Women accuse Hinge, Tinder of setting them up with a serial predator

DENVER (CN) — The last thing Alexa remembers is telling him she didn’t like games. She just wanted to talk. Alexa grew dizzy and tripped on the stairs, while he insisted he had a great game for them to play.

“He was adamant on trying to get me to play a game,” Alexa told Courthouse News.

When she awoke in her own bed, covered in vomit, her leggings were shredded open. And she had no idea how she got there.

Six months later, the Denver District Attorney’s Office called Alexa to ask if she was the girl in photos and videos found on the man’s phone. She learned there were others from Hinge and Tinder whom he drugged and goaded into playing Jenga. He asked them to sign the wooden game pieces — some of the victims remembered finding it odd to see so many names written on the game tower.

But Alexa doesn’t remember playing Jenga. If she did, she wouldn’t trust her memory of it. It’s not just her own recollection she no longer trusts. The fun-loving Pilates instructor no longer trusts dating apps or people she meets for the first time.

In October, a Denver judge sentenced the man who hunted Alexa, Stephen Matthews, to 158 years in prison after a jury convicted him of 35 counts related to drugging and raping 11 women from 2019 to 2023.

On Tuesday, Alexa joined five of Matthews’ victims in suing Match Group, the owner of dating apps Hinge and Tinder, claiming the platforms connected the women with a serial rapist long after he had been reported for the attacks, enabling him to continue his exploits until he was finally put behind bars.

“He was the most prolific serial rapist that I’ve ever heard of, and his actions were really only made possible because of Hinge and Tinder,” said Carrie Goldberg, a New York attorney representing the six women.

Over the last decade, matchmaking apps have not only reinvented dating, Goldberg said, they have also reinvented rape.

“He was using the dating platforms as a catalog,” Goldberg said. “The dating platforms presented potential rape victims to him, and he would just choose if he wanted a redhead, a blonde or a brunette that day.”

Despite the platforms putting in abuse reporting systems, the plaintiffs say the companies failed to filter out known serial predators.

According to the women in the 54-page lawsuit, users began reporting Matthews’ crimes in September 2020. Instead of banning him from the app, they say, Hinge rerecommended him as a potential match to the woman who reported him a few months later.

As the Hinge Trust & Safety team assured users it took these reports seriously, Matthews continued using Hinge and Tinder with the same name and photos for three more years, according to the women. They note he only stopped using Match’s dating platforms in October 2023 when he was arrested.

In recent years, Goldberg represented families against tech giants Amazon, Meta and Google for selling addictive products and literal poison. Arguing that tech companies do not self-regulate and current laws fail to protect users, Goldberg sees litigation as the only way to change the tide.

“They want to grow at the cost of safety,” Goldberg said. “They are disincentivized from ever excluding or banning a reported malicious user. They need to be threatened with financial consequences.”

The lawsuit includes a wish list of safety protocols, including warning users that the platform is unable to ban even known rapists — instead of promising protection — and preventing banned users from opening new accounts with the same phone number and IP address.

According to the women in their complaint, the platforms also made it impossible to report a user for assault after the pair had been unmatched, requiring victims to rematch with their abuser before reporting them.

A spokesperson for Match told Courthouse News over email that the company values safety.

“We are committed to strengthening our safety efforts, building innovative new technology, and working closely with industry partners to help protect our users,” the spokesperson wrote. “We will always look for ways to improve our systems and help our community stay safe both online and when they connect in real life.”

Citing defective design under the state product liability statute against Hinge and Tinder, as well as violations of the Colorado Consumer Protection Act and 11 other claims, the plaintiffs ask the court to grant economic and compensatory damages for emotional pain and suffering.

Above all, Alexa said she wants to make sure what happened to her doesn’t happen to others.

“His profile looked like an average, nice Denver man,” Alexa said. “He had a good job. He was a doctor. He had a dog.”

The Bernedoodle was named Rafiki — after the wise baboon in “The Lion King.” She thought he would be a good match. She thought she could trust the app.

“They should have listened to the first woman who reported him and taken him off,” Alexa said.

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