Hello, fellow reprobates, deplorables, and misanthropes. It has been a really fun time on r/bostonr4r (have you seen the number of our verified posters increasing significantly, as well as the number of success posts?).

But even with all of the good news, I want to draw attention and publicize some negative things, in the public interest. Please read the below, and feel free to engage in conversation in the comments about what I have mentioned.

Thank you all for making r/bostonr4r an incredible place.

-cape.

Illegitimate Accounts

There will always be illegitimate accounts preying on those in any sex-related forum. By now, many of you have seen that I have added a new removal message for certain comments -- "You have responded to an illegitimate account".

These accounts are set up for many reasons. Sometimes, it is a user getting their jollies by being a troll. Sometimes it is to solicit photos and nudes from others, that they would not earn through licit means. Sometimes, it is to attempt a 419 Scam. Other times, it is to engage in blackmail using any photos/information that you send.

I comment often: "be aware of who is on the other side of the conversation". No one is deserving of unearned trust.

Before messaging a user in response to their post, or responding to a message you have received, examine their profile. Is it legitimate? Do the photos look fake, or "too good"? Are the posts and comments simply spamming of memes? Is there a significant abundance of karma, but a deleted post history? Does the reddit avatar show a man, when the post is "F4M"? Does the post history show posts in other location subreddits?

I try and catch these posts as they happen, and then remove the posts and ban the responsible account, but I cannot always be looking at the r/bostonr4r feed. Use the "report" button and the modmail messaging to send details on things that I have either missed or not seen -- it is a great help.

For the record, I catch about two dozen illegitimate accounts per day. It is my hope that none of you ever see the posts made by those accounts before I delete them, but I know that it is impossible for that to be the case.

Think before you thirst.

Blackmail Attempts

Following the above, I have received multiple reports of users being blackmailed by those they are messaging. The engagement goes as follows: there's conversation; the malicious account requests nudes with the target's face; the malicious account uses face-search software to pinpoint the user's real-life identity, and threaten to release the photos to the user's parents/employer/friends. In some cases, the target's family were actually contacted.

Be aware of this. Do not send identifying information to users you do not know. Be extremely cautious with exchanging nude photos, especially those containing your face.

Think before you thirst.

Catfishing

There has also been a recent raft of catfishing. There has always been catfishing that has occured using the posts and photos from the women of r/bostonr4r and r/bostongonewild. Historically, this has emerged as one-for-one copying of r4r posts (where the illegitimate account copies a well-written post and attempts to use that as a lure), or using photos of women from r/bostongonewild and r/gonewild to entrap men.

Recently, there has been a significant change. There have been reports of men's photos from r/bostongonewild being used in catfish attempts on M4M posts. I have also received four reports of photos of men that have been private messaged to "women" being used as lures in both M4M and M4F posts.

What do we do about this? Again, be cautious with whom you share photos. Try to ensure you know who is on the other side of conversation, using video-calls or voice-calls over Snapchat/Telegram/Google Voice to confirm identity.

Special thanks to the ENM husband/wife couple that original brought this to my attention, and their recounting of the "Honey, did you respond to my post?" conversation they had with each other in learning that the husband's photos were being used as a catfish in her messaging with an M4F post.

Account Theft

Please follow good practice with your reddit accounts and passwords. Reddit offers two-factor authentication, which is a way of keeping your accounts from being cracked. In addition, please ensure that you follow good password practice and do not use dictionary words as your password.

If you look at the illegitimate accounts that post, there are a significant number that use accounts that are more than three years old (sometimes nine or ten years old!) to post, and these accounts were defunct and idle and are being "harvested" due to their lack of strong passwords.

Rule Following

I would like to draw attention to the r/bostonr4r rules, which are listed on the sidebar of the subreddit. I am asking that everyone refamiliarize themselves with the rules, and be aware of my moderation approach.

• Small offense (warning)
• Continued offending (5 day ban)
• Offending after warning (permanent ban)

Warnings may be skipped for larger offenses.

This occurs to post frequency, harassment, and all of the other rules listed. There is zero tolerance given to posts or topics including transactions.

I would also like to highlight that there is no need to comment on a post to say "DMed". I will remove those comments, give warnings, and then follow the similar ban approach. I would love comments to be productive.

In addition -- if you are making a post involving someone else, reference them in the post. "I am a woman looking for a woman but my husband will watch" means MF4F, not F4F.

Unsolicited Dick Pics

Simply put, do not send unsolicited dick pics. If you do, and I receive a screenshot showing as much (in response to an F4X post indicating anything other than "send dick pics"), you will be banned from r/bostonr4r.