Caught in the Tinder trap
How rapists, blackmailers and thieves target victims on UK’s most popular dating app – with no checks to stop them
WITH more than seven million users in Britain and tens of millions more across the world, Tinder has become the go-to place for a generation of digitally-savvy singletons looking for love. But those using Tinder and other popular dating apps are being left at shocking risk of being preyed upon by murderers, sex offenders, fraudsters and paedophiles.
An investigation by The Mail on Sunday has discovered how online dating sites are:
Used as a hunting ground by convicted rapists and sex attackers to target more women;
Exploited by criminals who create fake profiles and rob those they trick into dates;
Targeted by fraudsters and scammers who extort money from innocent victims;
Infiltrated by paedophiles who use a lack of age verification checks to target children as young as eight;
Pocketing vast profits, yet have failed to introduce safety features in Britain that they agreed to in America.
Launched in 2012, Tinder allows users to like or dislike other users by swiping either right or left on their profiles. Those who like each other can then chat and, if they wish, agree to meet.
Around 1.6billion swipes are made globally on the app each day and Match Group, which owns Tinder and a string of other dating sites including Plenty Of Fish and OK Cupid, last year announced annual profits of £1.3billion.
But victims’ groups are increasingly concerned that Match is failing to adequately protect its millions of users in the UK.
Tinder’s terms and conditions reveal it does not conduct routine criminal records checks, adding: ‘You are solely responsible for your interactions with other users.’
Meanwhile, Match Group’s apps do not require any proof that those signing up are providing their real name, date of birth, profile photograph and gender.
This absence of checks will be particularly distressing for the fiance of a woman who says she was attacked by double rapist Brian Davey. Davey set up a Tinder profile in which he described himself as ‘easy going’ and ‘looking for the same’. Unsuspecting women had no idea that the 27-year-old from Bangor, Northern Ireland, had been jailed in 2013 for raping a student. He was sent back to prison in 2016 after being accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl while out on licence.
‘He’s a convicted rapist. Now he’s on dating apps potentially meeting victims who have no idea who he is,’ said the man, whose fiancee claims she was raped by Davey, although he was not prosecuted. ‘The guy’s a predator. He’s going to do it again. It’s only a matter of time.’
Another serial sex offender, Patrick Nevin, 37, used Tinder to target victims, despite having been convicted of rape and aggravated rape in Denmark. He was able to register on Tinder despite his conviction and went on to sexually assault and rape three women he met on the app.
Police believe Nevin could have raped up to a dozen other women, and his trial last year heard how he boasted of having had ‘thousands of matches’ on Tinder and meeting up with ‘hundreds of women’.
Another shocking case involved Duarte Xavier, who masqueraded as a woman to trick four straight men into having sex with him.
Last summer, Mandy Ginsberg, chief executive of Match, announced in a blaze of publicity that her intention ‘as a mother of two daughters’ was to ‘do what I can so that future generations don’t have to live in fear of sexual assault’.
She unveiled the firm’s #MeTooinspired sexual advisory board to protect women, along with checks of American users of its sites against the US sex offenders’ register.
However, Match said last night it has no plans to create a similar sexual advisory board in the UK, nor a system for screening British users. Unlike America, the British sex offenders’ register is not publicly available. According to the National Crime Agency, reports of sexual offences in Britain related to dating apps have risen from 33 in 2009 to 184 in 2014 – the latest available figures.
Anne Coffey, the Labour MP for Stockport, who has campaigned for greater protections on dating apps, said: ‘I don’t see why the standards of safety should be any different for British women than American women.’
Katie Russell, from the charity Rape Crisis, added: ‘Surely such a powerful dating company could liaise with the British Government for access to be given to the sex offenders’ register privately?’ But
rape is not the only crime to which users of dating apps have fallen victim.
Earlier this year, it emerged that British backpacker Grace Millane, 22, who was found dead in New Zealand, allegedly met the 26-year-old man accused of her murder on Tinder. Another shocking case involved student Molly McLaren, 23, who was murdered in 2017 by her ex-boyfriend Joshua Stimpson, 26, who she had met via Tinder. Stimpson, who had a history of stalking women, followed Molly before carrying out a frenzied knife attack in which he stabbed her 75 times after she got into her car at a shopping centre in Kent.
Meanwhile, children’s charities are worried by the rise in the number of young people being groomed and sexually abused by people they meet on dating apps.
Children and teenagers are easily able to bypass the apps’ minimum age requirement of 18 and set up profiles by simply lying about their age.
Figures from police forces across the UK reveal that detectives have investigated 30 incidents of child rape related to dating websites since 2015 and 60 further cases of crimes against children, including grooming, kidnapping and violent sexual assault. The youngest victim was aged just eight.
One youngster, Ruby, who contacted the children’s charity Barnardo’s for help, described how she began using dating apps in her early teens and was soon sending explicit pictures of herself to adults she met online. She was 14 when she met one of the men from the app and had sex with him.
‘We met again in a local park a few weeks later. He tried to pull my jeans down. I said “No” but he kept undressing me,’ she said.
‘That’s when I realised that I was in danger and started to panic and cry. He let go and left. I was scared but it didn’t stop me from meeting people from the internet.’
Another predator, Gary Dickinson, was sent back to prison after being caught using Tinder and Plenty Of Fish in 2017 to target children. He was given a 16-month prison term for breaching a sexual harm prevention order imposed in 2013 after he was given six years in jail for raping a 13-yearold girl he had met online. An NSPCC spokesman said: ‘Dating apps require their users to be 18 years and over but it’s easy for children to download and use them. These sites don’t enforce their rules adequately and we are undertaking research to better understand the risks and what enhanced protections are needed.’
Action Fraud, the police helpline for victims of scams, reported last week that more than 4,500 British users were duped out of a total of £50million last year by fraudsters they had met through online dating.
The news came as an oil industry consultant who handed over £180,000 to a girlfriend he met on Tinder won a court order forcing her to pay back the money. Businessman Marcel Kooter, 57, said he was ‘blinded by attraction’ when he agreed to transfer £182,000 to Manuela Radeva, believing she was an investment banker at Citibank.
Another conman, Jonathan Frame, 32, from Swinton, Greater Manchester, was jailed for 18 months in 2017 for using Tinder to swindle ‘lonely women’ out of thousands of pounds.
Police are also alarmed by the rise in ‘sextortion’, in which users are tricked into sending nude pictures to people who then blackmail them. The number of reported cases rose from 55 in 2013 to 412 in 2015, but police believe it is the tip of the iceberg.
Surrey Police also warned users to be aware after a man was robbed by another man he had met through an app.
Match Group said: ‘We take the safety, security and well-being of our users very seriously. We spend millions of dollars annually to prevent, monitor and remove people who engage in inappropriate behaviour.
‘We also work with law enforcement officials during an investigation. We will reach out to UK-based experts on issues of sexual assault to identify an additional member of our advisory council who can bring a UK perspective to our discussions.’