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Avoid the Academic Singles scam!

I was recently (2016) scammed by "Academic Singles". After I signed up for a free account, they kept sending me messages saying that specific women were interested in me. Each woman had a picture that was blurred out, but several of them appeared reasonably attractive at a guess.

Eventually, my curiosity was eventually piqued and I signed up for a package. Then and only then did I find out that the women I was curious about had NOT uploaded any pictures, and the photographs were "placeholders" put up by Academic Singles. In short, it was a scam.

Within the hour I signed up, it became clear to me that I had been cheated. I then contacted Academic Singles about a refund and stopped using the service. After several emails, it was abundantly clear that they had no intention of processing any such refund. Their incredible response? "Rather than have a blank space in your profile, the use of a placeholder template photo to fill the space where your profile picture should be has a proven positive effect."

In other words, they are blatantly and quite smugly deceiving us.

Their latest excuse for rejecting the refund is that I had already used their service and had read/sent a large number of messages. These messages were all read/sent within that first hour, all to women who had first indicated interest in me, and almost all to let them know (nicely) that I did not return their interest. The others were to a bunch of very different looking women who had all written me the exact same message asking me to contact them at the same email address (lol).

Incidentally, the real women who had written me were all NOT academics.

I have previously signed up for other dating services and know that legitimate businesses do not use fake pictures to lure in customers. The ratio of genuine to fake users is also far worse here than on any other site I have used. I had googled Academic Singles extensively before signing up and had not seen any evidence that they are scammers. To put it simply, there is no way an uninformed person could know that this particular website engages in deception of this sort. So here I am to tell you this so you don't waste your money and time here.

tl;dr Academic Singles brazenly lies to you using fake pictures. Save your money and avoid this scam site like the plague.

Pros
None

Cons
This is a scam site.

They use fake pictures to lure in the unsuspecting.

Oli you need to speak to your credit card company and ask for this money back. This is as you say pure theft and the credit card company should pay it back. Make sure the direct debit is cancelled

My friend Colin called his bank and told them it was fraudulent activity. They immediately blocked AS from taking any more cash, and returned the cash to the account. AS and now Auer Witte and Thiele are threatening but he has paid nothing and they just keep extending the deadline. Don't pay them a penny. It seems their threats are hollow. Just make sure you call the bank and register their transactions as fraudulent immediately and instruct the bank to block them, or they will just keep taking cash. Endlessly.

Hello.i have a question:the last e-mail threating me to pay was sent by this site in september 2018.nothing eversince.should i expect some bad surprise?

I would not worry now - put it out of your mind.

Its a fake website i saw it myself. Bloody hellthe photos are non existent and the ppl are not real. Good thing i did not sign up for any parkage. Trying to un subscribe is also a hustle.

It's a fraud...they keep taking your money out without authorisation...it is certainly one to be careful of.

Another victim of the scam here.... from the UK. I signed up on 2 Feb this year for 3 months, very quickly realised what this was. Thankfully I had paid via Paypal, so I cancelled all future payments. I printed out the withdrawal form from their Ts&Cs, filled it in, scanned it and attached it to an email to their customer services, together with a cancellation form. They responded saying I could no longer withdraw because I had used their services - though that's not mentioned in the Ts&Cs where it says withdrawal within 14 days. I have now started a claim with Paypal to get the money refunded...

All I have read has happened to me. I have received a letter from a debt collector claiming I owe $500 when I originally signed up for the $9.95 deal that ended up $79.95 deal and i could not get my profile cancelled and on it goes. most profiles are frauds and they try to deceive you. I was able to detect them through reverse image. They steal other people's identity etc. I feel they are actually plants by the owners. When I reported the profiles, they ignored it and were unconcerned. Has anyone successfully got legal action against these people? Please outline what you have done. This websites needs to be shut down.

Hi Everyone - if you are still getting emails/letters I advice writing on here under a pseudonym.. The first time I posted I used my real name - and the emails all started up again. They are watching this site I am sure.
I agree with you Rose - this scam does need to be shut down but how do we achieve that. I tried to persuade Which, a consumers organisation in the UK, to look at them but they have not done so. They should! Ignore all the letters and emails is my advice - eventually they will stop. Some I suspect give in and pay up which is why they keep on trying. I suspect the "debt collectors" are in on the scam.

I concur with the misleading charges.... and what's worst... though i received many messages but I didnt reply all. One of them whom I responded, turned out to be a scam! Trying to be very sweet, and said will send USD1.5M, thinking I am small kid?????

These website offer is completely misleading and against fair trading act.
Their quote was 6 month, 14.39 NZD (22% discount included) . The first impression is that you choose 6 month premium membership you have to pay 86.34 in total
I clicked on this option and they asked for card information. I entered my card information and then another page opened from my bank asking me to authorize the payment of 345.36NZD by entering the 4 digit code they have just texted me. That was the first time I saw the total amount and of course I didn't want to pay such money for this premium membership and I decided to cancel the payment.
But, before I even open that message from my bank the money was gone. It has never happened before with any other website. I explained to my Bank the issue and they advised It's a fraudulent transaction when their website bypassed the final code I needed to enter, before the money can be transferred to them.

That is not right. It's simply misleading and stealing money. After that , immadiatly, I received an email from Academic singles website that the payment was done and on my profile page I needed to activate my premium membership by entering further details to continue activity as a premium member. I do not want to pay such a high amount for this service I have not activated my premium account and I am not willing to. I contacted them to refund my money and close my account completely and they refused. It's very frustrating. If I have activated my premium membership and used it , yes , they could refuse to refund my money, but I didn't.
Be aware of this website. Making money at cost of misleading customers and get hold of it , when the decieved customer has never used the service is not align with fair trading act and it is not ethical either.

The advertisement was misleading. I did not activate my premium account and I only asked to cancel the whole thing which they refused to do so.
I want my money back and I am not interested in such dishonest attitude.
I hope my review helps other people to not fall into their trap.

This site uses fake pictures and fake profiles. Its nearly impossible to cancel your subscription. 'Members' are not academic. Do NOT JOIN THIS SITE.