Three Malaysian men are facing charges after allegedly using dating app Grindr to rob and assault nine men in the southern city of Johor Bahru. The combined value of their robberies was RM315,220 (AUD 109,350) according to Free Malaysia Today.
Police arrested five men in relation to the string of assaults, but two of them will be exempt from prosecution after they agreed to give testimony against their alleged collaborators.
Police said the gang would use the app to target their victims, set up dates and then pick them up in a car. Once in a secluded space, another member of the gang would turn up and accuse them of partaking in indecent acts.
The victims would then be assaulted with mobile phones, jewelry and cash taken, and the robbers would force victims to give up their debit cards and the associated PIN, according to police.
Nine men aged between 25 and 40 reported the crime between January and May this year. Homosexual acts are illegal in Malaysia, so there some concerns that many more people may have been victims but not reported it to the police due to the legal risks.
