Alt.com Review – Is it a Scam or Legit?

ALT.com

$0.00-17.62 / month
5.5

Cost

5.4/10

Features

5.1/10

Layout

5.4/10

Search

6.0/10

User Base

5.6/10

Pros

  • Second-largest membership base of all the 'adult' dating sites
  • Hyper-selective search options
  • Highly focused niche
  • Free forum access to potentially connect with other, local members

Cons

  • Definitely NSFW; you'll want to turn off video and sound when joining
  • Watch the fine print for maintenance fees and marketing requirements
  • Lower than average response rate
  • With a large number of members come scammers and fake profiles
Bonny Albo

If you want to meet someone for an alternative arrangement, partnership or sexual encounter,  you’ll probably get all excited reading this Alt.com review. It’s got more members than any other kinky dating site on the planet, for starters.

Their prices are hefty however, and few members respond to messages sent, even as a solo female member contacting solo males. My best tip gleaned from this ALT review? Sign up and try out the free forums first, then pay to gain access to folks’ contact information.

Need more tips and suggestions, or, want to share your own experiences, successes, and concerns? Read on, or scroll to the very bottom for the comment section to rate and review.

From ALT: “ALT is everything you ever wished for in an active online fetish, BDSM, and bondage lifestyle community.”

Demographic: Singles and couples above the age of consent looking for alternative, kinky or BDSM-based relationships.

Sign-Up Process

To sign up, first you must perform a quick search of ALT.com, which takes mere seconds – if it weren’t for the dizzying array of choices available.

Men, women, couples and groups are all welcome, as are many fetishes, so just scrolling through the lists can make for some fun introspection. Once you’ve chosen your options, you’ll receive a limited list of profiles that meet your criteria.

Note, however, that each time I’ve searched ALT, the profiles I see when I sign up seem to disappear as soon as I pay for access. Sure, there are lots of folks in my geographic area, just folks other than the ones I saw online when I first perused. Take from that what you will.

Look and Feel

ALT is a heady site, without question, and so just looking around at what’s available can make any kinkster swoon. Everything is easy to find and access, and there’s no shortage of options to choose. The only ads on the site relate to ALT.com review offerings, such as profile enhancements or adult videos.

Search

For ‘standard’ members (read: non-paying) the search options look great; however, they’re severely limited.

Once you pay for a membership though, wowza. You can search by almost any imaginable fetish, demographic, location, physical feature and BDSM-based interest. Few dating sites offer a search function this robust to their members.

Connecting with Other Members

I automatically assumed I’d get a deluge of emails once I signed up, just for the sheer fact I’d listed myself as a single female.

And I did.

Over 100 couples, single men and even single women sent me notes within the first week, however few replied to the messages I sent out, with a response rate of less than 35%.

Yea, this didn’t bode well for my Alt.com review.

ALT.com App and Mobile Options

ALT belongs to the FriendFinder network (yes, the same company as BigChurch and AdultFriendFinder). That means they all share an app.

So, grab their iPhone app via iTunes, or the Android version right as you log into the ALT site. You can also pay for your membership directly through the app.

How Much Does Alt.com Cost?

ALT offers two different memberships: Standard and Premium.

Standard memberships are their version of ‘free’ memberships, and they include only a tidbit of access to the site. You can create a profile and (minimally) search profiles, but almost anything else will require a paying membership.

One trick to see if the site is worth your time is to find the forums; they’re a haven of members (usually nearby) looking to arrange, host and meet up with others on the site – all without paying a cent to access.

If you’d like to contact folks one-on-one however, here’s how much it’ll cost you:

  • 3 months of Silver service, charged at $14.09/month. Total cost is $42.27, billed all in one lump sum;
  • 12 months of Silver service, charged at $9.79/month. Total cost is $117.47;
  • 3 months of Gold service, charged at $17.62/month, with one month free. Total cost is $70.47;
  • 12 months of Gold service, charged at $9.79/month, with two months free. Total cost is $176.23.

