Scam Type
Romance Scam
Date Reported
Oct 27, 2022
Victim Postal Code
32258
Total Dollars Lost
0
Scam Description
I was messaging someone I had just met on an app for queer women called Lex named *******. She mentioned that she had a “sugar mamma” and asked me if I had one. I said no, and she asked if I would like to be in contact with her’s. I said sure, as I was curious and had heard about sugar mammas before and felt it would be more legitimate if it was being referred to me by someone else as opposed to an app or direct message. I messaged her first. The alleged sugar mamma said her name is ********** she’s 56 years old, is from Florida, and has 2 companies of her own: one in construction and another unknown. She said she has no family, as her parents died in a car accident when she was 16 and she lived with an uncle who abused her until she finally left because of a boyfriend she was with at the time who got her into cryptocurrency and how to make money online. The phone number she uses is ###-###-####. She asked me questions about myself and answered any questions I asked her, which made it seem legitimate at first. She asked me what I wanted and about my personal values.
This is all occurring rapidly within hours of first contacting her. She asked me my name (first name only), where I was from, and other general questions. Then she asks me if I want to be her sugar baby. I said I was open to it, but wanted to know if she had any social media first and what she expected from her sugar babies. She said she did not have social media because she had been scammed by sugar babies in the past, and that she only expects pictures of me (primarily non-sexual selfies, but she also stated some sexual photos would be expected). She then asked me how much I wanted from her as a first deposit, and I said I wasn’t sure. Because she had seemed real at this point, I confessed that I was hesitant of course to use any banking information and would prefer to use a third party like venmo or Zelle. She claimed that she would be taxed heavily if she used those, and preferred to do a direct deposit into my account of $1000. She requested that out of the $1000 she sends me, I send $800 to a church she goes to that supports the homeless, and tells me she’s a christian. She asked me for my login information for one of my banking sites. I told her I wasn’t comfortable with that, but wanted to use another checking account I had that was completely empty. She was okay with that because she said she understood where I was coming from.
There was another issue with my account being closed, so I couldn’t use it. I told her I would likely have to wait until Monday for the issue to be resolved if she could wait. She said I could just use the other account with my savings in it and linked to my parents financial information because I can trust her, but I told her no I wasn’t comfortable with that. The next few days, she constantly asked me throughout the day if the account was ready yet, in which I case I kept telling her no. She has continued to ask me if the banking issue has been resolved, and I kept telling her the updates in regards to the situation without divulging valuable information.
She had sent me two selfies of herself, so I entered one of them into google and found that it was from an Instagram influencer’s page, someone who had a different name, age, and everything. The influencer was verified and had many followers, and even had a story on her page warning people about fake sugar mammas who were using her pictures. I told **********” that I found this and asked what was going on. She claimed that influencer was a scammer and that “this is ridiculous, I can’t believe she stole my identity” and claimed to have reported it. Both selfies were from this page.
I told “*********” that I did not want to continue this anymore because I am “busy with school” and she said she understood and was nice about it. However, she continues to text me asking how my day is and if I fixed the account issue yet. And today, she asked me what my mobile carrier is out of the blue. I will be blocking this number.
