Update 2nd Jan 2019: camfly.com has now closed down and ceased operations.
It would be easy to write off CamFly modeling as a straight up scam. I mean, they advertise a $1000 signing bonus right on the homepage. If it’s a guarantee, it’s “too good to be true.” If it’s too good to be true, it isn’t true. But to get to the bottom of CamFly.com we have to actually do some digging.
Let’s start with that $1000 signing bonus.
A quick look through the FAQ leads us to more information, and the signing bonus requirements.
The bonus is not a guarantee, so we can’t assume the cam site is a scam. The requirements are reasonable too, which leads me to think it’s more legit than not.
But there’s more.
Really? There is very little information available about CamFly. A quick Google search comes up with an article that jumps to the scam theory and an unanswered question about a suspension of operations. None of the camgirls I initially spoke with about this had ever heard of the site. It seems to be a ghost. How can they claim to be the Largest Model Platform in North America?
I think we can figure this out.
A CamFly ad I found on Backpage said nothing about a bonus and instead offered a base rate of $20/hour plus commission. The base rate business model is too easy to abuse, and it never seems to last long when cam sites try to set themselves apart by offering it.
The word guaranteed appears. Scam? Or mere incompetence?
Take a look.
This appears to be old information that someone forgot to take down when it became obsolete.
I was lucky enough to find a model who actually worked on CamFly during the summer of 2014!
She was making $1/min in Exclusive one-on-one chat, and $0.80/min in Premium group chat. This pay structure sounds an awful lot like Streamate’s pay structure. The difference is that CamFly’s numbers amount to pocket change.
In September 2014, CamFly posted a Suspension of Operations notice onto the model interface. It’s only visible to current models.
It reads as follows:
CamFly has suspended operations
All payments for shows up to today will be shortly processed and will be received as usual. Note all future shows until operations resume will not be paid.
In the meantime, if this suspension is affecting your ability to earn money as a webcam model, we recommend one of the following sites:
I’ve removed their recommended sites because I didn’t recognize most of them, and I don’t want any misleading information appearing on O Camgirl.
If you have any support questions, please contact us at support@camfly.com.
Thank you!
CamFly Team
At the same time, CamFly’s social media presence died. It looks to me like the original CamFly team gave up on their cam site.
I say this because when the model I spoke with logs in to her CamFly account it now redirects her to Streamate’s login page.
Here’s what I think based on the information we have.
CamFly WAS a small site trying to offer something different. They failed. They sold out to Streamate who now takes their traffic and gives them a percentage of their models’ paychecks in return. In the end, CamFly is just another Streamate studio.
This doesn’t explain why the homepage is still sitting there offering that $1000 signing bonus. I have no way of verifying whether it’s a legit offer at this point because I am already a Streamate model.
There is also no contact information offered on their website, but they did leave their email address on the suspension of operations notice above.
I sent an email requesting information on the current situation, and will of course update this if and when I receive a response.
Know something I don’t about CamFly? If you have any comments or questions on this subject I would love to hear from you. Please leave your thoughts below and I’ll be sure to respond as soon as I can.
If you want to become a Streamate model, I recommend going to them directly so that you receive the full commission. You’ll also get more control over your account than most studios offer.
Cheers.
Great digging Cat/Priscillaluv. I have mad respect for anyone who does reviews this in-depth as I really try to do the same on my site. Keep up the great work!
Thanks a lot Jolie! 🙂
I actually used to work for these guys. It was a small group (less than 5) developers that work(ed) in MD through a company called AGX Funds.
The “CEO” was this guy – https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-rensin-85021a13?trk=pub-pbmap who made a ton of money through predatory loans on electronics for the impoverished..
They routinely stole website design from other people, microsoft software, and all sorts of things.
I’m curious- in what capacity did you work for these guys? These are some serious allegations, so I’m hesitant to take you at your word without some kind of proof. But, thanks for sharing this interesting comment on my post.
Best, Cat
I also used to work as a developer for the company. It started out as an attempt to make a “virtual studio” with with distribution to multiple other cam-sites through a single front-end, but the software was incredibly expensive to develop and the business model ended up being the lowest common denominator (video and chats delivered to some some tip only sites, some with gold shows, some tat allowed nude in free, some that did not, etc.).
I ultimately was let go right before they suspended service. They briefly (I’d say days after I left and development ceased just modified their page to be a streamate studio. In my own capacity, I definitely never STOLE someone’s code as listed above, unless an open-sourced library and those are FREE. When I started there were about ten developers and an offshore team. When I left, well, lets just say a lot less than five developers.
I did not always agree with their hiring (and rampant firing) practices, but was not aware of the “Blue Hippo” issue until after signing on.
I will say that management was incredibly demanding from developers and fired many almost as quickly as they were hired.. However, I also did some of the most technically demanding work of my career there. It didn’t work out in the end, but I wrote a lot of interesting code that had it been used as a straight camsite instead of in a “virtual studio” I think would have been way ahead of the other site’s technologically.