ALT.com accepts Ukash, checks, money orders, Visa, Mastercard, Discover and Diners Club (all credit cards via online, mail or fax payments), and SMS payments.

Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

The terms of use and privacy policies were both comprehensive and sound, with a few things out of the ordinary (or at least, important to know) to make a note of:

  • ALT uses automatic billing practices, which means your method of payment will be billed automatically two days before the end of your service term unless you cancel with their service;
  • Your contact information may get shared with ‘partners’ of the site, unless you opt out of partner emails when you sign up for ALT.com, or from your dashboard. Alternatively, you can email privacy@friendfindernetworks.com for assistance with your personal information getting removed from any mailing lists;
  • You can cancel automatic billing after logging into the site and accessing the Billing History page;
  • If you don’t access the site for 180 days, ALT may charge you a $5/month ‘maintenance fee’; and
  • You can cancel your contract (read: payment) by midnight within three business days of having signed up, without penalty or obligation.

The Bottom Line on This Alt.com Review

Do I recommend Alt? Only if you’re really, really struggling to meet someone and can’t in the local kink scene otherwise.

Sign up though, flesh out your profile (excuse the pun) and then head to the forums. Wait to pay for the service until you get a discount code and then use it to exchange information.

Never, ever click on links folks share with you (unless you can type them in yourself), and don’t be starting any sort of kinky relationship without first making sure they’re real – but that’s another article altogether.

Ready to try out ALT.com? Then sign up now. Want to share your own ALT.com review? Scroll down to quickly and easily share your experiences.

38 thoughts on “Alt.com Review – Is it a Scam or Legit?”

  1. KundaliniRising

    Hi. I’ve been on Alt since 1999. Yes, there are a lot of Bots. But there are also a lot of real people. I have met a lot of people from there in real life, including my Partner of 20 years. I wouldn’t use Alt as my sole means to meet someone. But it’s a fun way to waste some time, in the chat rooms or on the blogs.

    As a female, I get overrun with emails. And I will say that most of the people I get emails from seem to have a hard time stringing 2 words together. So I think the quality of your email has a lot to do with whether you get a response or not.

    1. Cost

      8.5

      Features

      3.5

      Layout

      5

      Search

      6

      User Base

      3

      There are a lot of Neanderthals out there who think they’re god’s gift to women. I tried the site for a short time, and i came to realize, that a straight, down to earth guy like me, is not accepted. Too many fantasizers who just play on line. Save you money and go the bar….you’ll probably have a lot better luck.

  2. Cost

    1

    Features

    1

    Layout

    1.5

    Search

    2

    User Base

    0.5

    BEWARE
    I tried this site to find some fun. Though it looks perfectly legit otherwise, they have a very dirty trick under their arm to rob you of your money.
    If you make a purchase on this website, they will save your card details and set auto-renew to ON without informing you.
    What is worse is that even if you turn-off the auto-renew, they will again turn it ON without your consent while you will be chilling unknown of this fraud.
    Also, notice on their “Billing History & Credit Card Info” page, they have explicitly threatened anyone thinking about a chargeback, because they know that people are going to go for chargeback after these frauds execute their little “trick”.
    I was disgusted when I casually checked my auto-renew settings days after I had turned it OFF. Then I rechecked it two more times just to make sure that I am not missing anything but their system will turn the Auto-renew setting ON as soon as you navigate away from the page.
    I managed to dodge them by saving an incorrect card and then deleting the old original card as apparently you cannot delete your card details unless you save another card with them.
    Be safe while dealing with them. On the experience front there are not a lot of profiles available on this site so I would say don’t spend any money on this site anyway. I would rather recommend “AdultFriendFinder.com”, I have had a lot better experience with them.

    1. Their fraud goes beyond auto renew. I found they’d taken money out from my card that doesn’t relate to anything. Beware people!

