LGBT dating app users in Cork are being warned about reported ‘Catfishes‘, that are using Tinder and Grindr to lure victims into homophobic attacks.

Reported in the Irish Examiner today, there have been a number of alleged incidents in which LGBT people in Cork have been targeted by fake accounts on dating sites like Tinder and Grindr.

Members of Cork’s LGBT community have been warned to take precautions when meeting prospective dates from dating apps, as it has become a way in which homophobic attackers find their victims.

Facebook user Louise O’Donnell posted a status that she hoped to share with her fellow Cork citizens, in which she shared an account of her friend who was targeted by a group of such men.

“When he got there four or five men hopped out of a van. Thankfully he managed to get away,” she told the Irish Examiner.

James Upton, auditor of UCC’s LGBT society, said that he was aware of a rise in attacks against LGBT people recently. He said he believes it is a backlash against the LGBT community as the upcoming Marriage Equality referendum approaches.

“We can’t tell our members not to go on these sites, but we would issue a word of caution about meeting people from them, that they could be catfished,” he warned.

In 2014, a similar attack on a gay man took place in Dublin, in which the user was ambushed by a group of men in Temple Bar after arranging a date online.