Sugar dating is flourishing all around the world, but unfortunately, the number of men who entered mutually beneficial arrangements and suffered from sugar baby scams is growing, too. Many girls also wonder how to know if a sugar daddy is real and what to do to protect themselves from fraudsters. We decided to analyze the most common sugar daddy scams to minimize their negative impact. Our team conducted research, collected data, and surveyed people to develop this overview of sugar dating scams and share practical advice.
Most popular types of sugar daddy scamsÂ
Users who look for companions on legit sugar daddy websites can’t be fully confident that they are protected from scams. Unfortunately, even the best platform isn’t a guarantee that you won’t be cheated, so always keep in mind what most sugar daddy scams look like online.Â
Social Networks
Fraudsters often use social media platforms to deceive other users. Their primary goals are to get financial gain or steal personal and sensitive data. Suppose these are sugar daddy or sugar momma scams. In that case, fraudsters create fake profiles on social media platforms and pretend to be wealthy individuals to attract potential sugar babies, gain their trust, and finally cheat them.
A classic social media sugar daddy scam usually includes several steps:
- A scammer finds a victim, usually young and vulnerable, on a social media platform.
- He initiates communication and claims to be a wealthy “sugar daddy” offering a generous weekly allowance in exchange for minimal emotional connection or conversations.
- They shower the target with compliments, promises, and “proof” of wealth (photos of cash, screenshots of bank balances, luxury lifestyle posts).
- A fake sugar daddy encourages leaving the social media platform and moving to traditional mobile texting, so sometimes they are called WhatsApp or Telegram sugar daddy scams.
- A scammer makes different suspicious requests. Sometimes it can be banking information and sensitive data to “send” a gift to you. There are fraudsters who ask for preliminary payments as a guarantee of the arrangement.
- A fraudster soon disappears or stops answering if he/she has received what was required.
This is a general approach that works on the majority of social media sites, but the most popular destinations for sugar daddy scammers are described below.
Facebook is one of the most visited social networks with over 5 billion registered members. Facebook offers dozens of sugar daddy and baby groups that attract scammers. Scammers often create fake profiles, for example, under the name “James Carter,” posing as a 45-year-old successful businessman. The profile is usually filled with photos of a lavish lifestyle: yachts, private jets, and designer suits. “James” joins “sugar daddy” groups on Facebook, messages women with promises of gifts, and builds trust with charming stories. Eventually, a scammer asks for $500 to “unlock” funds or personal information, disappearing after receiving the money or stealing the identity.
When it comes to sugar baby scams Instagram is one of the main hunting grounds. It focuses on representing a person’s individuality and lifestyle in the form of high-quality photographs and short videos that make it easy for scammers to pretend they’re someone they’re not. They usually steal other women’s photos, create fake profiles, and attract potential sugar daddies to extort their money via Instagram sugar daddy scams. No wonder that Instagram and Facebook were behind one-third of financial losses from romance scams in 2023.
Snapchat
Snapchat with disappearing photos and videos is utilized by criminals, too. The most popular type of Snapchat sugar baby scam is to ask for nude or hot photos and then blackmail rich men with saved images. Even the app warns members about financial sextortion on its pages, so you should be careful building NSA relationships there.
TikTok
With over 2 billion registered users, TikTok members are more likely to encounter a scam than any other social media platform: 60% of surveyed people admitted to encountering a scam on TikTok weekly. No wonder TikTok sugar daddy scams are characterized by registering fake accounts, DMing girls out of nowhere, offering $500 a week for nothing, sending fake screenshots, asking to pay a fee, or moving to WhatsApp or Telegram. Girls can get into the trap of sugar daddy scams on Tiktok and lose money or sensitive data.
Discord
Discord is an ultimate hangout spot for over 300 million users. However, despite robust security measures, it’s still vulnerable to fake sugar daddy scam involving hacked accounts and using them to pretend to be someone else, malicious links to steal sensitive data like bank account information, for example, and shady data harvesting that can expose users to real-world risks.
Payment platforms & methods
The criminals managed to steal over $1 trillion within 12 months of 2024, and romance scams are one of the most popular ones. Mutually beneficial relationships are based on financial rewards, so a sugar baby or sugar daddy scammer can cheat their victims using different payment methods.
Venmo, CashApp, and Zelle
Venmo, CashApp, and Zelle are popular payment methods that are used by scammers. The latter ones invent very convincing reasons why they need money and ask their victims to send it, giving promises to send it back. Naturally, this money is never returned and is lost forever. To avoid suffering from a sugar daddy CashApp scam, never send money to someone you haven’t met in person, and check the request is real by using the company’s or bank’s trusted contact methods, not the links or numbers the scammer gives you.
