justjasper:Warning over homophobic ‘catfish’ attacks in IrelandMembers of Cork’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisex
justjasper:Warning over homophobic ‘catfish’ attacks in IrelandMembers of Cork’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual (LGBT) community have been warned to take safety precautions when meeting online dates after reports of orchestrated attacks by assailants using websites and dating apps to attract their victims.A Facebook warning about the attacks has been widely shared on the social media network. The post’s author, Louise O’Donnell, said that a friend had been attacked by a group of men having arranged a date through a website.Last night, Ms O’Donnell said her post was prompted by a friend who was confronted by a group of men when he arrived at a Cork city centre location for a date recently.The practice of creating fake online identities for deceptive purposes is known as “catfishing”.“When he got there four or five men hopped out of a van. Thankfully he managed to get away,” she said.Ms O’Donnell said that someone who read the Facebook warning had since been in touch to tell her of a similar incident, also in Cork.James Upton, auditor of UCC’s LGBT society, said that he was aware of a rise in physical and verbal homophobic attacks against the group’s members in the past six months.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.A garda spokesperson urged any victims of assault to report the matter to gardaí. -- source link