A man has demanded that Grindr drops its commitment to user anonymity after his partner took his own life whilst being targeted by suspected blackmailers on the app.
Cameron Tewson has written an open letter to George Arison, the American CEO of Grindr, asking him to end the gay hookup app’s policy of ‘minimal identity verification’ following the death of Scott Gough.
Mr Gough, 56, died on March 29 2024, the day after a gang of six men in their mid 20s aggressively knocked on the door of his home in Hertfordshire and left a threatening note on his doorstep.
Addressed to ‘the owner of the white Range Rover’ – Mr Gough worked for a Jaguar Land Rover dealership – it read: ‘I think it’s in your best interest to give me a call.’
His body was found by his partner the next day, hours after they had last seen each other, alongside a handwritten last will and testament. An inquest recorded his cause of death as asphyxiation, ruling it a suicide.
Mr Tewson, 32, believes his boyfriend had been trying to hide the fact he was using Grindr. His suspected blackmailers are thought to have posed as a fake user to get his attention before using the app’s geolocation features to track him down.
No-one was ever arrested despite suspects being identified and spoken to during a botched investigation by Hertfordshire Police.
Mr Tewson believes his partner’s death could have been prevented if Grindr bosses insisted on verifying profiles with ID – and has written to the firm to demand change today, marking the second anniversary of Mr Gough’s death.
Branding the app a ‘vector for organised activity’ that gives easy access to potential victims, he wrote: ‘Following contact initiated through Grindr, he was subjected to blackmail that escalated into real-world intimidation.
‘This letter is not written to apportion blame, but to seek accountability where harm was foreseeable, safeguards appear insufficient and the consequences have been irreparable.
‘There are clear learnings both Grindr, and police within the United Kingdom, could and should take forward… I am speaking because Scott cannot.’
Grindr is popular among the gay community because it can be anonymous, does not need users to ‘match’ like conventional dating apps, and works on location, meaning nearby users can find each other quickly.
But those behind the app – which made $95million last year – have consistently rebuffed calls to verify users, claiming it could potentially ‘out’ closeted users to their family and friends.
Mr Tewson says this does not absolve the app from doing more to protect its 900,000 monthly UK users.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, he said: ‘Grindr needs to be held accountable right now. There is no safety, there is no safeguarding.
‘You can add any photo on, you can [pretend to] be anybody you want to be, and this is an ongoing problem.
‘How are we safeguarding those using the app? Urgent action is needed to protect people.’
Grindr operates by displaying nearby users to an accuracy of 100m – but this has been exploited by criminals who, using fake profiles, have targeted nearby app users for theft, burglaries, sexual assaults and, in extreme cases, murder.
Stephen Port, known as ‘the Grindr Killer’, used it alongside other dating apps to find his young victims in 2014. Security guard Jack Crawley murdered one man and tried to kill another in 2023; he met both on Grindr.
Last year, gangs in London and the West Midlands were separately convicted and jailed after using the app to carry out dozens of robberies on innocent victims after arranging to come to their homes under the pretense of a hookup.
But not everyone is caught: a freedom of information response published by West Yorkshire Police last year showed that almost nine in 10 investigations involving Grindr between 2019 and 2024 were dropped due to difficulties identifying a suspect.
Grindr’s terms and conditions state it is ‘not responsible for activities or legal consequences’ that unfold from its use. Users are told that by using they app, ‘You hold Grindr harmless’.
Mr Tewson says this is not good enough from a firm of its size and status: it made $95million last year and has 14million users worldwide.
‘This is just another case, one of probably many others that are the same or in similar circumstances, preying on the vulnerable, on easy targets who think, there’s no way out,’ he said. ‘And in Scott’s case, he could see no way out.’
A review of Hertfordshire Constabulary’s investigation into Mr Gough’s death found multiple failings.
A group of suspects that were identified were spoken to as ‘individuals requiring safeguarding’ with ‘stern advice’, rather than being treated as alleged blackmailers.
No DNA evidence was gathered by police, and the phone number used by the gang was linked to at least two other cases of blackmail; a BBC investigation linked the gang to at least four cases of alleged Grindr-based extortion.
A subsequent professional standards probe concluded that the threshold for a charge of blackmail had been met and that this should have been taken further – but the direction of Hertfordshire’s investigation’s was ‘unclear’.
Despite Mr Tewson’s complaints, the probe did not find that the failings were motivated by homophobia.
Hertfordshire Constabulary said today it is ‘dedicated to delivering learning’ on ‘specific issues faced by… the LGBTQ+ community’, and reiterated the force’s ‘condolences and sympathy’ to Mr Tewson.
A spokesperson confirmed: ‘The reinvestigation… into Mr Tewson’s complaint found that a blackmail investigation should have been considered.’
Neighbouring Bedfordshire Police has been appointed to review the case. It may also then lead a subsequent reinvestigation – though much of the digital and physical evidence is now irretrievably lost.
Bedfordshire Police said it could not comment while the review is progressing.
Mr Tewson says he is petitioning Grindr because his partner’s death is not the only one linked to allegations of Grindr-based blackmail.
Nine weeks after Mr Gough died, fashion student Liam McHale was found dead just 16 miles away in High Wycombe.
The night before he died, he confided in friends on a night out that he was being blackmailed on Grindr by a user falsely claiming to be underage – and tried to report it to police, who encouraged him to wait until the next day as he had been drinking.
His body was found by a friend a day later; an inquest recorded and an open verdict, listing the cause of death as asphyxiation and multiple drug intoxication.
Thames Valley Police is continuing to investigate whether he was being blackmailed.
No link has been established between the two deaths – but Mr Tewson says Grindr needs to act before more lives are lost.
‘Grindr has a responsibility – this is not an isolated issue,’ he said.
‘I’ve got to keep going. It’s too much of a life-altering event to not keep going through with this. I’ve come too far to just drop it.
‘I was with Scott for too long to just let it go, and I think people need to be held to account.’
In a statement to the Daily Mail, a Grindr spokesperson said: ‘We are deeply saddened by Scott’s death and extend our sincere condolences to Cameron and everyone who loved him.
‘Grindr is carefully reviewing the letter.’
