'Is This Dating Now?': Woman Says Date Stole $1,200 of Perfumes From Her

In a now-viral post, a newly-divorced woman said she recently went on a date with a thief.

Posting in Reddit's "True Off My Chest" forum on Monday under the username u/TinderDuck, the woman wrote: "My Tinder date stole my expensive perfumes. He texted today to plan a second date." The post has received 9,800 upvotes and over 1,000 comments encouraging the woman to stop looking for love on Tinder. However, some research indicates that this may not be the best advice.

Finding Love Online

According to a 2019 survey conducted by The Knot, 22 percent of couples who meet online end up getting engaged, and Tinder, specifically, is responsible for "matching 30 percent of all engaged couples who met online."

Further, a 2017 study by researchers at the University of Essex in the U.K. and the University of Vienna in Austria suggests that married couples who meet online "have lower rates of marital breakup than those who meet traditionally," reported MIT Technology Review.

Speaking to The Knot about the potential correlation between online dating and lower divorce rates, Rachel DeAlto, Match's Chief Dating Expert, said, "[W]ith these apps, there's a lot of intentional people coming to them. They really want to have a relationship. And when you have that intention and know what you're looking for, you enter into a relationship in a different way and I think that makes a huge difference."

But while some people have found success with online dating, many others have run into trouble.

A 2019 survey conducted by Pew Research Center found that 42 percent of Americans have described their online dating experience as "somewhat negative." The survey also found that 35 percent of users reported being sent sexually-explicit messages "they didn't ask for," and 28 percent said they'd been called "offensive" names.

The man u/TinderDuck matched with was "nice and pleasant." Unfortunately, u/TinderDuck said he was also a thief.

'Is This Dating Now?'

In her post, u/TinderDuck said she went on several dates with the man before finally inviting him to her apartment.

"[H]e took a shower [and] he came back to bed and commented that I had so many perfumes and only expensive ones and we laughed about how smelly I must be to have all these perfumes," u/TinderDuck said.

Shortly after this conversation, the two went to bed and, the following day, u/TinderDuck noticed that three of her perfume bottles were missing.

"I was shocked. I looked everywhere and after about two hours I realized they were gone. I know he took them because I used one of them before he came [over]," she said, adding that the perfumes were worth $1,200.

On Monday, the man texted u/TinderDuck in the hopes of planning another date, but she told Reddit that she had no intention of seeing him again.

"Is this dating now? My new life?" she asked.

Redditors React

Many Redditors said u/TinderDuck's experience was rather common and encouraged her to stop looking for love on Tinder.

"Unfortunately it is the way things are when it comes to Tinder dating. It does get better you just have to be careful on there. It isn't the best place to find someone reliable," u/Lokeyday claimed.

"I can tell you it's not going to get better if Tinder is your dating pool," u/believe_dream_dare said.

u/ZombieKittenzz added: "Girlllll, [your] first mistake is dating off of Tinder. I learned that lesson the hard way after my seven-year marriage ended. Tinder is for hookups and nothing serious."

Newsweek has reached out to u/TinderDuck for comment.

Other Viral Stories

u/TinderDuck's post isn't the first dating horror story to go viral.

In April, a woman went viral on TikTok after sharing that a man called her a "fat b**ch" when she turned his unwanted advances.

And in a now-viral video posted in February, a woman said her Bumble match called her an "easy lay" and a "solid four."