Global Penfriends Reviews 

The people or persons who run this site are unhinged and very rude. I'm assuming it's one person because anything takes forever. Weeks to get a profile approved, days to get a photo approved, etc.
I payed for an account and had it for months before getting a random message one day from said mod demanding I send a picture of a utility bill to "confirm my location." That seems super sketchy to me and I refused to do that so my account was locked/removed.
I'm honestly more upset I can't just get a refund than anything. The site is clunky, poorly made, poorly maintained. It's really just a quasi-social media site that pretends to be something deeper. 99% of people you interact with don't want to exchange physicals letters, they want to send e-mails or messages through the site. The majority of them seem to be fishing for attention, same as any other social media site. Most will randomly stop talking to you. Several obvious scammers interacted with me while I was on the site and all the apparent "safety nets" the site claims don't seem to work in practice. I guess the "18 year old Russian girl" sending me Telegram requests didn't have to scan in a utility bill like I was ordered to.
Letter writing is dead, this site might as well be. Don't waste your time and certainly don't waste your money.

They want you to send your address on a bill from your address to prove you live at your address. I committed to only receive emails so it’s not like they have my address anyway.

They only asked for it after they locked my account because I traveled outside the country. I also used a fake name as suggested by the app. So I’m not sure how they’ll prove it’s even me. It feels like a scam. I’m not sending my mail. That’s ridiculous. I would NOT recommend. Poor customer service.

Yes, there are unfortunately some scammers there and some men that use the site for flirting, but I found them easy to identify.

Because of the scammers, I would not recommend this site for children og teens.

I have gotten several nice panpals from different parts of the world. We exchange stories, cultural diffrences, recipes, travel recommendations ect.

I made contact with 2 penpals and wrote them good first messages.
Did not get a reply until 5 weeks later and that's fine.

But I cannot log in, I cannot contact G
Pf and I think computer is telling me that the incoming messsage cannot be verified. So I am left feeling the sender must feel 'ghosted'! It's not right.

Is it Gbf or computer?

Same as Just a Scottish girl situation. I can said this website is so stupidly. They enforce me need to upload the prolife of myself. So do i, i upload my friend but they don't accept this, they want to force me to upload my face. Does this affect to them ? I'm uploading an original and real prolife. Global Penfriend accusing me is upload fake images. But these images is my favorite characters. I want noticed Global Penfriends sometimes is quitely useless too !
About friend that i have some good personal friend and they enjoyed to contact me too :-)

BRO, the mods dont care fr if you want your account to be approved, like bro i waited 1 day and it still hadnt approved, "wE tAkE 2-10 hOuRs to AppRoOOoOvE YoUr acCOuNT" like seriously shut up

Same thing happened with me, as other reviews mentioned.
I have tried creating an account multiple times, but the profile gets deleted without any notification. Just when you try logging in, you get the error that the profile does not exist.
No reply to emails either.

I was banned for "talking about Genitals" when infact I was talking about Circumcision in the context of converting to Islam.

I am female. I recently went on to Global Penfriends and have been contacted by a number of nice people, including a lady from France to whom I have written back. All good.

However, I wish like to warn other female users that some of the men on this site are using Global Penfriends as a dating platform; that you need to be extremely careful.

So I am sharing my experience.

I was contacted by a man in the United States. He sent me a message but his profile had no photograph and contained just scant details. So I was cautious and initially left it.

After a few weeks, I felt that I should at least reply briefly out of politeness.

After a reply, he encouraged me to come off the site the day after I messaged, he wanted me to use email, then WhatsApp. I didn’t see the harm at first because I can easily block him and I simply wanted to chat about cultural differences.

Unfortunately, his behaviour soon became really unsettling; intrusive, intense. Without my consent or encouragement, he sent me long emails telling me what to do about my health, he put money into my PayPal account using my email address without my knowledge /consent, he pressured me frequently into doing video calls when I didn’t want to and wrote me poetry. All of it unsolicited.

I was unsure what to do, he was nice to talk to and we’d had some longer chats.

However, within days, his manner quickly changed to being aggressive; his tone was demanding, controlling.

