Some of the paydays are enormous. Last year, Corinna Kopf revealed she’d earned $67 million since 2021 on OnlyFans, the subscription-based platform where creators share exclusive — and often explicit — images and videos. In November, Sophie Rain posted receipts showing OF earnings of $43 million for the previous 12 months.

But beneath the site’s profitable exterior lies, some claim, a much darker reality.

“People think, ‘Oh, you can just sell [pictures of] your feet on there’ or ‘I think it’s liberating,’” says Victoria Sinis, who worked for an agency that recruited women for OnlyFans.

The more time she spent in that world, the more she felt repelled by the “sick and twisted” sexual requests men sent her clients, including demands “to put someone in danger.” (The OnlyFans rep says the platform “prohibits illegal and harmful behavior. We have zero tolerance for such conduct.”)

Married at First Sight’s Olivia Frazer earned $500,000 in her first four months on the platform in 2022. She admits that’s because she crossed her own line, succumbing to intense “pressure” from subscribers to post topless photos instead of lingerie pics.

Predators have used OF to exploit minors. In July, Reuters published a report documenting 30 legal complaints of child sexual abuse material that appeared on the site between December 2019 and June 2024. (A company spokesperson insists OF “aggressively” targets, reports and supports prosecutions of those who “abuse our platform in this way.”)

Some women have been stalked. YouTuber Tana Mongeau, who made $10 million her first two years on the platform, hired security after a man armed with knives allegedly showed up outside her L.A. home in 2022. Model Hannah Palmer — who made more than $5 million in her first two years — was terrified when she was texted pictures of her house’s interior and “violent and sexual” threats from an unknown number, she’s claimed.

Despite her own financial windfall, Sophie, 20, has a warning for others with OF ambitions.

“This career is not sunshine and rainbows 24/7, and if you don’t make it big, it will not be worth it,” she wrote on social media in December. “Anyone who is doing it, I wish you all success, but please don’t quit your jobs for this.”