I had a friend of mine contact me about a “Sugardaddy scam”. who approached her on her Instagram. Because not all my readers are aware of what goes into creating a stream I will explain it so you understand why falling for a Sugardaddy scam is not just about greed.
For those of you who are streamers or considering becoming a streamer, or Instagram influencer you should be aware of this kind of scam as I am told it is actually rather common.
Streaming is hard work
Streamers and independent content creators are a big thing right now … be it on Youtube, Instagram, Twitch or Ticktok they seem to be everywhere. Everyone wants the piece of online streaming fame. Everyone has dreams of becoming famous and making all kinds of money. Maybe even quitting their underpaid day job for something they enjoy doing. and what people don’t realise is how much work goes into creating content. (You have no idea … just doing a hobby podcast for fun takes me hours of work….. Helping a friend with the background to her show … two almost two days of labour).
They have to be consistent with their content.. one of the keys with streaming content is that you have to be consistent. We are talking about posting new content many times a week .. IF NOT DAILY.
Streaming takes cash!
The equipment alone is a lot of cash. There is the camera, the computers (Many have more than one), the lighting, the background displays, clothing, makeup and the gaming chair. That is just the equipment. You also have to consider software, marketing, and hosting services.
Most streamers work for donations and sponsorships. using services like Pateron, Paypal and ad revenue from the streaming providers.
Lots of competition
If you were thinking that folks who stream content are lazy guess what. So did many of the streamers trying to find a new way to make money in the world of COVID. (Then they find out it is hard work) so the market is flooded with streamers competing for your attention.
Hmmm .. Requires money, customer service, contracts, hard work and lots of competition. It kind of sounds like running a business.
Fans attempting to get the attention of their idols with money is not new.
Fans have always showered their idols with gifts. I’m sure there is a clay tablet somewhere that describes a fan sending a few goats and a chicken to a performer they really and I mean Blibblicaly want to know. The big difference now is that with social media we can all start our own channel and highlight our talents …..even all we can scrape up is being attractive.
All you have to do is watch a live Instagram feed and watch the comments to realise how aggressive men (Boys) can be towards some attractive woman who happens to have a live stream …talking about knitting. (I’m not kidding knitting) It’s like 100 pickup lines all at the same time. Many of these men(Boys) resort to sending gifts and cash to get the attention of the subject of their desire.
in some of the more extreme cases of the less body modist Instagram folks, this is their entire business model. Thus the success of onlyfans providing a payment option (and taking a cut of the success of the content provider).
While I do not make any judgements on content creators and how they make their money (as long as they are being honest about it and everyone legally can do so). It does create a perfect target for scammers in both pretending to be content providers and in our current case a sugar daddy.
Let me introduce our streamer
Pearlyn Rae Relucio is a media and entertainment personality, performing artist, and variety broadcaster with over 12 years of experience in video games, esports, and entertainment.
Pearlynrae and I have been Facebook friends for a few months now. We have a ton of mutual real-world friends and I’m sure at some point we have been at the same party just different parts of the room. I have watched a few of her streams and follow her on Twitter. I can tell you she is one of those who are working hard. Oh, and she is a good person when nobody is looking. (She has a good rep amungst our friends and we do not tolerate bullshit…so a good human)
She’s hunting pokemon not sugar daddies!
Our scammer chose the wrong person… he honestly did not do any research to watch her streams. I just watched one for an hour and You can tell by her content she is not the type to be hunting for a sugar daddy... Pokemon yes … sugar daddy no. The idea of being a “kept woman” would be repulsive to her. In fact the last stream they were talking about…,,, What am I saying ..watch a few of her streams and you will get an idea of what kind of person she is.
Honestly, he had no chance of catching her .. when we talked she was already convinced it was a scam she was just asking for confirmation. Even when talking to me she mentioned that she did not want to give me access to her account but needed to find a way to give this information to me. (NEVER GIVE ACCESS TO YOUR ACCOUNT TO ANYONE NOT EVEN ME ). I suggested screenshots. So she is already switched on when it comes to who to trust.
Enter the Sugardaddy scammers
Like I said above everyone wants to be internet famous and make the big bucks.. but not many people really know how much work is involved. Scammers know this and will use this as a way to make you drop your guard. And for a streamer who has been working very hard, this might sound like the chance of a lifetime……. until the scammer drains their account of all their money.
This is not a new scam… it has just been updated to the latest version. Hollywood has had this kind of scam before there was even sound in movies. The idea is to convince the streamer/mark that they can provide some kind of financial support. When what is really happening is that they are trying to get into their account.
lets talk about this
First, his name is breavesugardaddy003 just the name is a little odd. I totally understand dealing with the loss of a loved one. I can even understand the idea of putting up a memorial page on social media. But this is the first time that I have ever seen it in a username not associated with some kind of counselling service or funeral home. Then to combine it with “sugar daddy”? Ummm that is odd. While this is not a sign of a scam …. the concept that there are so many people using this same kind of username that 003 needed to be added to the end of it?
What do the spiders have to say about this?
While most people do not have web spiders to crawl the web looking for information. I do. So out of curiosity, I decided to see what my spiders would bring back about this username. The spiders came back with only an Instagram account. By the way, the 001 & 002 versions of the username also do not exist … any more
- Snapchat did have the username but it has been removed
- Spotfy also had the username but also as been removed
- Username has never been used to post anything on any forum
- Other versions of the username also do not exist. ANYWEHRE !!
Google said …
While this is not always a sign of a scam … It does make you think… (The answer to this question is later)
Now lets look at what she had to say
She mentioned that she does not need a sugar daddy (She has a lovely relationship and adores her boyfriend) She provided information on how he could support her show and included a Paypal link if he insisted on giving money. (This is not uncommon for streamers.)
But why pick a username like that?
Next week I will show you in Part two. Try not to laugh.