Wired has a scary story about DTLA star Matthew Herrick being targeted for harassment on Grindr.
LAST OCTOBER, MATTHEW Herrick was smoking a cigarette in front of his West Harlem brownstone when the first visitor appeared. As Herrick tells it, the man innocently pressed the buzzer for Herrick’s apartment. Then he asked matter-of-factly if Herrick was the one who’d been communicating with him via the hookup app Grindr, and who’d minutes earlier invited him over for sex. Herrick said that he hadn’t—he hadn’t even looked at the app in a week—and asked how the stranger even knew his name. That’s when the man pulled out his phone and showed Herrick a Grindr profile that included a photo of Herrick in his kitchen, taken from his Instagram account, including the 32-year-old actor and model’s face and bare chest. Herrick was unnerved. “That’s me, but that’s not me,” he remembers saying.
Herrick says three more men came to his home that first day, all expecting sex. The next day brought just as many, all of whom referred to the same spoofed account. Herrick reported the fake profile to Grindr, but the impersonations only multiplied. Soon there were eight or nine visitors a day, and then more than a dozen, all finding their way not just to Herrick’s home, but also to the midtown Manhattan restaurant where he worked. The unwanted suitors had gotten his phone number through the app as well, and bombarded him with messages, calls, and pictures of genitalia.
Herrick alleges that his ex-boyfriend is the one making these fake profiles using an Android device that can trick your GPS into being in a different location. This is scary stuff. I can’t even imagine being at work and having 24 guys show up asking for sex.
Back in November, Herrick posted a statement on Twitter after fake Grindr and Scruff accounts were making outrageous statements.
I’ve had a stalker and was harassed online years ago and it sucked. It wasn’t on a dating app and I knew the person who was harassing me which helped in getting a restraining order. It’s different when you have someone hiding behind a fake account and impersonating Herrick to seek revenge.
Matthew is a really good looking guy and I am sure that if I saw him on Scruff I’d totally woof at him. But, the harassment that he has been facing really, really sucks.
His Instagram is locked down but his Twitter feed has some delicious shots of him.
Have you ever been Catfished online? Let us know in the comments.
JockPop 