Tim den Besten causes astonishment in Hilversum: is he actually the Dotan of Grindr? Did he indeed make victims with his troll army? “The timeline is certainly suspect.”
It seems that Tim den Besten has led a kind of troll army on the world’s most famous gay dating app. As the Dotan of Grindr, he has made life difficult for at least three Dutch men with all kinds of fake accounts, according to Het Parool. These men have reported the matter to the police and they are now investigating.
Trolls-Tim
According to the three men, Tim stole their identities in order to have hours-long, late-night conversations with other users of the dating app. These gentlemen suffer extremely from this in daily life, because Tim allegedly trumpeted on the app that they, for example, participate in orgies and gangbangs. Two are now in therapy.
One of the victims works in the media and strongly feels that he is now missing out on jobs because he has suffered a very damaged image due to Tim’s alleged actions. In addition to this aspect, troll Tim is also said to have stolen nude photos from other unsuspecting users of the app with these fake accounts.
Suspicious timeline
Het Parool has been investigating this for months, but the news came out last week by Yvonne Coldeweijer. She reported that Tim abruptly stopped working on October 10 after being informed that an article was forthcoming. Nonsense, his team shouted; he is said to have stopped because he suffers from a rare form of cancer.
And there is something strange going on here: is it a coincidence that Het Parool informed him about their investigation the day before, on October 9? According to Rob Goossens, expert from RTL Boulevard, not. “One date that is quite important and relevant is still missing from the Het Parool article, namely the date of diagnosis.”
Diagnosis date
When did Tim find out he has cancer? “That was not before, but after,” says Rob. “That was October 13th. So he had a terrible week – opinions do not differ on that – but he did not know he had cancer when he called in sick.”
And that makes reporting sick suspicious, Rob thinks. Almost a kind of admission of guilt. “Then the question naturally arises: did he call in sick because he was ill or because he already had complaints and this was also added? It leans a bit towards the latter.”
Yvonne critical
Yvonne Coldeweijer, who first broke the news, is sure. According to her, it is not without reason that Het Parool explicitly mentions the date on which they called Tim, October 9, and the date on which he stopped working: October 10. “Then VPRO announced to the world that Tim no longer came to work because he was seriously ill.”
She continues: “BIZZAR! Tim is under fire and therefore claims that he is seriously ill?! Lies! Tim didn’t come anymore because Het Parool called him. Tim has known for some time that he is ill and has used this to arouse pity and distract us from the criminal offenses he has committed. Disgusting, but true.”
Brave
There is criticism here and there about the timing of the Parool article, but Yvonne supports the newspaper. “The journalists from Het Parool (…) know that they called the ninth and that a very dirty game was played. They have not allowed themselves to be manipulated and I think that is brave. The victims whose lives were ruined for 1.5 years deserve this article. 💪”
She concludes: “But EVERYONE went along with the VPRO and Tim’s story. There were hundreds of comments, tweets and even a few columns written by a bunch of sheep about ‘how far I had gone’. (…) And where is your big mouth now? The TRUTH always comes out. And using your illness because it suits you better, that is really lower than low.”