AdultFriendFinder red flags — how to avoid AFF scams

Depending on who you ask, AdultFriendFinder is either the Wild West of hookup sites, an “anything goes” paradise for adult entertainment, or a complete scam filled with bots, fake profiles, and inactive accounts.

After months of personal testing, I can confidently say that which AFF you experience ultimately depends on how you use the site. If you approach it unconsciously, without a strategy, you will likely have a frustrating experience. On the other hand, if you use a modicum of caution and common sense, you’ll find a great, fun, and friendly community.

Here are three red flags to look out for as you use AFF, to help you spot potential scammers and separate real users from fake profiles.

Unverified accounts

AdultFriendFinder already offers a good first step in the fight against fake profiles they call ConfirmID. Once you’ve created an account, you can, at any time, upload a clear scan of a government-issued ID card and, using a webcam, do a quick face check to verify that you’re really the person named on the government document.

This step strikes the perfect balance between not being difficult enough to annoy the average user but still requiring enough effort to deter cheaters, who are notorious for going after the low-hanging fruit.

Once you have completed the ConfirmID sequence, you will be awarded a confirmation badge on your profile, and we strongly recommend that you limit your face-to-face interactions on the site to other verified users.

Perfect profile pictures

Okay, admittedly this one requires personal judgment, as everyone should strive to upload good, quality photos of themselves to dating websites. But if all the pictures look like they are in a magazine, or if the person in the picture looks too good to be true, you should be careful.

In the generation of AI and filters, it is a little easier to fake a photo or a series of photos, so you should also look for what. this is not the case in the pictures. Are there local landmarks (clubs, restaurants, famous parks, or street corners) in the photos, or are they all the same?

Overzealous discussions

Ever since chat bots became a thing, dating sites have been plagued by them, and with AI getting more advanced, it’s not always easy to know, right away, if the “person” you’re talking to is actually human. Another dead giveaway, however, is how much they talk and how quickly they respond.

Real people go off on tangents, employ non-sequiturs, and sometimes stumble over inappropriate questions or comments. On the other hand, Chat bots are always nice and talk fast, so a long answer to a role can come back to you in seconds.

And they almost always have an agenda, too, whether that’s directing you to click on a link (“Follow my Instagram profile”) or getting you to divulge other potentially vulnerable personal information about yourself.