🔥Sugar Daddy Scam: Things You Didn’t Know About Sugar Dating In 2024

What should a beginner sugar baby do first? In fact, it’s not finding a professional photographer and even setting the right price—the first thing you should do is learn how sugar daddy scams work. This, along with choosing one of the safest sugar daddy sites, will help you earn money instead of losing it to fake sugar daddies.

If you still undecided which platform to choose, here is the list of the best websites to find a sugar daddy:

secure

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5.0

(4326 reviews)

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Best for

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4.8

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(3972 reviews)

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SecretBenefits rate

Considering all the pros and cons of sugar dating sites, I advise you to choose SecretBenefits as one of the most reliable dating services with almost 10 years of experience and tough security measures. Moreover, its array of features and matchmaking algorithms work accurately to provide all members with compatible matches.

How Many Victims of Sugar Daddy Scams? Facts You Need to Know

Considering that sugar dating is in the gray zone (it’s not stigmatized that much anymore, but many sugar babies and sugar daddies prefer to remain anonymous), victims of fake sugar daddies usually prefer not to report scams. However, we know the losses to romance scams—in 2021, they were $547 million compared to $304 million in 2020, which basically means that the previous year, Americans sent scammers more money than ever before.

The huge number of stories about sugar daddy scammers everyone can find on Reddit and other similar platforms shows that although there are no statistics, the losses of sugar babies are hardly much lower. A sugar baby who meets such a man on the web usually ends up losing $1,000-$2,000 or more, and if you want to avoid this scenario, just keep reading.

How Do You Know When a Sugar Daddy Is Real?

Most sugar babies and sugar daddies meet online. Moreover, sugar dating almost exclusively originated through the means of online communication. Are there any ways to spot a sugar daddy scammer immediately and distinguish him from a real sugar daddy who could pay you a generous monthly allowance? Here are a few signs that you’ve met a real potential benefactor:

He wants to know the details. Real sugar daddies, unlike fake sugar daddies, want to learn as much as possible about you and your expectations about a mutually beneficial relationship you may have. They don’t just tell you something about themselves to gain your trust, they want to get to know you better before you even meet. Rich men are busy, so they’re trying to save time, and they discuss the conditions of a potential arrangement, paying attention to both your and his obligations.
He shares his real photos. It’s not always the case, especially if he’s married—sometimes, a sugar daddy adds a random photo, but you can always ask him to send one in a private conversation. Then use Google search by image to check it—if he’s trying to trick you at this stage, it’s definitely a bad sign.
He doesn’t want to send money before meeting you. Sugar daddies can and should be generous. However, they never transfer money to random sugar babies they’ve just met on the web without any guarantees or asking for anything in return. Many young women who start their sugar baby careers make the same mistake—they think that a generous man can send money super easily if he really likes someone. He can shower you with gifts and offer a more generous allowance after he meets you, but it’s never about paying in advance.

Sugar daddy scams, as well as sugar momma scams, work pretty similarly, and that’s the good news for sugar babies. If your potential sugar daddy doesn’t meet the criteria that we’ve mentioned, think twice before accepting any kind of payment. Why is accepting payment a bad decision, just as sending it? You’ll find the answers below.

Are Sugar Daddies on Sugar Dating Sites Real?

The better dating site, the better chance to meet many real sugar daddies. However, if you’re using top platforms, let alone not the best and safest sites, you can still meet someone who just pretends to be a generous benefactor. How to spot this person? It’s easy if you know the most common scam schemes.

