Tinder has become the bread and butter of modern dating. If you’re single then 9 times out of 10 you’ll have a profile on the app. I’ve never used it personally, but from what I’ve seen it looks pretty simple: swipe until you finally get a match, proposition match sexually, show them your junk, get rejected. It’s pretty much just like the old-school forms of chirpsing; where sad and usually desperate wankers would approach the opposite sex in bars. Only now – and thanks to this ingenious app – you can suffer rejection from the comfort of your tear stained, spunk encrusted, bed sheets. Technology, eh? The mind boggles.

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I’m sure you’re familiar with Tinder anyway. You’re also probably familiar with one of the most golden rules of internet-based dating: under no circumstances give your E-Mate money. Especially not large sums of the stuff. Brandon Kiehm’s matches weren’t aware of this rule apparently, as evidenced by the fact they gave him a total of $26,000 (or £18,000) over the course of their relationships.

Kiehm – or Tristan Acocella, which was the name he used when chatting up the women – first matched with the two lucky ladies in the middle of last year. He told them he worked for Goldman Sachs, despite actually being a dog walker. He dated the first for a few months, before asking to borrow £9,800. He claimed he needed the money:

Because his sister was undergoing cancer treatment and because his wallet had been stolen.

His match obliged and handed the money over. Kiehm then moved onto his second victim, this time waiting only a couple of weeks before he asked for the cash. This time he claimed it was his mum that needed money for treatment. The unsuspecting Tinder user handed over £8,400.

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True to his word, Brandon/Tristan wrote the two women a cheque – the only catch being that they were drawn on closed accounts; so obviously both cheques bounced. Incredibly, they still thought he was genuine. Until a New York police officer visited Kiehm’s mum, who revealed that she had neither a daughter or a terminal disease.

The man has now been charged with five felony counts of grand larceny, identity theft and scheme to defraud.

If this creep isn’t enough to make you want to steer clear of Tinder for life, this recent research revealing the number of users with crabs definitely should be.