In May this year, two Sydney men received sentences of more than six years for using dating app Grindr to rob five men in 2023. Andrew James Tanswell, 41, was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison, with a non-parole period of five years. George Phoenix Leilua, 37, was sentenced to six years and two months in prison, with a non-parole period of four years.
NSW District Court Judge Andrew Colefax found that the two men had created Grindr accounts used to arrange meetings with men under false pretences.
The men worked in tandem to enter the victim’s home, then enabling their accomplice to enter the home where both would threaten the victim, rob him, and demand his banking passwords to steal between $2,000 and $15,000 respectively.
Grindr has shown in-app alerts warning users about attacks in the past few months. This hasn’t prevented scams, both sophisticated and less so, from targeting users to lucrative ends for the criminals.
Earlier in May, the ABC reported that 35 people had been arrested in Victoria for similar crimes. Dating apps were being exploited to create false profiles to rob gay men, more than doubling the number of reported crimes on the year before. But, it is likely to be significantly more of a problem when unreported cases are accounted for.
Barker Evans Managing Director, Nicole Evans is also a member of the NSW Chapter of Pride in Law. She tells LSJ Online “there are several complex reasons why many victims of these Grindr-related attacks do not report their experiences to police.”
“First and foremost, stigma and fear of judgment play a significant role. Many gay men worry about being “outed” or having their sexual orientation scrutinised if they come forward, particularly in communities or workplaces where they may not feel fully safe or accepted,” she says.
“The social shame attached to being a victim of a crime connected to a dating app can make individuals reluctant to expose themselves to further victimisation, even through the legal process.
“Practical concerns also influence reporting. Victims may feel embarrassed about how they were deceived, believing they will be blamed for engaging with strangers online. There is also a level of shame attached to using some of these online platforms like Grindr with many in the gay community of the colloquial understanding that these sites are often used for ‘hook up’ sexual encounters rather than being genuine dating apps which also creates a culture where people are made to feel personally responsible for their own victimhood if they fall prey to predators on sites and apps like these.”
In September this year, five teenagers were sentenced in Perth Children’s Court to two years and two months in jail, for violent assaults on victims they lured using Grindr. Videos on the teenagers’ phones indicated that more attacks had occurred than were reported, leading police to uncover further cases from September 2024. The charges ultimately levelled at the teenagers, all under 17, included unlawful wounding, assault, and robbery.
Lats month in Victoria, 32-year-old Dong Qiao Li pleaded guilty to four charges of obtaining financial advantage by deception and one count of attempt to obtain financial advantage by deception for luring a Grindr user to a hotel, then taking photos of the victim’s bankcards while the victim was in the bathroom, later splurging on flights, hotel bookings, and a car service.
During proceedings, the court was advised of previous similar acts by Li (who also went by Tony, and Anthony, Lee) across Sydney and South Australia. He was convicted in NSW in September 2021 and had priors for dishonesty offending in South Australia; crimes which added up to $12,000 over 2014 to 2016.
The court was advised that there was a warrant out for Li’s arrest in NSW for offences alleged to have occurred between 2018 and January 2025.
When the court reconvened in September, enabling time for a chronology of Li’s prior offences to be presented to Magistrate Carolyn Burnside, Li was revealed to have a decade of prior offences totalling more than $120,000 in theft. On 5 September, he was sentenced to three months in prison.
Lack of regulation and responsibility a problem
Evans explains, “At present, Grindr is not under an express statutory obligation in Australia to verify the identity of its users. Unlike financial services or telecommunications providers, dating apps fall outside mandatory ‘know your customer’ requirements. While the Online Safety Act 2021 (Cth) imposes duties on online services to remove or minimise harmful content, it stops short of requiring platforms to verify users’ identities before allowing access.”
“Similarly, there are no specific provisions in the Criminal Code (Cth) or state-based criminal legislation that impose direct liability on apps like Grindr for crimes committed by third parties using their platform.”
She continues, “The question of whether Grindr should face a legal obligation is ultimately one of policy balance. On one hand, mandatory verification could deter predators and create a safer environment, aligning with the principles of the Online Safety Act and the broader community expectation that platforms take reasonable steps to prevent foreseeable harm. On the other, lawmakers must weigh concerns about privacy, data security, and the right to anonymous participation in online spaces, particularly for LGBTQIA+ users who may not feel safe disclosing their identities. That said, the legal landscape is shifting.”
