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What Does Catfishing Look Like When It Happens in the Sugar Bowl?

When you’re brand new to online sugar dating, it can be tempting to think that your days of fielding messages from catfish are long over with. But it’s important to realize that catfishing can (and does) still happen in the sugar bowl, and it’s not hard to understand why.

The sugar bowl is more or less the only place you can go where pretty much everyone who’s actually there legitimately is a perfect ten. Sugar daddies and sugar mamas really are wealthy, successful, and generous. And sugar babies are young, breathtakingly gorgeous, and sublimely intelligent. Who wouldn’t want in on a little piece of that for themselves?

Unfortunately, people who don’t belong in the sugar bowl want it, too. So they choose to be catfish and try to scam honest sugar daddies and sugar babies out of all they have to give. Here’s a rundown of what that looks like and how you can ensure it doesn’t happen to you.

Look out for salt daddies

As any experienced sugar baby can tell you, sugar and salt actually look a lot alike. In fact, they can look so much alike that you may not actually realize you’ve poured the wrong one into your coffee until it’s too late to do anything about it. That said, every sugar baby needs to know how to spot a likely salt daddy or salt mama early on.

  • They tend to wrongly think sugar dating is all about sex, so be careful of people who seem overly focused on that aspect of a potential relationship.
  • They’re flaky in a really catfishy way. They set dates and then cancel at the last minute, make wild promises they don’t keep, etc.
  • They eschew the idea of arranging a safe meeting in a public place, insisting on meeting in private instead.
  • The claims they make about themselves just don’t add up with the facts you’ve managed to uncover about them.

In other words, if a particular arrangement or individual seems way too good to be true, it probably is. So be careful out there.

Know how to spot a scam warning

Another red flag every sugar baby needs to know about is they seem overly focused on money – specifically your bank information and how to get it. These people assume that sugaring is all about money, so they see an easy opportunity to get a naïve or unwitting sugar dater to hand over seriously sensitive info that no one should have.

That said, you should never give out your bank information to anyone, but especially don’t do it online when you don’t even know the other person. And never comply with any request that seems fishy or doesn’t make sense. You could wind up unknowingly participating in someone’s money laundering scheme or be liable to your bank for large amounts of money.

Real sugar daddies and sugar mamas who wish to give their sugar baby some money as a gift or to help out with bills will use safe, established, widely trusted options like PayPal, Venmo, CashApp, or similar.

Watch out for garden-variety catfish, too

Unless you’re brand new to online dating in general, you probably have a pretty good idea of what typical catfishing looks like when it rears its ugly head. Think photos that turn out to have been taken a decade (and fifty pounds) ago, facts that have been fudged in the wrong direction, and other things along those lines!

Sugar daddies and sugar babies sometimes struggle with confidence issues, too, and that’s understandable. But it’s important that you know what you’re really getting for your time and effort, so always do your homework on a fellow sugar dater you’re thinking of getting involved with.

  • Use Google to research the person, their company, and any other facts they may have told you about their life to make sure everything adds up.
  • Insist on eventually talking on the phone or having a video chat with the person to ensure you’re talking to the same person you’ve seen in their pictures.
  • Scope them out on social media to ensure they’re real, learn more about what they’re like as a person, etc.

Always trust your instincts

One thing any sugar dater needs to become hyper-comfortable doing is trusting their gut. It’s rarely wrong, and some catfish are very good at what they do. So if something doesn’t feel right – or you just don’t like the idea of someone or a specific arrangement – scratch that person off your list immediately.

Ultimately, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And if something actually sounds fishy, it’s even worse. So always trust your gut, stay safe, and be extra cautious. It never hurts, and it can save you from trouble.