Christian Mingle Rapist Hacked, Stalked Me: Woman

Sean Banks, 38, was convicted of rape and other charges in June

The Del Mar man serving a 37-year prison sentence for raping two women he met online targeted others through hacking and stalking that made one alleged victim feel "endangered," she told NBC 7.

San Diego resident Victoria Kinney said met former Navy Lt. Sean Banks before his arrests, before his rape trial and before his sentencing.

To her, he was "Rylan," a man with similar morals, values and beliefs who she met through the online dating website ChristianMingle.com.

After messaging back and forth, Kinney told NBC 7 she felt something was off about Banks, so she stopped replying.

"And shortly after that, he called me, letting me know that he had found my phone number on the Internet and had my address and my family's address and my email accounts," she said.

He told her he was a hacking forensics specialist for the Navy, so he was able to pull up things a simple search on Google couldn’t find, Kinney said. But Banks claimed he told her this to keep her safe and protect her.

All too soon, she discovered this was the farthest thing from the truth.

As they continued to talk, Banks brought up things Kinney had only told one friend through text messages, making her suspect he was hacking into her phone.

Then, out of the blue, he called her and said he had been accused of rape. According to Kinney, he told her she could not talk to police because it would be obstruction of justice.

But Kinney did just the opposite, going to investigators with her suspicions that Banks hacked her phone.

“I felt like I wasn't safe. I would like wake up in the middle of the night and just have like hot flashes and shaking and just freak out, but not because it was more scary knowing that he knew everything about me, he knew my family,” said Kinney. “I felt like I endangered my family. Not knowing what he was capable of doing was the scariest."

Soon after, she got a text message from someone claiming to be police, asking her to click on a link for the investigation. The district attorney’s office told her the message was not from law enforcement.

They believe Banks asked someone to send it so if Kinney clicked on it, he could wipe evidence that they every communicated from her phone.

"So I wanted the police to know that in order to help the rape victims because I knew if he can erase evidence, if he can delete things, delete emails, texts, that may be why he was able to get away with it for so long,” she told NBC 7.

Kinney is telling her story now in hopes that other people will protect themselves from online vulnerability.

She learned from police not to click on unknown links that could open you to hacking, use protected Google Voice for calls and texts and download a virtual private network (VPN) app, which essentially encrypts your data.

Above all, trust your instincts.

"For women it's just very important to know that even if someone is claiming to be a Christian or on a Christian website — Christian Mingle says, ‘Find God's match for you.’ And nobody would think that God's match for you is a rapist hacker,” she said.

She believes some blame lies with Christian Mingle and other dating sites, for she said one of Bank’s rape victims tried to contact the website administrators after her encounter with him. However, Bank’s profile was not removed, and a month later, he met Kinney.

Kinney said the site should have a hotline for people to call if something bad happens or offer a way to verify users.

NBC 7's calls and emails to Christian Mingle’s legal department requesting comment have not been returned, but the website says experts manually review all profiles and use automated tools to identify questionable ones.

While she never met him in person, Kinney went to Bank’s trial, an experience she calls the worst in her life.

When prosecutors revealed the GPS and hacking equipment Banks allegedly used to stalk women, Kinney said she started shaking and threw up.

But now, she said she’s happy it happened.

"I think that it made me smarter and it made me keep myself safer and keep my family safer so I'm glad that it happened,” said Kinney. “I don't want him to feel like he won or that he hurt me because he didn't. He made us all smarter."

Contact Us