Beware Bronymate

I just saw an ad banner I hoped to never see on this site. Bronymate...

Bronymate is a site that is under the same ownership as a few known scam dating sites. I tested one of the sites out, myself, last year to see if rumors were true. Bronymate went into active service during my time doing this. Furrymate, Furfling and Bronymate are all owned by the same people and follow the same business model. They use bots and send messages using customer accounts, without permission or warning, to other customers. Complicating this further is the fact that you must pay to see the messages. They started by denying the use of bots then when proven to be lying justified this by claiming that it "motivates site users to interact".

I find it rather tragic because it can make it difficult to know if you are talking to a person or a bot if you receive messages from out of the online aether. That is something that should not be a concern when looking to sooth a lonely heart. I've seen a few people border into some very dark emotional territory because of these sites.

Several sites in the furry fandom have dropped ad services because of these people and in the case of one site it ended a friendship between site owners, one site owner knowing the one that runs this scam.

On a personal note, the most fun, and dangerous, aspect within this happened when I went to cancel payment to the site I had chosen to test. I closed my account but had to go to my bank and block payment there, labeling the service as fraudulent charges before repeated payment stopped. I tried sending messages to site admin prior to going to my bank but kept getting a very generic response that said they would look into it rather than simply stop the charges. I allowed them three months with messages sent two to three times a week to check on things and always received the same response.

Beware Bronymate and DO NOT give your money over to them. They are out only for the money and are not a trustworthy dating site or service. They do not provide a legitimate service and do not care the least bit about customers themselves, only their money.

Please spread the word about this. I've seen enough tragic tales tied to this scam drifting around the net.

Comments

[kudzuhaiku]

Ugh, targeted marketing.

Someone needs to target the marketers. Maybe with a nice bolt action mosin nagant.