Quick Look promises to stop dating app creeps in their tracks

Meet the Queensland entrepreneur determined to make dating apps a safer place by ridding them of predators and scammers.

• How to prevent online abuse

A Gold Coast entrepreneur determined to protect women by ridding dating app of predators is “filling a gap” in Australian cyber safety that should be taken care of by the state and federal governments.

Intelligence investigator Casey Pyne founded “Quick Look” – a background and identification checking service for dating app users designed to catch scammers and violent or sexual abusers before they strike – after meeting hundreds of women exposed to online harassment, scams and abuse through her work.

“I’ve been in the industry for a very long time, I’ve see a lot,” Ms Payne said.

“People are falling for Taylor Swift ticket scams on Gumtree, men are targeting women on online dating apps to get access to their children, the reports of pedophilia are insane.

“At one point I thought, if I do this stuff everyday for high network individuals, government department, lawyers, why not do it to protect everyday people.

“Nothing exists like this, I’m the first person to be able to bring it out.”

Ms Payne is able to verify identities and certain background details of a person by using public databases to fact check names, photo ID, criminal history and other public sources like news articles, with domestic violence victims also able to submit court documents to Ms Pynes personal database system.

Her business is approved by the department of home affairs.

Casey Pyne is an open source investigator who has developed a searchable database that performs a background check/identity check on people on dating apps. Picture: Nigel Hallett

Liberal MP and Law Enforcement committee member Jason Wood said while he applauded the work of Ms Pyne, she was filling a gap which should be filled by state and federal governments.

Mr Wood said he wanted to see the creation of a national child sexual offenders register, as well as a national family and domestic violence register, which would require states and the Commonwealth to work together.

“You look at how many murders could be prevented if the lady knew their new partner‘s background,” Mr Wood said.

“If a lady does meet someone on Tinder, if she‘s going to catch up with them, then she could make an application to police to find out their details.”

He said there was a risk that using public data, a slight error in spelling a person‘s name or date of birth could give misleading results, which was why an official register should be created.

The NSW Government has a Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme which can be used to help people at risk of domestic violence find out if their current or former partner has a history of violent criminal offences.

Ms Payne said scams had become alarming sophisticated following the rise of artificial intelligence and Chat GPT and that Australia was now “at a tipping point”.

“There’s no better time to be a cyber criminal than now,” she said.
“Women are dying from dating app abuse, so where to you draw the line with privacy?

“I’m hoping to be one of the people to put up a barricade and tell people they can do something to help protect themselves.”

Liberal MP and Law Enforcement committee member Jason Wood. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

Australians have been scammed out of more than $367 million so far in 2023, with $221 million lost to fraudulent investment scams and $25 million to romance scams.

A recent Australian Institute of Criminology report found that 12.4 per cent of people using dating apps surveyed said they had received “at least one request for facilitated child sexual exploitation involving their own children or children they had access to”.

Last month, the Albanese Government announced it was required dating apps like Tinder, Bumble and Hinge to develop a voluntary code of practice to weed out predators and criminals, warning that if they did not it would take legislative action.

It wants the code to include commitments to improving engagement with the police, guaranteeing more support for at-risk users, improving safety policies and practices, and improving transparency about harms of using the apps.

But cyber security expert Mike Holm from the University of Queensland’s national cyber emergency response team AusCERT said government legislation would never keep up with online threats.

“Our government needs to be more creative with their messaging about cyber safety, to get it out there,” he said.

“It’s all about education because the attackers will go where the money is. It’s a massive organisation.

“They actually have a word (for victims), I’m not sure of the literal translation, but it’s something like ‘western suckers’.”

UQ’s computer emergency response team AusCERT’s operations manager Mike Holm.

Mr Holm said he admired Ms Payne’s initiative.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus’ spokesman said the Albanese Government was committed to lifting the standards on dating apps.

“Since the Government’s National Roundtable in January this year, we have been working constructively with app providers and have already seen a modest improvement in safety features on some apps, but more can be done,” he said.

He said an amendment to the Family Law Bill, currently before the Senate, would improve access to information from state and territory family violence and child protection systems during family law proceedings.

The spokesman said police already had access to a nationwide child sex offender register.

“The Albanese Government is committed to keeping children safe. We are listening to the experts on how best to do this,” he said.

“They know we’re gullible and that we’re good for the money. We need to be proactive.”

Ms Payne has entered into a women’s only Shark Tank-style competition Kickstarter in an attempt to win $30,000 for her Quick Look business.

Applications close on Sunday, 15 October at 6pm (AEDT) with finalists to face-off in front of a judging panel on November 29 at Parliament House in Canberra.