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If this site isn't an outright scam on it's own, then at the very least it condones scammers! It may be possible to find a few genuine people looking for face to face meetings, particularly if you live in a major metropolitan area, but be wary and proceed with caution if you join iwantu.com!
First of all, creating a profile is easy... maybe too easy? You don't even have to fill out the text fields or answer the basic questions to start browsing other members. I made one without providing a photo or any information at all, yet within minutes I began receiving emails! I'm no fool, so of course I knew that these were the "welcome wagon" girls, probably being given special perks or even $ by the company to lure newbies into forking over the bucks for a premium membership in order to reply to them. But trust me, once you upgrade the welcome wagon emails will stop, and these "members" will never return your replies!
Nevertheless, the site did seem to have a large database of recently active local members compared to it's rivals, so I filled out my profile and tried a one month platinum membership. Next came the deluge of winks, chat requests, and emails from uber hot 20 somethings (I'm 41). All scammers and webcam girls! The site tries to censer emails containing offsite contact info, yet the scammers always manage to sneak theirs through! IF you contact them, they will do nothing but slam you with links to other dating sites where they promise you can chat with them, see their naughty pics, and find further contact info. Don't be fooled! THEY ONLY WANT YOUR MONEY!!!!
The site has a feature to "report abuse" but your reports will undoubtedly fall on deaf ears! Why police members that are helping them rope in new premium members? Everything about this site is designed to snag new suckers rather than retain loyal customers! One example: they have this thing called a "flirtcast" where you can set parameters (ie. every male 18-88 within 1000 miles!) and mass mail (ie. SPAM) everyone who fits... BAD IDEA! At first I was unaware of this feature so I thought I was getting legitimate email, albeit short and sweet, from interested women. But most never returned my reply, and the ones who did were mostly scammers. FINALLY, a legitimate member replied and claimed it was spam generated by the company (maybe it was and maybe she sent a flirtcast inadvertently), which lead me to figure out that I should just ignore all flirtcasts! Unlike some of its better rivals, this site does not allow basic members to reply to solicitations from premium members, and it doesn't show what type of membership any given member has. This means that, as a premium member, when I solicit a basic member, I am inadvertently helping the company rope in another premium member! As for the database that seemed so large at first? After spending a couple weeks searching for and soliciting local members, I am convinced that less than 3% are truly legitimate, local, AND recently active members capable of replying! Your odds will be better at some of the smaller, but more reputable, rivals; and you won't have to wade through a mountain of scams to find them either!
Lastly, the site has a feature to turn auto-renew off, but that button appears to be "broken" because I couldn't turn it off! So I tried to delete my account, and that button is "broken" too! I suspect that will have to put a block on my credit card before the renewal date to avoid wasting another $30! My recommendation is don't waste your $ on this one!
In summary, I would not recommend IWantU to a friend.
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