PayPal
Sugar daddy scams via Paypal happen by utilizing so-called pending transactions. A sugar daddy can send a screenshot of the pending transaction and request a small amount from a sugar baby to confirm that she’s real. After a scammer gets money, he cancels a pending transaction and disappears.
Gift cards
Sugar babies can be rewarded not only with real money but also with gift cards according to a sugar daddy agreement, so fraudsters utilize them for their benefit, too. Users who pretend to be sugar daddies ask girls to give them a small gift card of $50 or $100 to prove their loyalty, and they promise to give them thousands of dollars instead. Cheating several ladies a day, scammers may earn impressive amounts!
Stolen credit cards
You may be surprised to discover an unexpected sugar daddy or sugar mommy scam with stolen credit cards. The latter ones may send their sugar babies money from such cards and ask for a payback as a sign of gratitude to another account. It also often happens that fraudulent money is usually taken back by credit card companies, so sugar babies can lose their own money because of that.
One more example of a sugar daddy scam is using the victim’s personal information to create a credit card account and spend money from its balance, leaving a sugar baby with a huge bill!
Checks
An average sugar daddy check scam isn’t so popular nowadays, but some fraudsters still utilize it. A so-called sugar daddy may send a check to a lady, and this mail is destined to bounce. At the same time, a scammer asks a sugar baby to send him or someone else money back as an emergency. This approach used to work with physical checks, but modern criminals benefit from it with e-checks and mobile check deposits, too.
Malware & other scams
Malware scams are a growing problem since millions of attacks occur daily. The number of new pieces of malware is equal to 560,000 every day, so it isn’t surprising to see suspicious links as a part of a sugar baby scam. Many sugar baby scams use links to “sexy pictures” or videos as bait. Sugar daddies may use links as a way for a sugar baby to get payment, but this malware can lead to identity theft and money losses.
Naturally, there are many other types of scams you may come across in sugar dating as well, like phantom sugar baby contracts, fake job or modeling offers, but if you know how to recognize a scammer, your chances of being a victim are minimal.
Signs that you’re being scammed or how to spot a scammerÂ
Every sugar baby wants to find out not only if a sugar daddy is real but also if he is looking for dating. Luckily, several fake sugar daddy signs help you recognize a scammer, block and report him:
- Too ideal or vice versa, empty profile. You should think twice if you see a god in photos who promises to shower you with gold and cash. Profiles with little information and photos that look like stock images also look suspicious.
- Lots of errors and overuse of emojis in messages. Poor texts with no facts and many typos not only look depressing but also lack trust. A desire to substitute text with pictures is also a method to distract attention from other details.
- Push to move from sugar dating or paypig websites. Fake sugar daddies prefer to interact in more secure chat services to have their messages encrypted and untraceable.
- Excuses to avoid a video chat. Sugar partners negotiate the rules of their arrangements or set virtual dates, and often do that by video. Scammers look for other ways of interaction, offering a variety of reasons why they can’t talk in real time.
- Personal information requests. A fraudster will provide you with a variety of reasons why you should share some facts about yourself, usually in small portions. This phishing tactic is used to get your data, like passwords, or can even lead to identity theft.
- Asking for money. This is a red light for a dater since scammers may invent a variety of reasons why they need money. Real sugar daddies never do that!
What to do if you’ve been scammed
If you weren’t lucky enough to spot a fake sugar daddy and suffered from a scam, you shouldn’t be afraid to share this situation:
- First, stop an interaction with a scammer or someone you find suspicious.
- Report the scam to the support service of the sugar dating website you used, as well as turn to the police, where you’ll be informed on how to act further.
- Collect the maximum amount of evidence as you can. Download photos, take screenshots of messaging, take notes of the facts you remember, etc. This information can help catch a scammer.
- If you lost money because of a fake sugar daddy/baby, it’s important to contact your bank and freeze the account or credit card to prevent further money losses. You should also change passwords and report identity theft if you have faced it.
If you want to enjoy a sugar dating experience in the role of a sugar baby or sugar daddy, you should keep in mind that scammers may hide anywhere. Therefore, it’s important to discover if sugar daddy is legit, what types of scams exist nowadays, and what to do to avoid getting into the scammer’s trap online. Hope this article was helpful and informative enough for you.
