penpalsnow

I'm someone who's used a number of sites like this. While Penpals Now! Isn't the absolute worst of the ones I've come across, I think it's towards the bottom of the pile.

The one thing that makes this site stand out as particularly bad is that anyone is able to see your email address after clicking to see it. This strikes me as the kind of thing that ought not happen--it's an easy way for people to find your email address and sell it to mailing lists. It'd be much better for the site to have something like Students of the World has (or at least used to have when I used it) where the site lets you type the email but it sends it. That way you'd still be able to email someone you're interested in, but people wouldn't be able to see your email address unless you decided to respond.

My other big issue with this is that some of the people who use this site are 16-18. Previously the site allowed kids aged as young as 13, but they changed that to be compliant with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation that was implemented in 2018. While they do warn that anyone can see the email address, I feel like this isn't an issue that should come up at all; especially when it's required to give them the email address and when anybody can see that. Knowing how the internet is, and especially given that a site like this can sometimes attract unsavoury people, I'm not convinced the people who run the site have thought this "feature" out.

I think the site itself is a bit of an eyesore as well. While I understand that a site like this most likely won't get a whole lot of ad revenue, surely there's some way of monetising sites like this without the ads regularly taking up half the screen.

The search function is fine; it does what it's supposed to do and is intuitive enough to use. That's really the most I can say about this site--at least the search function is what it's supposed to be. The major downside to the search function here is that the results are limited to five per page while on other sites like this, you might get ten or twenty results per page.

In terms of the actual userbase, there's something offputting about a lot of the people on the site. On any other site like this that I've used, there's always been a few people who've mainly been using the site as a way to find a date or to convert other people to their religion. However, on Pen Pals Now!, there seems to be a disproportionate number of people like this.

I'm not entirely sure if the website designers intended this to be the case or if they were hoping it'd sort itself out over time, but I can't imagine too many people wanting to spend much time there. This is especially the case with younger people, most of whom are probably going to be hesitant to reply to a guy in his fifties telling them about how Jesus saved his life or something.

All in all, it seems like there's really not much positive to be said about this site. If you're looking for something like this, maybe go for another site. You'd probably have a much better time there.

I went on this site to find a woman to write to for Friendship. All I found was women looking for relationship, husband and a hook up. I wrote to a woman for a few days, only to find out it was a man. There are multi profiles of a woman advertising for an hook up for multi states, clearly she is an ESCORT. If you are lucky to get some one to write to after a few days they start saying that something bad happen and they would like you to send them some money to help, or ask you to go into business with them.
If you are lucky to find a woman to write to, you might get a few emails from them before they disrepair. The people who owns and runs this site should take responsibly for the content of this site and do a house cleaning of the profiles. Just delete anyone who is not looking for a PEN PAL.

People around this website are weird. Most of the girls from UK and USA disappear after one-two days despite they claim they want to build up a long lasting friendship; most of people claim they want to have meaningful discussions but they are unable to maintain any discussion, being able only to use one line statements which often are limited to "Hi", "Yes", "No". All of the people who have the classic statement "I don't like people who disappear" in their ad always disappear.
My suggestion is to ignore this website at all, and if you really need friends, switch your computer off and go outside. You will meet many foreign friends in person in your life, so there is no need to waste your time with annoying pals from Penpalsnow.

This site is not as bad as other reviews suggest. You can find plenty of interesting people there. And certain unwanted countries can be filtered out. Also good for foreign language practice.

This site is absolutely free.
It allows you to enter your email address and those who want to reach you personally and privately can!
There are people here of all ages, all sexes and all countries of the world.

This website is nothing but rubbish! There are no people on t here at all. The only thing that I get is tons and loads of letters from prisoners from CORRLINKS. I checked my age group for female penpals my age and do you know that I was the ONLY one who had signed up for MONTHS? There is absolutely NO ONE on here to talk with. I don't recommend this site at all. It is horrible!

Last November, I went to this website to find a penpal. I wanted a free site, as I don't have much money.

I dealt with over 20 people, all men. No women answered hardly. And the men wanted either cyber-s*x or they were rude to me. I would tell them what I wanted in a pen pal, what my interests were and what I liked and did not like.

I would get replies soliciting their penpalship and then they would only write a few times, usually until they either saw my pic (which they usually DEMANDED!) or they would stop writing after I would tell them a little more about myself. And I even asked them to make closure with me if it didn't work out.

The site claims to not have any responsibility for what happens off site. I don't see anyone misbehaving on the site, but the moment me and the penpals are off site, they think they can act however they want.

I was cyber r*ped by at least 2 men that I had met on this site. I am 40 something years old and it happens to women of ALL ages. Not right! Not cool!

Psychological abuse and verbal and emotional abuse can be just as (sometimes more!) damaging as physical abuse is. Being ignored or shunned or blown off without any closure or notice can be damaging especially to a person's (someone who genuinely wants to make friends and is lonely online!) psyche!

I was damaged on this site. I wanted to make friends online and all I got was this monkey shine behavior by men who think that messing with women is fun!

I feel also that Pen Pals Now is misrepresenting themself by calling themself a pen pal site and allowing this to happen! I did not know that it was such a dangerous place. I did not give out any personal information and luckily did not get flamed or threatened. But dealing with these men left me very psychologically upset and confused! I am safe, but I am concerned about others who are more vulnerable!

Men on this site seem to think that if they can go on it for free and not pay for cyber sex or phone sex, like on Live Links, they think they can demand off site sex or they can treat someone (esp a woman) like dirt online. NOT COOL!

Please stay away from this site, esp if you are a woman or if you are a minor and do not allow your kids to go on this site unsupervised!

I've been using this site for the past month so I'd have time to form an opinion on this site before passing judgement on it. Here's what I've learned, people in other countries who say that they want to talk to someone who speaks in English are liars. I've sent 20+ emails to people in other countries some in English others in their own language and out of all of those countries. Only 1 person has replied back, I thought that it was because I was doing something wrong and they weren't able to recieve my emails but since 1 person replied back it proves this is false and they're just ignoring them. But going back to the review, I've noticed a trend going on. More then half of the people on the site are depressed and are looking for someone to fill the void in their lives it's not a site for making new friends or getting to know someone. You are basically the source of entertainment for these low lifes.