He then bizarrely started attacking me in different ways eg. suddenly accusing me of being intimate with my long term friend. He also pretended to be a criminal when I asked him about his past as a “joke”.

He abruptly then cut contact with me after just a week because he said I was still wearing my wedding ring.

He told me repeatedly I was a liar- that I should not have placed my marital status online as divorced, despite being only three months away from being legally divorced.

Global Penfriends is not a dating site. I wished to keep some more detailed information private as my right. I’m looking for penpals only.

He attempted to extrapolate many details about my personal life which he later weaponised and used to devalued me.

Behaviour like this is not only disrespectful, but could cause real harm.

Please be aware that there are toxic, predatory men using this platform as a method to target women they see as vulnerable or attractive.

I have made a complaint to Global Penfriends and given them the man’s details.

This individual also stated that if a girlfriend treated him badly, that he would kill her. I’m not sure if this was a literal or empty threat. But a frightening red flag.

I would caution women to be vigilant; do not to reply to any messages where there is no photograph or further details about whom they are contacting.

This man did have a job as I checked out who he was online. He didn’t volunteer any details though at first - I had to research him.

His behaviour was raptorial; it bordered on harassment then suddenly became attacking, critical and withdrawing for reasons which are clearly possessive in nature. This all happened within a week.

Obviously I was naive. But initially he was good to talk to, had a professional job and was interested in sharing US/UK culture.

His hidden agenda only revealed itself later with all the hallmarks of grooming. I found his behaviour truly scary; I blocked all contact afterwards.

My recommendation would be not to go off-line whatsoever if requested until you know the person well and trust has been established. Stay in the website chat board for safety.

I made a Goliath sized mistake thinking that he would just be wanting to chat. He was using the site to date, obviously looking for a relationship.

After a video call, he realised that I just wanted to be friends only ( as I stated), and that I was not attracted to him. He became aggressive, undermining, he weaponised my personal information and sent me a ghosting text message.

So this is to warn women on the site please be careful and not to engage offsite with men they have just connected with or are unsure of.

I do not blame GPF at all as a company; I chose to leave the site for contact.

However, I think photographs should be mandatory for over 18’s and careful checks made on users that they are not using the forum primarily as a dating site.

This site is an absolute joke. Signed up, followed all the rules, waited 24 hours for approval, and then got banned for no reason. No warning, no explanation, nothing. Tried emailing them, but the admins act like they’re gods who don’t have to answer to anyone.

It’s clear they don’t actually want people using their site—just a bunch of control freaks banning whoever they feel like. If you enjoy wasting your time and being treated like garbage, go ahead and sign up. Otherwise, avoid this place like the plague.

Only getting 2 stars because I've met some nice female friends but I paid for the premium because I couldn't friend any more people and they haven't upgraded anything but it says I'm premium. I'll cancel soon but I'll say it's a scam

The website states that if you're a free member, you won't be able to get in touch with 20% of the people you try to contact. I have no problem with that. However, I was refused contact with the very first person I wanted to write to and am wondering whether this was a trick to ensure you pay to become a full member.

Contraté una membresía de 6 meses con Global Penfriends, emocionado por la posibilidad de conectar con personas de otros países y practicar mi inglés. Sin embargo, mi cuenta fue bloqueada apenas cuatro días después de haber pagado, sin previo aviso ni una explicación clara.

Inicialmente, el equipo de soporte afirmó que la razón del bloqueo era "scamming", pero luego cambiaron la justificación a "demasiados reportes". Estas inconsistencias son preocupantes, especialmente porque no se me proporcionaron pruebas de las acusaciones ni se me dio la oportunidad de aclarar o apelar la situación.

Cuando intenté resolver el problema, el equipo fue tajante al decir que no me otorgarían un reembolso. Solo pude recuperar mi dinero a través de un reclamo con el intermediario de pago. Lo que es aún más desconcertante es que después de iniciar el proceso de reembolso, recibí un correo por parte de Global Penfriends que parecía una táctica intimidatoria para que retirara mi solicitud. Esto me pareció poco profesional y poco ético.