  3. I’ve been on Alt for many years (since 2007) . About four months ago I renewed my membership and started contacting various members. I’ve contacted over 50 women there and every single one of them were scammers. I won’t mention any names but they’ve all led to attempted financial scams , one woman wanted me to launder a banking payroll account for her. There’s also the cell phone scams, there are a few of these, one where they just flat out demand my user name and password. The others range from going to Walmart and purchasing postpaid cell phones to account fraud with information they’ve probably obtained from other suckers or from other dating sites. This site is dark and full of criminal activity . Save yourself some money and time and bypass this labyrinth of manipulation.

  4. I’ve been on alt.com, adultfriendfinder, perversions = easysex.com, fetlife, and all the others mentioned here by these scammers who were obviously paid to lie, and I can tell you unequivocally ALL OF THES SO CALLED “SITES” ARE COMPLETE GARBAGE SCAMS without exception. But especially alt.com, adultfriendfinder, and perversions = easysex.com. Those 3 are the main scammers of them all. THEY HAVE BEEN BUSTED REPEATEDLY USING THOUSANDS OF FAKE PROFILES AND EVEN ENCOURAGING SPAMMERS TO TAKE OVER THE SITES.

    They are only here to steal your money and offer nothing in return.

  5. I’m in BDSM lifestyle since mostly 30 years and I subscribed to alt.com ten years ago, but it was not decisive : too few people on the chat and few french people except from Paris.
    Two months ago, I subscribed for one month. I noticed that the site had become totally phony : fake profiles, fake pics, porn stars photos for most profile, fake online people. Is it due to the subscribers? Not at all.
    I created with a sub of mine, and with a special IP, a woman’s profile in Brittany the place I live in France : Diotima. When I connected to alt.com she was always “on line” While she was next to me, smiling. Others “online” subscribers from around were porn stars pics.
    Most of all, some days ago, I found out that the administrators organized “Automatic renewal of the subscription”, and stole me 69€ while I believed my subscription ended.
    It is possible that the acquisition by Ventnor in 2009 provoked this change but in anyway Alt.com is mainly a site of phony profiles, hostesses, bots and swindlers.

  6. I’m on FetLife and I bought a silver pass on Alt a couple of months later, cause they had good search options. What a waste of money. Fake accounts is all I get, while on FL I was chatting to many women within a day! I don’t think there is a real woman on Alt that has an actual membership.

    Best way to spot fake accounts on any dating site…
    You can tell they are fake by either image searching with their images as someone already suggested, but I found just copying a pasting their profile bio text in Google exact phrase search is better way, cause it’s easy to get a random never used photo, however these scammers are obviously not going to write original bios and so they just keep using the same one over and over again on every site. Try it, you’ll see.

  7. I’m doing sexual researching, interviewing strippers, etc., and wanted to see if the site was legit. Most of the “members” are scammers with pictures that are out of this world. 3 days later they’re deactivated. Absolutely never will I use it seriously, or renew for more than the min month I had to sign for. Part of me wants to fight Visa for my fee back, and complain about fraud…

  8. I am a new and recent member. Alt has absolutely zero customer
    service just an email form you can submit. That never. I mean never! gets answered. I have had major issues with the site and absolutely no response from ALT. The site is also full of member
    scam artists and con men. One example is a member posing as a dominate seeking slaves/subs. They suck in the poor little subs
    who love to be ordered around. Then they order you to send
    money to there retailer to purchase hundreds of dollars worth of bondage equipment and toys. Eventually the sub realizes he never gets to meet the Mistress that never existed. Don’t expect Alt customer no service to deal with the problem.

  9. Sadly I have to agree with those with negative reviews. The Domms that I have written to that responded demanded that I take my profile down, had a lon v list of her rules and wanted me to purchase a $500 B&D kit from the UK to demonstrate my submissive sincerity. Lots of talkers but few doers on IM and seems like 95% of the chat rooms and forums haven’t been visited in months or even years. It can be mildly entertaining but actually meeting the kinkster of your dreams is unlikely.

