Fred XXL - what kind of scam is this?

[Guest Deweywop]

This type of ad has been popping up on Rentboy:

 

http://www.rentboy.com/Listing.aspx?lid=260004&scid=60947826&sp=5&pos=92&locid=1400&iid=123112

 

They usually feature some incredibly hot twinkish guy advertising at below market rates. No contact info, no "check out my website" spam, and no response to RB messages. Obviously a scam, but what is the scammer getting out of this, considering they have to pay a fee to post this ad?

 

(I suppose I'm subconsciously hoping someone would say this is not a scam, in which case, how the hell do I get in touch with these guys?!)

[Scorpio]

Please read this thread:

 

http://www.companyofmen.org/showthread.php?81778-federik-anyone-Visiting-Chicago.

 

But yes, it is a scam. Fred XXL isn't actually advertising. It's bait for an escort agency Appollon21 (search the archives for further comment). The basic scam is that when you try to book an appointment with one of their "escorts" you will be asked to make a $75 deposit with them in advance to finalize the appointment with the balance due at the time of the appointment. They claim the deposit is fully refundable up until the time of the appointment. But the appointment will never occur and I doubt you would ever receive a refund.

 

Another portion of the scam that I'm not sure they do any longer, but they would charge you a monthly membership fee to be able to view their website and contact the escorts.

 

RUN AWAY

[gallahadesquire]

I sent email, we'll see what happens. Would you like a copy of his photo?

[Phil_musc]

PT Barnum was right, and the world is overflowing with them.

[+ Shoreboy]

Believe it or not I sent Appollon an email calling them a scam and I got a rsesponse back...counteracting what I had said...of course not ever having an unspoken thought, I emailed them back and got a response that said "we have plenty of people using our service and obviously you will not be one".

 

Yeah, plenty of people being scammed....

[twinkielover]

While I do not doubt for one second that this site is a scam, I did want to point out one thing. Many of the guys on the ads the send out our legitimate escorts. A couple of guys I hired were on the lists they send. When I mentioned it to them, they had no idea about it. I think what Apollon does is to search the legitmate escort sites and pull information from them. They then package it up and send out emails to you. I have never dealt with them directly, and never will. You would have to pay them to get the email and the phone number of whomever you were interested in contacting. I do not know if the guy you mentioned is a real escort out their somewhere or not. There was also another one named Yvan or something like that, that was damn hot too. Maybe they just use an outright "fake" pic on Rentboy and M4RN to get your attention. Like I said though, many of the guys that they claim to have the phone numbers and email of are real escorts. Well of course the have their numbers.....we all do! Just look on the sites!

[JT Brooklyn]

PT Barnum was right, and the world is overflowing with them.

 

Indubidably! This SCAM been running a long time!

[stephen_maximum]

I wish there was a way to put them out of business because they give agencies in general a bad name.