Howard D.

I had had a free ("Standard") account on AFF for years, just as a kind of timewaster. December of2023 I bit the bullet and paid for a "Gold" membership". I used a $30 store gift card to buy a month's worth of Gold membership which was supposed to cost $27.99 and AFF took the whole $30. I also think they shorted me a day on the month's worth. A Gold membership is supposed to let send and receive messages to/from other Gold members, but when I started keeping track I found that less than a third of women on the site were Gold members, maybe only a quarter. Gold membership also lets you send messages to Standard (free) members, but it was never clear to me whether they could reply. AFF sells a "Standard Contacts" package (for $35 per month) which is supposed to allow Standard members to send unsolicited messages to you, essentially doubling the cost of a paid membership.
Of the two dozen or so women Gold members to whom I sent messages, only 2 or 3 bothered to reply, and then only to tell me (politely) that they weren't interested. I received "auto-reply" messages from a couple of them telling me that they would get back to me when they got a chance. I did have one nice conversation with a woman outside my search radius, but that's all it was. Several women did contact me who clearly were scammers of some sort, one who really wanted me to send her my cell number.
AFF profiles indicate when a member joined and his/her last login. I noticed a substantial number of women's profiles which had not been logged into since the day they were put up months or years earlier. They had either found someone that quick, or had soured on the AFF experience that quick.
I also noticed that anomalous clusters of women listed certain small towns as their location. It does not surprise me that there are female AFF members in small towns, maybe even two in a town of less than 1000 population, but when there is 3 or 4, I'm betting that at least one is a fake of some sort.
I decided not to renew my Gold membership, and, sure enough, the day it expired, I got a bunch of messages, including one from one of the auto-reply ladies.
It may be possible, were I patient enough, that I could meet an interesting woman through AFF, but I am no longer willing to pay for the privilege. AFF may not be a scam, but it's probably a waste of your time and money.