  10. This website is nothing but a joke!!

    There are no real Dominant Women on this website, they are nothing more than scam artists who are trying to lure men stupid enough to fall for this scam out of their money. They always want to contact you via their private email, and then shortly afterwards want you to send hundreds of dollars to some fake person just to supposedly prove your sincerity. Even when letting Customer Service at alt know about these profiles, they never do anything about them or take them down.

    AVOID at all costs!!

  11. In the early 2000’s it was a great site. Now in 2015, alt wouldn’t even be worth it if they paid me. It’s a waste of time and the free sites are better. I paid for a 1 month silver in 2015. I got 37 messages, and 0 have been legitimate. Most who contacted me there were scammers or fakes. Image searches of photos they chose to share with me outed most who contacted me. Others revealed themselves by writing in broken english. The $19 wasted membership pales in comparison to the worth of my time wasted.

    You would think the site owners could easily screen this behavior based on IP address–like when the IP is from a 3rd world country but the profile says Florida. But why would they? The scammers i’ve run into actually paid for gold memberships. Either scammers are making enough money from stupid guys on there or they are using stolen credit card info–probably both.

  12. William The Dater

    Seriously, I believe this is the second best fetish dating site after BDSMdatingChat.com. I don’t understand why so many people complain about ALT.com. TRust me, there are almost no better sites for quality fetish dating.

  13. This site is an utter joke. I am a genuine, single woman. Tall, slim attractive and I enjoy BDSM and gangbangs. Been a member for 3 months as a silver supporter and I have yet to find even just 3 guys that are prepared to meet me as a group. Total fantasists, and yes, I’ve seen dozens of fake profiles…

  14. only good thing i can say is that customer service let me change from 12 mnths to a month, but i just get 10 fake emails a day,all r ganna “vacation” to leominster, rite,

  15. As a male UK user, I can say that there are plenty of genuine people on Alt. There are a lot of fake / scam profiles too but that’s true with any adult dating website, and for the most part are pretty easy to spot.

    There are a lot of forum groups and most of them are a waste of time, but it just requires a little effort to find the good ones that are well moderated and regularly visited. I’ve read some really informative discussions.

    If you’re a dominant man looking for a submissive woman, your chances of a real life meeting depend on the effort you put into it. Create a well thought out profile with a non-nude photo, send out respectful emails, be active in chat rooms and key discussion forums and you’re chances are good. If you’re a submissive man looking for a dominant woman the chances are pretty poor due to the high ratio of submissive men to genuine dominant women (ie if you exclude all the obviously fake profiles). A dominant woman can receive 40 emails a day, so you’d really need to stand out as worth their time to have a shot.

    1. I was a member around 2000 and it was pretty good. Re-joined a couple of years ago and it was an absolute JOKE. The search function does not work as it should, even for gold members. There are more fake profiles than you can imagine. Nigerian scammers. AVOID AT ALL COSTS — DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY.

  16. CountessDenica

    I used Alt for over a year in 2005-2006. They promise you (Alt.com) a FREE MEMBERSHIP; but you soon discover that if you want to gain access to 99% of what they offer, you have to pay quite a bit. I didn’t pay them anything but they continued to run my photo for nearly 2 years. After you tell them EVERYTHING about your bizarre likes etc. and download a pic then you find out it’s not free at all. This is after you tell them EVERYTHING about your bizarre likes etc. I wouldn’t recommend it to a friend.

  17. I have been a gold member for many years ,there still saying renew for a year and get 6 Months ,this is just a con I am still waiting for the 3 Months to be added that they owe me plus they ended my gold membership 1 day before it expired .contracts don’t mean a thing to these people as there will never fulfil it .there is no point in contacting them as they will not reply .

