- Police in Oregon are searching for an attempted murder suspect accused of tying up and beating a woman.
- The suspect may be using dating apps to find potential victims or people who may help with his escape, police said.
- A victim's rights lawyer told Insider that companies should do more to keep their apps safe.
Police in Oregon have launched a manhunt for an attempted murder suspect they say is using dating apps to target "unsuspecting individuals."
Major dating sites say they haven't found anyone matching the suspect's name and are monitoring for him, but a victim's rights lawyer told Insider on Tuesday that companies "should be held liable" now that they've been put "on notice of this violent user."
"The onus should be on the online companies — and not on the public — to keep their apps safe," Carrie Goldberg, a New York-based attorney specializing in sex crimes, told Insider.
Oregon's Grants Pass Police Department said that 36-year-old suspect Benjamin Obadiah Foster is using dating apps to find additional potential victims or people "who may be lured into assisting with the suspect's escape."
Authorities started searching for Foster after they discovered a woman "bound and severely beaten into unconsciousness" at a home in Grants Pass, Oregon, on January 17. The woman was hospitalized in critical condition.
The suspect — who authorities say fled the scene before officers arrived — is wanted by police on charges of kidnapping, attempted murder, and assault.
Authorities are offering a $2,500 reward for anyone who has information leading to Foster's arrest and prosecution. Police have described the man as "extremely dangerous."
In revealing that the suspect has been using dating apps, the Grants Pass Police Department said it wants "the community to be extra safe while this predator is still at large" and noted that anyone who may be assisting Foster with his escape "will face potential prosecution."
A spokesperson for Match Group, which owns a series of dating apps including Tinder, Match.com, Hinge, OKCupid, and Plenty of Fish, told Insider that it has not found a person with the suspect's name on its platforms.
Additionally, a spokesperson for the dating app Bumble told Insider that its team "has been working around the clock to identify any members based on the information that is available to us at this time."
"As of now, we have not located any members with the name Benjamin Obadiah Foster on Bumble App," the spokesperson added.
Goldberg said all dating apps "should be on notice that this violent and dangerous user is a potential customer who may be using their product as a hunting ground."
If the apps claim that "their product is too big to moderate users or is immune from liability, that's not an excuse and should be challenged in court," according to Goldberg.
People have tried suing dating apps over real-life violence, Goldberg said. In 2016, for example, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit determined that a woman who said she had been stalked and attacked by an individual she met on a dating app should be able to sue Match.
But the claim was dismissed in 2017 when a district court judge found that Match doesn't have an obligation to "control the dangerous conduct of another or to warn others of the dangerous conduct, except where a special relationship exists and the harm is created by foreseeable conduct."
It's unclear whether Match Group or Bumble have warned users about the Oregon suspect, and neither company answered if they had notified users when asked by Insider.
Police say Foster might try to change his appearance
Meanwhile, police said last week that authorities, including federal agents and an Oregon State Police SWAT team, raided a home in Oregon's Josephine County where they seized Foster's 2008 Nissan Sentra.
During the search, investigators arrested a 68-year-old woman for hindering prosecution, police said.
"Following a lengthy manhunt, Foster evaded capture and likely received assistance in fleeing the area," said the Grants Pass Police Department.
The department warned the public over the weekend that Foster "may attempt to change his appearance by shaving his beard and hair or by changing his hair color" as it urged the public to pay close attention to Foster's "facial structure and eyes since those features are very difficult to change."
Tips about sightings of Foster have inundated the department and police say they are "confident this dangerous criminal will soon be captured with the assistance of a concerned citizen."
Grants Pass Police Department Chief Warren Hensman told CNN on Monday that Foster had a "prior relationship" with the victim he is accused of torturing.
"This was not a random attack," Hensman told the news outlet, adding, "I've seen a lot in my career, but some things do stick with you, and this will stay stained in my memory for many years to come."
According to CNN, court records in Clark County, Nevada, show that Foster was accused of attacking women who he had relationships with in two previous different cases.
A spokesman for the Nevada Department of Corrections told Insider that Foster in the first case had been sentenced to 12 to 30 months for battery with substantial bodily harm and was brought to an intake facility in the prison system on October 18, 2021.
Foster was released on the same day "due to the pre-sentence jail credits," according to the spokesman.
In the second case, he was charged with felony assault, battery, and kidnapping in 2019, CNN reported. Foster took a plea deal for both, according to CNN.
Staying safe on dating apps
Security on dating apps is tricky, cybersecurity expert George Grispos told Insider. He said the law could provide added protection on dating apps. Legislators, for example, could make it a law that dating apps must require all users to verify their identity by providing an official document.
Requiring verification of identity is not challenging to implement on dating apps, said information technology expert Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo. But dating apps might be averse to the idea because there are practical implications to consider, such as whether a user would be willing to upload a copy of their ID.
Dating apps might also wonder whether doing so could bring up privacy issues, such as what happens in the event of a security breach, Choo said. If a dating app with ID information is compromised or breached, there might be reputational consequences.
Individual dating app users should be cautious when interacting with strangers online, Grispos said. Institutions can help by educating young students and women on cybersecurity and how to stay safe online.
It's also about common sense.
"I think people need to make sure they meet new dates in open and public spaces — let friends and family know," he said.
Watch:
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