She warned other women on TikTok about her ex-boyfriend. Then she received a cease-and-desist

New York (CNN Business)Months after Crystal learned that her boyfriend had been covertly dating at least two other people, she began warning women on TikTok to be cautious of dating him.

I wanted everyone ... to see this man's face. Beware of him, he is a manipulator, he is a gaslighter. He is a grifter, said Crystal, 38, in one video, in which she explained discovering the names of the other women on the various streaming services he was using. In another post, she said: He told all of us that he was not sleeping with anyone else. Mhmm. Multiple times.

Crystal, a hairdresser based in New York City, has posted about her ex, whom she met through Hinge, on TikTok more than a dozen times since late 2021. Her top post has garnered more than 2 million views and some others have received tens or hundreds of thousands of views.

She is one of many people leveraging online platforms to seek or share information about specific men and their questionable dating behaviors. The services they use range from public TikTok profiles to private Facebook and WhatsApp groups, some of which have tens of thousands of members. The goal: to warn and protect others who may encounter the men on dating apps.