Dating Code a fail?
In October last year, the Federal Government announced an Australian Online Dating Code. Apps, including Grindr, were given six months to implement new measures to protect users from hate and harassment. The strict enforcement, so-called, began from 1 April this year, with the eSafety Commissioner having powers to impose stricter measures if the code proved insufficient.
The dating apps that have signed up to participate in the code are Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, Grindr, eHarmony, OK Cupid, Plenty Of Fish, RSVP, MeetMe, Zoosk, Badoo (part of Bumble), Tagged, Skout and Growlr.
The Code Compliance Committee is tasked with responding to user reports relating to any of the signatories to the Online Dating Code not meeting their obligations. This would include where users “experienced a serious harm after connecting via a dating service, and believe the signatory didn’t provide support resources as required under Section 6.3 of the Code.”
The signatories are required to supply regular transparency reports detailing the number of Australian accounts terminated and content moderation processes.
Then Communications Minister and now Federal Attorney General Michelle Rowland told media that the code, as approved by the eSafety Commissioner, would offer online dating users a safer experience.
“Online dating is now the most common way to meet a partner in Australia, however the level of violence and abuse experienced by users of these platforms is deeply concerning,” Rowland said.
Evans says, “From a legal perspective in Australia, Grindr’s cooperation with law enforcement and LGBTQIA+ organisations through warnings and in-app alerts, while commendable, cannot be regarded as sufficient when viewed against the backdrop of a doubling in reported attacks. Under Australian law, particularly with the rise of technology-facilitated abuse, there is a growing expectation that platforms exercise a higher duty of care in protecting their users. Simply issuing safety warnings does not satisfy that obligation if perpetrators continue to exploit the platform unchecked.”
She continues, “Australian legislation, including the Online Safety Act 2021 (Cth), empowers the eSafety Commissioner to hold digital platforms accountable where harmful conduct is enabled or facilitated online. Grindr and other dating apps therefore face not only a moral duty, but a regulatory responsibility, to go beyond passive measures.”
What is lacking is not the law itself, but the mechanisms to ensure victims feel safe to report, Evans says.
“Grindr’s cooperation must extend to meaningful data sharing [with law enforcement], rapid response protocols, and collaboration with police taskforces focused on technology-facilitated violence. Without this, the gap between the number of actual victims and those willing to come forward will persist.”
In a statement to LSJ Online, Grindr said: “At Grindr, we take our role as a connector for the queer community seriously and work diligently to provide a safe environment for our users. To support our community, we regularly publish and update a Holistic Security Guide and user safety tips in-app through the Safety and Privacy Centre and on our website.
“In select cases, such as when we receive credible reports of risks in a specific geography, Grindr will amplify in-app safety messages from local partners. These appear as timely, pop-up alerts within the app, visible to people in affected areas.
“We strongly encourage users to report any suspicious behaviour and utilise our video calling feature to verify connections before meeting in person. In addition, we encourage users to report illegal behaviour within the app or to local authorities. Grindr responds to and cooperates with law enforcement to aid in their investigations of incidents.
Grindr is proud to have helped develop the Australian government’s Online Dating Code and serve as an inaugural member of its Oversight Body. We share the government’s commitment to online safety and remain committed to upholding our safety efforts to serve the needs of our community.”
Evans says that “without systemic prevention measures, responsibility unfairly shifts to victims to safeguard themselves in an environment designed to be social and safe.”
She adds, “Responsibility is not just on perpetrators, but also on digital platforms that create environments in which abuse can flourish. Warnings are a start, but under our evolving laws and regulatory standards, Grindr must move toward a proactive model of safeguarding, one that demonstrably prevents harm rather than reacting to it after the fact.”
She also notes that the issue of violence and exploitation within the LGBTQIA+ community “is still seen as a niche issue rather than a mainstream public safety concern.”
“In reality, this is not just a problem for the queer community, it is a question of equality before the law and the duty of governments to protect everyone. Until there is greater recognition of the scale of harm and the cultural barriers that silence victims, perpetrators will continue to exploit these platforms with relative impunity.”
