'Prank' appears to be culprit of alleged adult hook-up site account linked to GOP Ohio candidate, per founder

The allegations leveled at GOP senate candidate from Ohio Bernie Moreno claiming that he is linked to a profile on sex hook-up site "Adult Friend Finder" are unfounded according to company founder Andrew Conru.

According to a post from Conru, who founded Adult Friend Finder and wrote much of its early coding, a previously published Associated Press report over an alleged profile of Moreno allegedly created in 2008 "had only a single visit, no activity, no profile photo, consistent with a prank or someone just checking out the site."

Conru further said, "The AP report seeming to claim that the available data proves the account was created in Florida is inaccurate, as location information is manually entered during the signup process. In reality, there appears to be no public geolocation data tied to the account."

"It's important to recognize that even temporary access to an email account is sufficient to create a fake dating profile in someone else's name," he added. "My sincere apologies to Bernie and anyone similarly affected by the 2016 data incident."

Conru said there was a large data breach on the site in 2016. Debunking the AP's reporting, Conru said that geolocation is not tied to the account. The founder said that location settings are manually entered into accounts when they are made. 

Moreno, 57, has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump as well as other GOP figures and Trump is scheduled to speak with him in Dayton on Saturday afternoon. 

Mr. Moreno will “fight the corrupt Deep State that is destroying our Country,” the former president wrote in a Truth Social post. 

Moreno has also been endorsed by Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and JD Vance (R-OH.)