BBB warns of the Sugar Daddy romance scam
By Greg Collier
While approaching Valentine’s Day, we posted a couple of stories about government and consumer protection agencies warning about the typical romance scam. That’s where scammers will pose as a prospective romantic partner and foster a phony online relationship with their victim. Eventually, the scammer will start asking the victim for money disguised as some kind of emergency request. Although Valentine’s Day has now passed, that doesn’t mean that romance scams magically disappear. And that also doesn’t necessarily mean that a romance scammer will ask you for money. In what can somewhat be described as a reverse romance scam, the scammers are giving their victims money, or so the victims thought.
The Better Business Bureau is warning about a disturbing scam that we’ve seen emerge over the past year or so. The scam is kn own as the sugar daddy or sugar momma scam. In this scam, the scammer starts up an online relationship with their victim before offering the victim money to be their sugar baby. The scammer promises the victim a monthly allowance if the victim just promises to exchange pleasant messages with the scammer. If the victim agrees, they’ll be sent either a check or an electronic transfer to their bank account as payment. But of course, there’s a catch. The scammer will ask the victim to use some of their allowance to do an errand for them, such as giving money to a needy friend or pay a bill for them. After the money is withdrawn from the bank and used for the errand, the bank finds out that the payment was fake, and the victim will be responsible for the overdrawn amount and associated fees. Some victims have reported losing thousands of dollars.
What’s even more disturbing about this scam is that the scammers will often target minors. In that case, it’s almost akin to being groomed by an online predator. While many adults have the life experience to recognize this scam for what it is, most minors do not. They could easily fall for the slick promises of free money from a scammer. This scam could potentially ruin their credit before they’re even old enough to use it. If you have any minors in your family who may be vulnerable to this scam, you may want to have a talk with them about strangers who promise them money. Any stranger who promises a minor money, especially if they tell kids to not tell their parents, they have no good intention in mind.
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