OnlyFans is facing yet another lawsuit. This time, it’s about authenticity, which might explain why OnlyFans has randomly been requiring creators to re-verify their accounts for the last two months.

Two former subscribers have filed a class-action lawsuit against OnlyFans and its parent companies, alleging that the platform allowed creators to use third-party chat agencies that impersonated them, misleading users into paying for personal interaction that never existed.

The plaintiffs, identified as M. Brunner and J. Fry, both residents of Illinois, claim they subscribed to various OnlyFans accounts under the impression they were communicating directly with the content creators. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, asserts that if they had known creators were outsourcing their interactions to agencies, they would not have subscribed or would have paid significantly less.

According to the complaint, Brunner and Fry believed they were establishing personal rapport with the creators they followed. Fry, for instance, joined the platform to “engage in friendly conversations with models and share photographs of his cooking creations.”

The illusion began to unravel when Fry received conflicting messages, inconsistencies, and impersonal responses, prompting him to suspect that he was not speaking to the creator at all.

The lawsuit claims this practice amounts to consumer fraud, stating:

“OnlyFans consciously and deliberately frustrates the agreed common purposes of the contract and disappoints the reasonable expectations of Plaintiffs and Class Members, thereby depriving them of the benefit of their bargain.”

The suit names Fenix Internet, LLC and Fenix International Limited as defendants—the U.S. and U.K.-based companies that operate OnlyFans.

While the plaintiffs do not provide concrete evidence that the individuals they spoke to were agency employees, they point to the implausibility of a single person sending out personalized messages and custom videos to hundreds of thousands of subscribers as reason to believe impersonation occurred.

One creator allegedly had over 700,000 fans, leading Fry and Brunner to doubt the authenticity of their interactions.

The lawsuit highlights an industry-wide practice. Numerous agencies openly advertise services where staff—sometimes called “chatters”—manage a creator’s messages and engage with subscribers on their behalf. In 2021, a separate lawsuit accused Unruly Agency, a major player in this space, of manipulating fans into divulging intimate personal information under false pretenses.

Although the use of chat agencies is widespread and well-documented, OnlyFans has maintained that these agencies operate independently:

“Any third party that a creator elects to work with does not work on behalf of OnlyFans and is not affiliated with the company in any way,” a company spokesperson told Cosmopolitan last year.

This is not the first time OnlyFans has faced legal scrutiny over so-called “chatter scams.” In July 2024, a separate class-action lawsuit brought by five users made similar allegations. That case is currently set to go to trial in 2027.

Brunner and Fry seek damages for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and violations of consumer protection laws. Their case also calls for a ban on OnlyFans, which allows creators to delegate interactions to third-party agencies without disclosing them to users.

The plaintiffs say they would consider resubscribing if OnlyFans changed its policies. For now, the case underscores growing questions about transparency and authenticity in the lucrative world of online fan platforms.