Women hiring private investigators to help uncover truth about men on dating apps

Women are turning to private investigators to help uncover whether the men they have met on dating apps are sexual deviants or con artists.

Women are hiring private investigators to find out whether men they have met on dating apps are con artists, domestic abusers or sexual deviants.

Paul Walshe of Asia Pacific Security Group said those looking for love were increasingly turning to his company’s services to weed out liars and creeps.

Mr Walshe, a former Victoria Police and National Crime Authority Detective, said most of the clients were women who had come in contact with men on apps like Tinder and Bumble.

There has been a succession of high-profile cases involving women who fell victim to men they met via dating apps, among them rapists and thieves.

Mr Walshe said prices for a digital intelligence report started at about $400, which more women are willing to pay for peace of mind about a potential partner.

“Sometimes there are things we see that are a red flag. When we come across something of concern online, we drill down into that,” he said.

Mr Walshe said an example was a check APSG recently did on behalf of a woman, which found a man she was considering was completely unsuitable.

“It turned out he had been done for fraud against several women,” he said.

Women are turning to private investigators to help uncover the truth about the men they have met on dating apps like Tinder.

Mr Walshe said some of women’s consciousness about the risk was generated by what they saw on television programs like Married At First Sight.

Internet searches and checks of a range of legally available databases were made and an investigator would interview clients about any conversations they had with the man or any other detail they could provide.

“Sometimes, it’s just having an investigative mind. Asking, `how does it sound now you’ve said it out loud?’. They’re genuine people in search of love. The prevalence of online dating apps has never been bigger,” Mr Walshe said.

Dating apps implement various levels of security, privacy and identity verification.

Often users are asked to provide photos snapped of themselves in real time that can be measured against their profile pictures in an attempt to detect online impostors, or “catfish”.

Hinge invited users to become ‘verified’, which means a tick of certification appears on their profile when it is displayed to others as confirmation they have not stolen someone else’s photos.

While all genders can initiate connections with potential suitors or “matches” on apps such as Hinge or Tinder, women are invited to start conversations on Bumble in a bid to provide them with more agency over which connections can send them messages.

Other platforms such as Feeld are designed for users to explore more explicit and openly sexual connections.

Rapist Glenn Hartland outside the County Court. Picture: Mark Stewart

Feeld prompts its users to generate their profile using an alias instead of their real name to afford them more freedom to explore sexual fantasies or kinks.

All apps are designed for people to form connections that grow offline and in the real world, or on other social media platforms.

With “hook-up culture” growing increasingly prevalent, it has become commonplace for men and women to at times bypass more traditional dates for sex at someone’s home, prompting women to share their live locations with loved ones or friends in the event the rendezvous turns sinister.

Women often share the profile pictures of their new suitors with friends, and even strangers, in social media groups to uncover potential red flags and past criminal or indecent behaviour from women who know the men pictured in the photos or who have dated them themselves.

The issue of rogue app-users has grown in prominence in recent years.

The notorious Grant Greentree, known as the Tinder Swindler, claimed a swathe of victims including women in Melbourne.

He would meet them online then tell elaborate stories of his wealth as a way to extract money from them.

In 2019, a man dubbed Melbourne’s ‘Tinder rapist’ faced court over a series of crimes he committed against women.

Glenn Hartland, then 44, attacked women after feeding them “lies and deceit”.

Scammer Christopher Collins. Picture: Supplied

The attacks occurred inside the women’s home’s throughout Melbourne’s eastern suburbs between May, 2014, and March, 2016.

Hartland seduced the women via Tinder and entered relationships with the women before forcing non-consensual sex or indecent assault.

Hartland pleaded guilty to three charges rape and one of indecent assault.

In one instance, Hartland screamed outside the woman’ home until she let him in.

Hartland, in another attack, pinned his victim against a wall of a cubicle and ripped off her underwear.

The court heard he used manipulation, including “grandiose romantic gestures” to charm women while also threatening suicide and engaging in wild mood swings.

Hartland, who was jailed over his offending. also disseminated private images described as revenge porn.

Desperate gambler Christopher Collings is another who swindled thousands of dollars off a Melbourne woman after connecting via Tinder.

And that was within hours.

His behaviour escalated into threats and blackmail to get what he wanted.

Collins stole more than $100,000 from three women he met online over the course of a year starting in 2020.

A court heard that the offending occurred Collins went on the swindling spree after completing a community work order for similar offending.

The 33-year-old spent 22 months in prison.