How To Not Lose Your Money To a Sugar Daddy Scam
Millions of Americans lose thousands of dollars every year to romance scammers. Sugar dating isn’t the most popular niche of online dating, so those scammers who steal from babies and daddies are responsible only for a small fraction of the total losses. In addition, most scammers tend to target American men who want to meet foreign women and local ladies, not “sugar babies” who are usually not as wealthy.
Well, still, everything is possible and anything can happen. You need to know about the most common sugar daddy scams.
How can you tell if a sugar daddy is real?
Obviously, all the scammers use fake sugar daddy profiles—using real names is not an option for them. This doesn’t mean that a fake daddy is definitely a scammer. Fake sugar daddies may be harmless and innocent: say, if they just want to pretend they’re rich and chat with hot sugar babies, they don’t harm anyone, they only steal your time. But in most cases, a fake profile is a red flag. Here’s how to spot it:
- If a profile only has a few photos, it’s not a good sign. If the photos can be found in Google, it’s definitely a bad sign. The same applies to AI-generated photos: if you find minor detail errors, pattern repetition, too smooth skin, or messed-up hands, it’s a red flag.
- Poor message quality can be a red flag, too—it’s highly unlikely that a successful mature man would send you messages full of typos and grammatical errors.
- If a sugar daddy doesn’t want to have a video chat or to meet you in person, something is wrong. Video call is the best tool for those who want to make sure they’re talking to a real person, so don’t ignore it.
So, let’s go in reverse: if someone on a sugar dating site has a lot of photos that can’t be found in Google, sends messages without errors, and has no problems with a video chat and real-life meeting, it’s probably a real sugar daddy.
Sugar daddy scam: All you need to know
There are three main sugar daddy scam types. Let’s talk about them.
Sugar daddy Cash App scam
There are several types of this scam. The first one is very simple: a sugar daddy says he’s going to send you $5,000 on Cash App, but first, you need to send him $50 because he wants to be 100% sure you’re a real person. Obviously, you’ll just lose $50 there.
Another option is more complex: a scammer can send you $5,000 and ask you to give him $1,000 back. You send them $1,000 and get serious problems because that $5,000 came from a stolen credit card.
The third scam type is: you share your email and then, you get an email from a fake Cash App that states you have to upgrade your account which would cost you $100 or $200.
Paypal sugar daddy scam
This one is very simple: a sugar daddy tells you he’s just sent you $5,000. The payment is pending and a sugar daddy sends you a screenshot of the transaction. After that, when you start trusting him, he asks you to send him, say, $50 or $100, to prove you’re a real person. Obviously, that’s how it ends—the victims never get the money they were promised.
Mobile deposit sugar daddy scam
This one is similar to the previous Paypal scam. A scammer offers you to send an email mobile deposit check. If you agree, he’ll send you a screenshot and ask you to send him a small amount of money to prove you’re real. After that, you’ll lose your money.
How to avoid sugar daddy scam?
As you can see, those scams are not too complex. This is good news, actually, because it’s not that difficult to protect yourself from those scammers.
- Choose only the best dating apps. That’s the first and the most important step. Trusted dating apps have verified profiles, they protect their users, they make sure there are no fake accounts and bots, and it’s in their interest to minimize the risks for you. Finding such an app might be time-consuming but it’s certainly worth it.
- Chat only with verified users. Most sugar dating apps have an ID and/or an income verification service and it’s just perfect because if a user is verified, you have nothing to worry about. Well, almost nothing, but that is related to offline dating safety. As for online scammers, it’s impossible to meet one if you only communicate with verified users, especially if they have uploaded their personal tax return certificates.
- Never send them money. The majority of online dating scams are very simple and are based on the social engineering skills of a scammer. To protect yourself from it, you need to follow one simple rule: if someone on a dating site asks you for money, do not send it to them. No matter what’s their story and what they promise, just don’t send them money.
- Be careful with Paypal transactions. The pending transaction method is old, but even in 2025, thousands of people fall for it. Just remember that a screenshot of a transaction does not mean there’s an actual transaction. What’s more, if a screenshot is sent by a potential sugar daddy you’ve never met in real life, it certainly means there is no actual transaction.
You see, it’s actually not that difficult. You don’t need to be a master of science in cyber security, you just need to follow those simple rules—that’s how you’ll reduce the chances of getting scammed to almost zero.
