scammers fabricate fake kidnappings of loved ones, using social media information to make the story feel plausible and then demanding immediate payment.

Beauty Advent Calendar Scams

Fraudsters exploit seasonal and promotional topics such as beauty influencer culture and holiday shopping. For example, Sephora Advent Calendar scams we tracked during 2024 and 2025 lured users with fake promotional links or giveaways, only to harvest login credentials or financial details when victims try to “claim” the prize.

Vote for My Child Scams

This scam manipulates goodwill by requesting votes — often tied to contests or fundraisers — then steering victims to phishing sites or asking for donations that go straight into scammers’ pockets.

Cyberstalking & Stalkerware

Threats against women and girls go beyond harassment and scams. They can involve prolonged targeted abuse.

• Cyberstalking consists of relentless monitoring, threatening messages, or invasive contact that induces fear and limits freedom of movement.
• Stalkerware is software secretly installed on someone’s device to monitor their location, browsing, and messages, or even trigger microphones or cameras.

To better understand these risks:

• Learn about stalkerware, how it works, and how to remove it here: Bitdefender’s guide on stalkerware
• Learn what cyberstalking is, what it looks like, and how to protect yourself here: Bitdefender’s overview of cyberstalking

How to Stay Safe Online

Security awareness isn’t about fear – it’s about control. Here’s how to take it back.

Focus on strengthening your accounts’ security

• Use strong, unique passwords
• Enable two-factor authentication (2FA)  or multi-factor authentication everywhere possible
• Avoid reusing passwords
• Consider a password manager

These steps block the easiest entry points for attackers.

Protect Your Phone First

Your phone is one of the most targeted entry points for scams:

• Enable app and OS updates
• Only install apps from official app stores
• Turn on built-in privacy protections

And use a reputable security solution like Bitdefender Mobile Security, which offers:

• Anti-phishing and scam link detection
• Call blocking that can flag or block known scam numbers
• Real-time malware detection
• Safe browsing protection
• Scam detection features

Scan Before You Respond

Before you reply to any suspicious message:

Paste the text of the message into Bitdefender Scamio — our free AI-powered scam detection tool — to analyze for common fraud patterns. If a message includes a link, paste it into Bitdefender Link Checker to see whether it’s safe before you ever click it.

Verify Unknown Phone Numbers

Caller ID can be spoofed. Never assume a number is legitimate just because it looks familiar.

Instead, use a free Reverse Phone Lookup service before returning suspicious calls. This can show whether a number has a history of being used in scams.

 Talk With People You Care About

Women across generations, especially older family members, are often targeted because trust is assumed and emotional urgency is exploited.

Talk openly with sisters, mothers, daughters and grandmothers about:

• The importance of limiting the sharing of personal information
• Not acting under pressure
• Not transferring money without verification

 Recognize the Red Flags

No legitimate organization will:

•  Threaten urgent legal action via phone or text
• Demand payment via gift cards, crypto, wire transfer, or even gold
• Ask you to verify personal details through unsolicited links
• Intimidate you into acting without time to think

 Limit What You Share Online

The more open your profile, the more attackers can personalize scams against you:

• Avoid posting travel plans publicly
• Limit geo-tagged photos
• Lock down privacy settings
• Be cautious about posting children’s names or routine schedules