Your seemingly “discreet” exchanges on Grindr may soon require more personal information than your age, shape, and a tasteful selfie. A spokesperson for the app told The Verge this week that in order to combat a sharp rise in spambots, an update in the near future will require users to verify accounts by providing an email address and a password.
According to TV, users began noticing a new type of spambot exclusive to Grindr earlier this year. Usually taking the form of a handsome young headless torso, this particular spambot was well-versed in gymspeak, was constantly horny, and really wanted to let you know that he was getting undressed at that exact moment—hey, why not join him in a video chat?
After receiving “video chat” links from the headless torso of their dreams, some users followed suit and were redirected to sites asking for credit card information.
News flash: If someone you met 43 seconds ago on a hookup app sends you to a site like “MyGayCamCrush” and asks for your social security number, you should probably leave. Unfortunately, some people don’t understand how to detect and avoid spambots, so they get scammed and write poor reviews in Apple’s app store.
So congratulate those people the next time you see them, because they have ruined anonymous Grindr hookups for the rest of you. Though a future update requiring you to verify your email address would protect you from spambots looking to Skype with your bank account, it will probably also dump your email address into a Grindr newsletter or promotions folder, where you’ll eternally be locked into receiving inescapable spam mail from Grindr—the whole thing you were trying to avoid in the first place.
On the upside, Grindr admits that making this change will make them less popular and more competitive in the hookup app marketplace. Maybe now they’ll finally optimize their home screen for the iPhone 5, which came out more than a year ago…
Will you leave Grindr now that they’ll require your email address, or are you content chatting with the spambots everywhere else on your phone?
[Photo via Interview]
lab
big deal…create a special g mail or yahoo hookup account. people who give info to obvious scams deserve their fate
Dixie Rect
I don’t think the picture above would meet Grindr’s puritan standards. I didn’t think you were allowed to show your underwear or getting undressed.
JT Hawkins
That picture reminds me of the now defunct site “Douche Bags of Grindr.”
avesraggiana
The spam-bots I’ve been getting aren’t headless but they are more than 8000 miles away. And always “just leaving the gym”, and unrelentingly “horny”. Gay guy beware.
Motard
I’m only a little embarrassed to admit that when I encounter one of these, I’m just enough of a sucker to get hopeful and optimistic and feel good for about half-a-second, right until I notice the 8000+ mile range.
stfallon1028
I’d do anything to get rid of those headless torsos. They are the worst. So unfortunate what happened to these guys heads
Mofdgheb
That guy in the picture looks like River Viiperi, Paris Hilton’s Spanish bf.
jwrappaport
@stfallon1028: I won’t lie – a gentleman friend of mine back home is definitely a headless torso/bro par excellence, and I’m definitely glad things are as they are. Having said that, he had the misfortune of being born without a personality.
the other Greg
@stfallon1028: Maybe Robert Mugabe has been on Grindr and got ideas. See the nearby article about beheading homosexuals in Zimbabwe!
stfallon1028
@the other Greg: I saw it, and yes Mugabe has all the aspects of a closet grindr queen!!
Spike
What’s the big deal Queerty, have you not hear of throw away email accounts? Pretty standard stuff.