Some time ago, Josie Copson, editor of the British edition of Cosmopolitan, decided to investigate a growing phenomenon in the world of dating applications: that of men who pretended to be a ‘sugar daddy’ and turned out to be a ‘salt daddy’. Her experience made him come to a very clear conclusion and leave this world she had entered to investigate.
The term ‘sugar daddy’ is applied to those men with a large wealth who are looking for younger women with whom to maintain a relationship and to whom they give expensive gifts. The ‘salt daddy’ are those men who pretend to be above and deceive about their purchasing power. These seconds and her way of acting are what this reporter wanted to investigate to find out her modus operandi in a report that was recently updated by Cosmopolitan.
The article in question is titled The Rise of Salt Daddy Dating: Meet the Fake Sugar Daddies Trying to Scam Women and is narrated in the first person. She explains to its author that the increase of women in search of ‘sugar daddies’ had given rise to a “strange new creature that emerges from the depths” . Someone who is generically described as “soft, charming (…) and seedy”.
Thus, he recounts his experience through a dating application focused on the aforementioned public. At first, she tells her, she didn’t have much success through SugarDaddySeek so she decided to ask another woman with more experience in the field for help. She realized that the key was in the photos, in the perspective and in what they showed. So she changed hers. Modified the claim or hook, the propositions began to arrive.
At the time of writing their article (before the pandemic and restrictions on social life), data from Seeking Arrangement stated that “a quarter of a million UK students are using sugar daddy to get some extra benefits from life while the app has seen a 40% year-over-year increase in young women setting up profiles.”
For a time, Copson was one of them. One of the things that caught her attention was that not all of the registrants were gray-haired grandfathers in corduroy pants as she had imagined, but there were younger and more attractive men than she thought. And that’s where the so-called ‘salt daddies’ sometimes come into action.
One of the girls he spoke to told him that she had found one of them and that when checking his name online, she discovered a Facebook page where other women denounced his cheating. She did not have the money that she claimed to have and each one had sold them a lie.
Another case that counts is Omar (fictitious name) and his efforts, according to the testimony of one of his dates, to highlight his importance and his money. A week after the encounter the woman who told Copson her story had not received a pound. After that experience, Stacey sentenced that she “would never consider doing something like that again.”
The author of the report reached the same conclusion after meeting Steve, from which it was evident that she was lying about her standard of living as soon as they met to meet. He was only a few years older than her, he seemed nice to her in the exchange of messages, but he seemed too perfect. When they met in person, her Lacoste sweater with the oversized lizard and her attitude made him suspect that she was lying to him and was dealing with a ‘salt daddy’.
Copson explains that “more and more women” are turning to these agreements to achieve goals that would otherwise be more difficult. In the recent update to the article, information has been added of “an increase in the number of people leaning towards the ‘sugar baby’ lifestyle during the pandemic, throughout the Western world”.
See also Is 30 Too Old to Be a Sugar Baby?
Whoever signs the information categorically rejects this option. “My ‘salt daddy’ experience just stoked the fire inside of me to work so hard that I never have to financially depend on any man, or feel as empty as I just felt with Steve. Of course, for other women, they may really thrive in a sugar baby situation, it’s all just a matter of taste.”
His trick for spotting these potential scammers was given to him by someone who has a blog where he recounts his own dates and gives advice like ‘salt daddy’: “Any handsome guy under 40: if he looks too good to be true, it probably is.”
