Instagram Sugarbaby Scam

[Beemoore33]

Receiving direct messages on Instagram offering to be a sugarbaby with a 5 thousand dollar allowance a week, no nudes or sexting just companionship. They will then ask you for your PayPal link and email address, tell you the payment is on hold or pending and will be released to you if you make a payment of $100 bitcoin, I can only assume what happens after that. They have pretty good photoshopping skills on the images, they send to “prove” it’s done. The padlock on the website address, no spelling mistakes, no bold or capital writing, none of your typical phishing email red flags. Although they love to use the emoji’s. The only way I could stop these direct messages on Instagram was to put my account on private and turn off message request from unknown groups/people. Hope this helps someone out there.

[mchamlin]

Was it from [removed] ? Saying that you have to cover one time transaction fees but once you pay these fees it will be a constant weekly payment of 5K a week? He'll send a picture of your paypal email on the top and below a percentage pending picture that needs bitcoin to send the payment?  @Beemoore33 

[Beemoore33]

I had a [removed] and [removed] I got the the messages on the same day 2 hours apart from one another, with practically the same message just rephrased. Offering 5 thousand weekly for companionship. One I told if I wanted a sugar daddy, I would get one who had the initiative to be able to pay me correctly without a verification fee, no response. James, I lulled him into a false sense of security, photoshopped the image he sent me, saying he had to pay me a $100 bitcoin verification fee, to make sure he was the sender of the 5 thousand dollars for me to collect. He didn’t have any fun after that.

[mchamlin]

UGH you know how to play the game! I love it haha

This guy reached out to me and said the same. Told me I'd get 5K a week in allowance just for companionship. He travels alot and apparently his wife died in a plane crash years ago so now he has 5 sugar babies that he sends money to and talks to on the daily. He's great at photoshop and LOVES emojis haha Said the only thing I'd have to cover was this one time 200 bitcoin transaction fee to initiate the reoccurring payments... Said he isn't here to steal my money and that he is a man of god and has enough money and wants to share and help his babies cover expenses. I told him he's a liar and that having a prepayment on paypal isn't a thing and that he needed to send me his email so I could request money from him and he said well because I have a business paypal you cannot request money from me. I told him that I won't do anything unless he sends me his email and it has halted from there but he'll send me a message every few days just to check in and I tell him the same thing.... send me your paypal email bub... HAHA dummies!

[APlum89]

I think im speaking to the same guy!! Wife died in a plane crash, 5k allowance to 5 sugar babies...travels alot, is an engineer... Glad I looked it up! I reverse image searched and found the real person behind the pics too.

[Lseehafer]

I should have just researched beforehand... do you have any ideas what I could do? I just lost 2000€ because of it...I was so stupid and fell for it😭

[PayPal_RebeccaN · Accepted solution]

Hi @Lseehafer, 

Thank you for your post! 

I am sorry to hear this happened. 

The protection offered via PayPal would depend on what way you sent the payment.

If you sent this payment via Goods & Services, you would have 180-days of PayPal Buyer Protection. This means you could open up a PayPal case, for steps on this see: How do I report a problem with a seller?
 

However, if you sent this payment via Friends & Family, you would not have PayPal Buyer Protection. This is a gift payment and is not to be used for the purchase of items or services, including digital content. I'm afraid, if you chose this payment option we would be unable to assist in obtaining a refund, and you will need to work with the other party directly as you would be unable to open up a PayPal case. 

Regarding your concern about fraud, I assure you that PayPal takes this seriously and actively monitors accounts for suspicious activity. Any users found misusing PayPal Purchase Protection are subject to account limitations including termination of their PayPal account.

Rebecca 

If this post or any other was helpful, please enrich the community by giving kudos or accepting it as a solution.

[UnicornPrinces1]

I just had this but it was a woman and i had to pay $25 via friends and family to get £3000 per week and now I have no money but i had a sense it was a scam but got sucked in because of the large amount of money and now lost money because i wont get it back

[Ebbamatilda]

Please give me the imformation about him, im a victim of the same man !

[PayPal_Meghan]

Hello @Ebbamatilda, 

Thanks for joining the PayPal Community! Welcome! 

I'm sorry to hear about the scam you encountered, and I understand the urgency of recuperating the lost money. If you had sent the money through PayPal as a Goods & Services payment, you can file a dispute. I would lean towards filing an Item Not Received dispute because it's highly unlikely they'll be able to provide proof of delivery. If the money was sent as a Friends & Family transaction, you would want to look into options for a refund outside of PayPal as they do not have Buyer Protection. However, please report the account for violating the Acceptable Use Policy here. 

I hope this information helps! 

- Meghan