Main Types of Sugar Daddy Scams

So, here are the scenes fake sugar daddies use most frequently:

Sugar daddy CashApp scam. It’s the simplest scam scheme. A sugar daddy wants to send you money on Cashapp but asks to send a small amount ($10-$70) to proceed with the payment and “release” his funds. The rule is simple—never send money in advance because a scammer will block you right after he receives it. Venmo sugar daddy scam, as well as PayPal sugar daddy scam, usually works the same, so be cautious.
Sugar daddy check scam or payment fraud scam. A sugar daddy says he wants to send a payment, and he actually does it. A sugar baby receives money, but a “benefactor” asks her for a small favor—send part of that money back, for example, $500. It seems not a big amount compared to the $4,000 he sent her, so she agrees. Then the bank finds out it was a fake check/payment fraud and cancels the transaction, so a sugar baby loses a fake $4,000 + own $500 she sent to a sugar daddy.
Sugar daddy gift card scam. This is just another common version of a fake check scheme or a stolen credit card scheme. A sugar baby receives a real payment, usually even more than she expected, but a sugar daddy asks her to buy him some gift cards. Once the bank finds out it’s a fraudulent payment, it takes all the money back, so a sugar baby just loses all the money that she spent on gift cards, and a scammer leaves with them.
Sugar daddy Bitcoin scam. This is also usually an advanced fee fraud. A sugar daddy just needs your Bitcoin address to tell you BTC if he wants to. However, you don’t have to deposit anything or have BTC to receive it—if he asks you to go to an ATM or scan his QR code, it’s a scam.

As you can see, they all have something in common—a stranger is trying to send you money, and that’s the biggest red flag.

Are Sugar Daddies Real on Instagram?

What about the sugar daddy scam on Instagram? The truth is, a lot of SBs lost money on social media sites, in particular, Instagram. The chance that a rich man will like a profile of a young woman is real, but the chance that the person will offer you online companionship or free money without meeting on Instagram is much, much higher.

How to spot such a scammer?

He’ll move on to one of the schemes that we describe below sooner or later and will offer you to get free money just now, using the cash app scheme, Bitcoin scheme, gift card, or any other scheme. Basically, the Grindr sugar daddy scam works the same way.

If you met a sugar daddy on Instagram, think twice:

Check his profile
Use Google search by image
Ask yourself if his photos and account really look like an account of a real person
Don’t accept any payments before you meet in real life
If you have a date, meet in public places

Also, we don’t recommend using sugar daddy/dating hashtags—real sugar daddies will hardly follow such pages or use such hashtags, so you’re likely to find scammers and no one but them.

More Tips for Sugar Babies

So, let’s sum everything up and focus on the above-mentioned and new most important rules that every sugar baby should always keep in mind when looking for a new partner online or offline:

Be aware of Salt daddies. These are the men who can meet you in real life, but in fact, this is just another type of scammer. However, a salt daddy isn’t going to pay you. They usually give empty promises and offer more than others just to have sex with a sugar baby, and they’re always focused on intimacy and huge but non-existent compensation, so be careful.
No one gives free money, this is the rule with no exceptions. If you realize it, it will help you protect your funds in any situation, regardless of the scheme that a “sugar daddy” is using. A benefactor always wants to meet a sugar baby before investing a penny or at least get to know her better if he’s looking for virtual companionship, which is extremely rare, too.
If you have already lost your money, contact your bank immediately. There’s a tiny chance that you can get your money back, and calling the police is a good idea too. Forget about the sugar baby stigma—it’s almost gone, and if they catch a scammer, you have a chance to get compensation or at least protect others from them.

Remember and always follow these rules—that’s the only way to avoid the worst-case scenario.

Final Thoughts

It may seem that the sugar daddy scam format varies, but in fact, it’s always the same. Some men offer easy money without asking for anything in return and meeting you in real life. Then, no matter if he sends fake checks, transfers money using a stolen credit card, or tries to get banking information, the end is the same, too—a victim loses their money, so stay alert and remain a bit skeptical about everyone you meet on the Internet.

Our sources of information:

Danielle Gelber

Author

Danielle Gelber is the Writer who is mainly focused on high-quality sugar baby guides. She is a certified journalist and a professional author with more than 3 years of experience. Danielle knows literally everything about the sugar baby industry because she saw it from within—she was a sugar baby from 2017 to 2019.