  18. Been in ALT for a while with gold membetship. Constant messages from beautiful submissive women. So far all of those are fake. My test is to have them send a new picture with a specific setting and mildly sexual. Amazing that all of these chicks don’t own cameras. I’ve had a few interestive message and IM exchanges, cussed out a few times and get most of my cyber contacts from BBW’s. I’m OK with big girls so that’s not. Problem for me. The chat rooms are either dead or full of quick hit hi how are you notes but NO relevant conversations. I think most of the women who see real are just looking for cybersex no matter what kinky action they promises in their profile. I often get replies challenging how dominant am I really which tellsme they are not an S type. Also get a lot of couple with closet bi husbands. So I’d sy if your looking for cybersex with a high price tag this is the place.

  19. OK.
    I have been a member of Alt for 3 months from now.
    ALL, I repeat, ALL Dominant women whom I approached on this site have asked me for material favours.
    Majority of them before we even met or plainly refusing even a telephone conversation.
    Lots of them after force-feeding me with an aggressive mistress crap.
    Alt is abundant with fakes, scammers and desperate single men exchanging their sick fantasies in chat rooms and blogs.

    Booooring.

  20. FOOTNOTE —

    Tip For Users: Do NOT get involved with any Member from ALT.com until you do a Google and/or TinEye Reverse Image Search of their Profile picture. If no Profile picture is available, then request webcam verification from the Member

  21. ALT.com — ALTernative Lifestyle, BDSM, Fetish & Kink Personals

    I think the ‘key’ word is, “Personals” — NOT!!!

    I have been a Member for 13+ years now and it has severely decayed as a ‘personals’ Website for the last 3 – 5 years.

    Thousands of fake profiles. In the first day alone, I had over a dozen ‘messages’ …. mostly from Ghana and Nigeria. After only a few hours of communication with a ‘woman’ on Instant Messenger, she was asking me for airtime for her cell phone.

    There may be real people hoping to meet other real people, but those Profiles are so few and far between it’s not worth your time or money. No one is within a commutable distance from you.

    ALT.com has become nothing more but a safe haven for fakes/flakes/frauds, liars, posers, scammers and wannabes from around the world whom have read the, “50 Shades Of Grey”, series and now think they’re either Dom/me, Master, slave or submissive just living out their fantasies via Chat Rooms and/or Interest Groups — there may be .005% of the Member/ship being ‘real’ — but, even that percent might be too high.

    What else is there to say about an online adult personals Website that allows its Members to change/edit/update their Date Of Birth (a legal, never-changing fact) whenever they get a whim to appear younger???

    Due to this DOB change/edit/update feature/function, I have stumbled upon 13 Profiles that according to their DOB and Date Of Membership, they were 11-years-old to 17-years-old when they joined ALT.com!!!

    Seriously …. 11-years-old when they joined ALT.com!!!

    I don’t think I need to say anymore, but I’ll go ahead and list the ‘Pros’ & ‘Cons’ below ….

    Pros:
    ⦁ Thousands of Profiles with pictures of well-known celebrities and sexy pictures of well-known porn stars — mostly claiming to live in Canada, Texas and United Kingdom (as a matter-of-fact, just last week I saw Angelina Jolie — according to her Profile she’s single, submissive and living in Austin, Texas)

    ⦁ Change your Date Of Birth (for free) easier than changing your panties to make yourself appear younger at any time and further dupe other Members

    ⦁ Chat for free with thousands of fakes/flakes/frauds, liars, posers, scammers and wannabes from around the world via live Instant Messenger (when it’s working)

    ⦁ Create an Interest Group — then, create multiple Profiles and join your very own Interest Group to make it look more popular

    ⦁ View webcam shows for your masturbatory pleasures

    ⦁ CyberSex your brains out in any Chat Room

    ⦁ Advice Line, BLOG and Magazine

    Cons:
    ⦁ Infested with thousands of fakes/flakes/frauds, liars, posers, scammers and wannabes

    ⦁ Fee charged to change your UserName or Gender, but you can change your Date Of Birth (a legal, never-changing fact) for FREE — easier than changing your panties to make yourself appear younger at any time and further dupe other Members

