It’s come to attention that classifieds sites, personals, dating, and escort sites Australia-wide have been up to some mischief as of late (actually, for years.) This applies to advertisers, and people seeking company on those sites.

Sites in question (some):

• locanto.com.au (scammers, criminal groups robbing men and women, fraudsters)
• escortsandbabes.com.au (leaking personal sign up phone numbers to other sites)
• secrethostess.com (scraping and reposting from other sites, often with personal contact info and incorrect info)
• scarletamour.com (as above)
• aussietopescorts.com (as above)
• naughtyads.com.au (as above)
• redescorts.com (as above)

Advice:

• DO NOT sign up with your personal phone number at ANY stage. Use a burner phone
• Watermark photos (subtle enough to not be seen by the naked eye) and remove all EXIF metadata
• ^^^ There are services we provide.

Should your details be leaked, shared without permission, or image reposted – well, the sites are behind more than just leaking details, people on them are operating in criminal groups (as defined by the NSW Crimes Act 1900 No. 40) to rob both men and women. In Wollongong alone, there have been armed robberies, assaults, wire fraud, alleged kidnappings, and more. No further comment on those matters can be given.

At this point, things are just getting started, but we are aware of this, and so far, some money has been recovered, the sites themselves may put in a token effort to take down an ad, but the sites themselves should worry more about their poor security. Most seem to be affiliated and run from a similar web server, as loosely shown by the image below: