Sugar scammers, sometimes known as sugar daddies, sugar mommas, or just sugaring, take advantage of those in financial difficulty as well as those looking for partnership by offering to pay their debts. However, at the end of the day, the victim will be left out of pocket.
How does sugaring work?
Perpetrators of this scam usually target those who are active online, either through dating apps, or social media sites like Instagram, Facebook and Reddit. It is especially common around Valentine’s Day, when the number of people looking to start online relationships increases.
The scam usually starts with a message from the perpetrator, telling the victim that they will pay them to talk with no expectation of phone calls, video calls, sexting or photos. They might say that they are looking for a ‘sugar baby’. Sometimes, the scammer starts by forming a relationship with the victim, and then after a while, offers to pay their bills, or pay off their debt.
For many victims, particularly those struggling to make ends meet, this seems like a very attractive deal. At this point the scammer will send their bank details across to their ‘sugar baby’, encouraging them to use the details to make purchases, and pay their bills.
Once the payment clears, the scammer requests that the victim send them some of the money back. They might state that they’re struggling to pay their own bills, or want their ‘sugar baby’ to prove the validity of the relationship. They might even send across a fake email which requests that the victim pay ‘processing fees’ for the money you’ve received.
The ‘sugar baby’ willingly sends some money to the scammer, either by bank transfer, in gift cards or in cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. The perpetrator vanishes, and after a few days the payment that the victim initially received does too. The victim is now left without the money that the perpetrator sent, and without the money they sent to the perpetrator.
Sugaring isn’t free money, it’s fraud
With sugaring, the bank account details that the victim received do not belong to the scammer. Instead, they belong to another person whose bank account details have been stolen. When the sugaring victim uses these details to pay for purchases, or to pay off their debts, they are actually using stolen bank account details.
Eventually, when the person realises their bank details have been stolen and used to make a purchase, they will raise this with their bank and reverse the payment. As such, the money is returned to their account.
The goal of sugaring is for the perpetrator to enlist someone to help them launder money. The perpetrator has made no purchases with the stolen bank account details, and in an investigation, all roads will lead to their ‘sugar baby’.
Don’t fall for sugaring this Valentine’s Day
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There’s no such thing as ‘money for nothing’
In reality, sugar babies are sex workers, and are expected to engage sexually with their clients. Despite what someone might say, nobody is interested in sending money to someone they don’t know, with no expectation that they will receive anything in return. If someone contacts you to ask whether you’d be their ‘sugar baby’, it is likely a scam. -
Avoid gift cards and cryptocurrencies
Scammers often request that victims send money back to them using gift cards or cryptocurrencies because they are very difficult to trace back to a recipient. You aren’t protected when you purchase gift cards or send money to a crypto account; there’s no way to reverse the charge with your bank once you figure out that you’ve been scammed. When someone requests a payment in gift cards and cryptocurrencies, it is a red flag. -
Be aware of the sunk cost fallacy
The sunk cost fallacy is where we believe that because we’ve spent a lot of time, money or energy on something, it is important that we continue, otherwise we have ‘lost’ or ‘wasted’ that resource. In relationships where you think you could be getting scammed, it’s important to remember that the time, energy and money you have spent is gone. The best thing to do to prevent losing any more is to end the relationship.
