They advertise with “Online flirting is the key to almost dating” and “Enjoy steamy dates to the fullest”. Sounds very promising for the visitors and animates them into an enrolment. We start the sign-up process and need to confirm our email before we are redirected to the main page. Here we are asked to upload a profile picture, give some more personal details and preferences. The main part of the page is the huge preview of profile pictures of existing members. The new member has the choice to limit the preview by selection on if three options: all members, online now or new members.
On the top are search filters and search functions, as well the possibility to change our profile settings. The interface is user-friendly, but the pop-up messages are more than disturbing. The website SteamyLocals.com is part of a huge company operating dozens of online dating portals. After the hassle-free registration, the users should be aware that their personal data will be used on other portals and is not safe at all.
Excerpt from the Terms & Conditions (as of 01/09/2023)
We want to offer you a full range of products and services and in order to do that we will share your details across our Partner Sites (see our privacy policy – Creation of Duplicate Profiles Across Our Partner Sites) and we will market our different products and services to you (see our privacy policy – Marketing)
A user may choose to send certain forms of automated messages to other users, which may vary from time to time and include but are not limited to Flirtсasts or Promote my account messages (“Custom Messages”).
We operate an automatic renewal billing policy. This means that once your initial membership period has expired, for your convenience, your membership will automatically be renewed at the same rate that you signed up for using the original payment method. For example if you pay by credit card, we will continue to debit this same credit card as each subscription period expires. We will only debit these repeat payments when your current payment period expires and not before.
You authorize us to reproduce and broadcast the information contained in your profile including your name, photograph, “chat up line”, description etc. throughout all or part of our Partner Sites and our Group Companies for the purposes of delivering the Services to you and for marketing and other purposes as explained in more detail below under section 6(B) Our rights to use your content for our own purposes.”
Special features are the “Custom Paid Messages” and a promotion called “Activity Alerts”. The first feature is helping you to communicate, but be aware that it will be monitored, and the second feature is a mixture of computer-generated messages and virtual profiles. Both elements are clear signs that the portal SteamyLocals.com is a scam and is using faked profiles.
In short, the company is luring users into expensive subscriptions with automatic renewals and these hard to terminate. All the horrible reports and statements we find on the internet seem to be correct. The former members complain about the moderated chats, the misleading and false details, the data leakage and the subscription traps. The company Bulova Invest LTD is located in the British Virgin-Islands. It sells other expensive services like “Live Cams” and “SMS Chats”.