How to Avoid Scams Buying Nudes Online

I can’t tell you how many times a day I hear “can you send me a naked pic to prove you’re real?” Of course my answer is always an enthusiastic “no” and admittedly sometimes a biting remark, but it has got me thinking. Is catfishing a huge issue or people trying to buy nudes and other content online? And if so, what can we (and I say we because, yes, I do buy content from sex workers online) do to make sure a real sex worker is getting our hard earned money instead of someone who simply steals images.

I will come clean- I didn’t do any research about how often people get tricked into spending money only to be blocked or ghosted afterwards. But as someone who has fallen victim to the good ol “I’ll send it to you after the session” trick from customers, I can only assume it’s pretty often on both sides. Here’s my best advice:

Expect to Pay Up Front

Before we dive in I wanted to clarify one thing: Someone asking you to pay up front is NOT a scam. You will be hard pressed to find someone that is okay with rendering services without pay- and even if you do, it’s not likely that they will do so for very long. You should always always always expect to pay up front.

It may feel risky, and if you don’t follow my advice it is. There are always going to be people out there trying to make a quick buck. But there are lots of ways you can make sure that you’re dealing with someone legitimate.

Use Established Sites For Payments

No, I don’t mean cashapp, venmo, or paypal. These are not sex worker friendly and accounts have been suspended often for the exchange of adult goods. I’m talking about your good old fashioned fansites, clip stores, tubesites, etc. These sites require ID verification for models and creators to join, meaning that it is highly unlikely that they are a scammer. Above that, reports of scamming on those sites are taken extremely seriously- no scammer will be allowed to continue operating there.

Some websites that have a tip or custom order feature include:

• Onlyfans
• Manyvids
• AVN Stars
• Justforfans
• Clips4Sale
• iwantclips
• pornhub- modelhub
• most camsites
• sextpanther
• niteflirt

Too Good To Be True

“But Emma!! I can’t use those sites because I share a bank account/my dog ate my credit card/I’m allerigic to giving out my personal info. I HAVE to use cashapp/gift cards.” Fine. I get it, there are a million reasons why one of those sites won’t work for you. This means you’ll have to work a little harder.

The first thing you want to keep in mind in these situations is that if someone seems to good to be true, they most likely are. Does her instagram have professional level photos but she only has 100 followers? Do all the pictures she send look amazing- except for the fact that she never shows her face and there are some small differences in each one?

This is where the Internet’s best tool comes in: Reverse Image Search. By saving a photo to your computer, then uploading it to images.google.com you can do a quick search of the web to see if these pictures are really hers. Do all the results lead back to her website or social media? Great! Send her your money. Are there hundreds of results for the same image from all different websites? It’s a scam. Does the photo lead back to another woman’s social? It’s a scam- and you would do well to let the REAL person know that they are being impersonated.

Desperate Measures

So, you’re still unsure of whether or not this person is real? There is one final tried and true method to weed out the truth from the lies. Now, I will say that this will not always work. Some sex workers, like me, will not humor something like this (especially because I have so many official places to prove my identity that I can’t be bothered). If you’re only trying to spend $10 or something, you might as well just look at some free porn online and save yourself the trouble. But it’s possible that you will find someone that is okay with it- especially if you’re spending stacks.

Ask them to send you a nonsexual picture of them doing something weird. The more unusual the better. Holding up 3 fingers in a photo has become so common that I really would discourage you from that. But, having them write a specific phrase on a paper like “blue kazoo” would work. Make sure they ball the paper up and then flatten it back out- its way harder to photoshop something like that.

Bringing it all Together

You may find that these methods don’t work in your situation. If that’s the case, I would recommend you seriously consider why you are so desperate for THIS person. It is rare that anyone is offering something that you couldn’t get elsewhere and better. If you’re trying to save money, consider that when it comes to adult entertainment you very much get what you pay for- if that supermodel on Facebook is offering you 100 photos for $3 and you send the money, don’t be shocked when they take the money and run.