PHOENIX — A swipe on a dating app quickly landed Helen Simmons behind bars.
She was 18 when she moved to Phoenix in summer 2022. Within a day or two, she said she met 22-year-old Matthew Jones on the dating app, Tinder.
“It was all manipulation,” said Simmons, reflecting back from the Estrella Jail in Phoenix. “There was no there was no relationship.”
The I-Team spoke with Simmons from jail in the summer of 2023 for about four hours over the course of several days. She told us and the investigators that she willingly went with Matthew Jones to his apartment at first. But then, she said Jones wouldn’t let her go.
In the two weeks that followed, she said Jones abused her and threatened her if she didn’t do what he said. Then she said he forced her into a violent jewelry store robbery. They were both arrested and later sent to prison in the robbery case, despite Simmons' allegations of abuse.
“Which made him have enough control over me to make me do something like that,” she said.
The I-Team learned that Jones has a history of hurting women, with prior convictions in California and Arizona.
In fact, Jones had just gotten out of prison about two weeks before Simmons said they met. Records show that the conviction was for unlawful imprisonment and aggravated assault involving another woman he met online.
Tinder’s terms of use state that felons are prohibited from creating accounts, but that the company doesn’t do any criminal background checks and that Tinder is not responsible for the conduct of any member on or off the service. The same terms are true for many popular dating apps, according to a review by the I-Team.
Earlier this year, a rep for Tinder said they didn’t have a record of Matthew Jones or Helen Simmons. The rep did not answer any of our other questions, including how they keep felons from signing up.
Challenges with background checks
Millions of people around the world are looking for love online, but not everyone finds a fairytale ending. Some research suggests that nearly a third of people who meet in person from a dating app encounter some form of violence.
“It's definitely easy for bad actors to access dating apps,” said Kathryn Kosmides. “You know, usually it's just a first name and a phone number or an email address to create an account with no sort of security, safety screening, identity verification prior to that.”
Kosmides is the CEO of Garbo, a company that used to partner with Tinder to help users with background checks.
“We definitely have seen individuals using dating apps as a way to find victims in a much easier fashion,” she added.
Certainly, this isn’t everyone’s experience on dating apps, but there is limited public data tracking violent outcomes.
In 2022, researchers with the Australian Institute of Criminology found that nearly a third of people they surveyed reported violence at an in-person meeting after matching online.
ProPublica published a similar data point in 2019, finding that 31% of women surveyed “reported being sexually assaulted or raped by someone they had met through an online dating site…”
Kosmides said she ultimately ended the partnership with Tinder and stopped Garbo’s background check service, in part due to challenges with the app platforms, but also with background checks in general.
Access to public records varies state by state, county by county. Some places redact important information. Others have records that aren’t digitized. And they may cost you.
“Here in New York, where I live, it can be $95 to run a single background check on someone,” Kosmides said. “And that's $95 before I ever go on a first date or a first meeting with someone. And so it's really expensive data.”
A rep for Match Group, Tinder’s parent company, said in part, that Tinder has a new partner to help with background checks in the U.S. called BrightCheck and that Match Group uses other technology to help flag profiles with harmful images and language.
The bottom line? Even if someone comes up clean, there’s no guarantee of safety.
“Just because someone doesn't have a record doesn't mean they're safe,” Kosmides said.
This is why Garbo, dating apps, and other services lay out best practices – like having your own transportation, not sharing personal information, recognizing your boundaries and taking things at your own pace.
“Dating apps are very common,” Simmons stated. “And I'm not saying they're a bad thing.”
Matthew Jones is not facing charges on any of Simmons' allegations and told investigators that everything was consensual.
She’s still processing what she went through, a hard new perspective from prison.
“They can pretend to be somebody or not,” Simmons said. “And that's what happened with me. So, I hope that people can just be more careful. Men and women, you know? It can happen to anybody.”
The 12News I-Team chronicled Simmons’ story in a docuseries called "He Made Me Do It." You can watch all episodes here.
The I-Team is still investigating violence and dating apps.
If you have an experience to share, you can fill out our Dating App Safety Survey. You can fill it out anonymously, with an option to leave contact information if you want us to follow up.
SURVEY LINK: https://forms.gle/D9MCMYuKAHC8KviR6
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