En resumen, mi experiencia con Global Penfriends fue decepcionante. La falta de transparencia, la gestión inconsistente de las cuentas y el trato hacia los usuarios no cumplen con las expectativas de un servicio de pago. No recomendaría esta plataforma a nadie que valore la seriedad y el respeto como cliente.

Made a wonderful penpal, would rate this site 100000 if i could.

I am an aspiring English teacher, and in August 2024, I began a CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) course. As part of the program, teacher trainees are required to conduct nine classes under the supervision of a tutor. One of my students, a 21-year-old Korean, excelled in listening, speaking, and reading but struggled significantly with writing—a common challenge, as writing is often the most complex language skill to master. To assist him, I explored online platforms to connect him with pen pals and discovered Global Penfriends.

I registered on Global Penfriends on September 27, quickly familiarized myself with its features, sent a couple of messages to other users, and stopped using the platform after two days, as my primary goal was simply to understand how it worked—not to find pen pals for myself. However, three months later, a woman my age contacted me through the platform, asking for help with her Italian (my native language). We exchanged a few messages, and I offered to practice with her. Surprisingly, a few hours later, my account was blocked.

I emailed the support team to request an explanation and, after four days without a response, sent a follow-up email. Eventually, I received a reply instructing me to send a photo of myself standing in front of a mirror, with both hands visible, holding a sheet of paper labeled "GPF." To comply with their request, I provided the photo but wrote "GPF" on an envelope I had recently received, which bore my full name, thinking this would further validate my identity. Shortly afterward, my account was reinstated—but all my posts had been deleted.

In addition, I received an email from the administrator with a series of strict instructions: I was required to use profile photos that had never been uploaded anywhere else online (e.g., not the ones I used on Facebook or X) and was warned about behaviors that could lead to permanent account removal—despite having never engaged in such actions. Frustrated by the excessive demands and lack of clarity, I requested the immediate deletion of my profile.

Based on my experience, I strongly advise researching Global Penfriends before using the platform. My story is not unique, as it seems the administrator frequently removes accounts without clear justification, leaving users with unnecessary inconvenience and frustration.

Be very careful - it’s easy to be misled - I think there are some nice people on there but not my experience. I got a great conversation going then the guy asked me to get Telegram for ease of communication- two days later clearly a scam . Another one lit up red - advised to delete was using as a dating sight. Very disappointed and frankly frightened wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole. Thankfully not on there long enough to have issues with them taking my profile down just canx subscription and got off there. I thought I had really met someone fantastic so very upset but he was clearly scamming me.

Been contacted by real people here. Only one of these so called penpal sites i have used that have not been taken over by scammers. Also the only one nice people actually have responded to my messages and wanted to exchange communication. When I read the bad reviews here, figured it would be just like the others I have tried, but so far, so good.

I had a scammer girl who I reported, but they just say the profile looks innocent. This is an awful site!

If I could give them "0" stars, I would. I had an account for about a year, no problem, made some nice friends that I chatted with online. For no reason, they shut my account down. They asked for verification with a utility bill, which I sent; a picture of me holding a sign that said "GPF" which I sent and then suspended my account anyway and still took money out of my account for the monthly membership. They grilled me about my use of a second email (which was an updated email for the account), but apparently still didn't believe I was who I said I was even after I jumped through all their hoops to verify my identity. I wouldn't care except I lost all my messages from my online friends that I had been chatting with for months. I should have downloaded them, but I never thought they would just pull them off like that. They were quite nasty to me and I would never use their site again. Awful business and awful customer service.
12/12/25: I read the business's response. Again, awful business and awful customer service. Since I left this review over a year ago, I've found a better penpal site, lovely, helpful and full of international contacts with a lot of choices. I hope GPF goes out of business. The sooner the better.

I had made some friends on this website and was chatting to them exclusively through the website. With no warning, explanation, and for no good reason my profile was taken down. I tried reaching out for an explanation but was just ignored. I haven't been able to get in touch with my friends, because I am blocked from making an account on there. :-(