Norton Publishes Updated Guide to Sugar-Dating Scams
Norton’s guide describes scams aimed at both would-be benefactors and would-be recipients, including fake checks, advance fees and requests for personal data. It is practical security guidance from a vendor, not research on how common these scams are.
Norton’s guide separates two mirrored fraud patterns: fake sugar babies who target older or wealthier people with promises of companionship, and fake sugar parents who target younger people with promises of allowances or gifts. In both versions, the relationship story is a pretext for stealing money, account access or identity information. Fake companion profiles may use stolen or AI-generated photos, build trust, invent emergencies or travel costs, request payment and disappear.
Fake benefactors may promise allowances, then demand a loyalty payment, verification fee, gift card, cryptocurrency transfer or banking details before releasing funds. Warning signs include a new or thin social profile, purchased followers, refusal to video call, intense early affection, unrealistic promises and pressure to move to private or disappearing messages. Norton recommends never sending money to an online stranger, protecting personal and banking data, checking images and profile history, preserving evidence, blocking the account and reporting losses quickly.
The simplest rule is also the most useful: receiving money should not require sending money first. A fake check can appear to clear before the bank reverses it, leaving the recipient responsible for anything forwarded elsewhere. Urgency and hard-to-reverse payment methods are stronger warning signs than poor spelling. Norton is a security vendor and the article promotes its products. Its scam patterns and prevention steps are practical guidance, not prevalence research, and individual platforms or payment systems may have additional reporting procedures.