    ⦁ Censorship — the word ‘rape’ is a banned topic in any BLOG and Post, automatically declined when clicking-on the POST YOUR REPLY button; yet there are 433 active Interest Groups containing the word ‘rape’ in their title and hundreds of Members with the word ‘rape’ in their UserName. But, it’s okay to make Posts/Polls regarding murder involving killing your daughter, girlfriend or spouse

    ⦁ Customer Service is a joke — I believe it’s outsourced to India as the lack of communication is appalling and amounts to NOT understanding written English

    ⦁ Abuse Team, Legal Department and Site Support lies to you

    ⦁ Thousands of ‘Date Bait’ Profiles

    ⦁ Hundreds of thousands of dead/unused Profiles. Just the other day I viewed a Profile that stated, ‘Last Visit: March 17, 1999’ — yet, when I visited the Interest Groups that they belonged to, it kept the number of Members ‘active’ (I also noticed a lot of the same Members belonged to the same Interest Groups). After doing a Reverse Image Search of the Profile picture/s via Google and/or TinEye, the majority of the Members/Profiles were fake

    Some warning signs to watch out for:
    01. Incomplete, inconsistent and unusual things in their Profiles; and, all info is written in lower case letters including their name
    02. Grammar, punctuation and spelling isn’t correct (even though they claim to have a Master’s degree)
    03. They don’t carry the conversation like somebody would if they were truly interested in you
    04. They immediately want to move the conversation to an off-site Instant Messenger
    05. They use a lot of phrases like ‘my dear’, ‘my love’ or ‘the love of my life’
    06. They are vague or fuzzy when you ask them specific questions
    07. Only one picture shown and it’s a very attractive woman

    Use common sense. The ‘lovely lady’ you’re speaking to is likely some dude sitting in an Internet café. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is!!!

    1. * DOB UPDATE:
      After contacting ALT.com Customer Service, Legal Department and SiteSupport Team, FriendFinder Networks Inc. refuses to eliminate the Date Of Birth change/edit/update feature/function — I am now up to 33 Profiles that according to their DOB and Date Of Membership, they were under the Legal Age Of Consent of 18–years–old when they joined ALT.com!!!

      Also, I discovered a female Member (that is operating multiple Accounts/Profiles according to several other Members) whom has been ‘verified’ on two Profiles as 100–years–old and 101–years–old via ConfirmID (subsidiary of FriendFinder Networks Inc., a service that verifies personal information for online personal Websites) — yet, according to her Profile pictures, she looks to be no more than 57–years–old.

      Do I see a case of false advertisement, fraud and perjury here?

      〜 Paul

  22. I had the same experience with Alt, though as a male. I would get mail, respond, and never get a reply, or I would send mail, get an initial response, but then very rarely a response after that, and, the responses that I did get often turned out to be someone shilling for a porn site or other “adult” service.

    Not worth the subscription fees that they charge.

  23. I used the site between 2010 and 2011. As a standard member, who’s captivated by this lifestyle, Alt is a “interactive instruction booklet” you always wish every human experience came with. Complete with everything you will possibly need, such as, 1. A partner (Dom) in my case 2. a place to describe or ask for exactly what you want, age, location, fetishes + many more. 3. posting a photo is simple-dimple 4. Blogs-see how others feel & think 5. groups- find like-minded pals 6. alt glossary-every possible term is mentioned here. 7. and my personal favorite, a place for questions, ask anything your heart desires and help out another…. Who could want more?

    Being a sub, I didn’t make a video or chat on the site, that’s not my style. It was, however, available. forums & blogs were life savers. I felt welcomed & normal.

    I didn’t pay. As a standard member, there’s no charge. I, personally just like to put my profile up and see who contacts me…

    The customer service options are great too.If overwhelmed, you can turn off your profile + turning on again is a one click deal. The guardians kick out people who are abusive or misuse… They alert you to all…

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