Protect yourself from scammers

We work hard to make SCRUFF a safe environment free of scammers and spam. We have protocols in place to detect and remove these profiles, along with a dedicated moderation team that reviews user flag reports and blocks prohibited content.

Scammers quickly adapt to protocols and measures; social media and dating apps are a prime target for these bad actors. While we do our best to detect and block as many of these profiles which you will never encounter, some still get through.

Provided below are some tips to help identify scammers and protect yourself against them. There are many types of scams, and any individual scammer may exhibit behavior with different types. If you encounter a profile that seems suspicious or have received a message that you believe is from a scammer, please report the profile in-app and reach out to our support team.

General tips

Trust your instincts. Scammers know what people are looking for and use it to exploit others by offering things like friendship, sex, love, or other things that are hard to resist. Always be cautious. Scenarios that seem suspicious or feel too good to be true typically are.

Never send money. Be wary of anyone who asks you to send money to them (or someone else) or asks you to pay in order to interact with them. This includes signing up for third-party platforms or services and investment platforms. Remember that these may appear legitimate. For investments, look for reviews from a reputable independent organization. Do not follow suspicious links, and do your own research.

Don’t share info too quickly. Be cautious of who you give your contact information to, especially if you are exchanging any kind of content (photos, videos and chats) that you wouldn’t want others to see. Scammers can discover your identity (name, location, contacts, employer, family members) from a phone number or social media and use that information to threaten you.

Keep your chats on SCRUFF. Scammers usually try to convince you to quickly communicate outside of SCRUFF. Scammers know they will be suspended quickly, so they often try to move to another form of contact.

Do your own research. Check the country code on phone numbers that other people give you. Scammers will sometimes share phone numbers with area codes or country codes that do not match their profile location. You can also look up phone numbers to see whether they are VoIP or mobile numbers. If a member asks to share social media links or info, ask for theirs too. See if you have any friends in common, if the account has been around a long time, if it seems to have legitimate friends or followers, etc. 

"Pay to meet" scammers

• The scammer will agree to meet or interact with you but will first ask you to send money, pay for something upfront, or sign up for a service before you meet. 
• The request could be for a gift card to keep their kids entertained while you meet up, money for gas or a ride share, a membership on another app or platform, etc. 
• They will insist that you send them the money/gift card or sign up for the service right away. They will then give you a false address or location, usually a hotel, and will not meet up with you. 
• This type of scam can present as many different personas: people looking for an in-person hook up, sex workers asking for payment upfront, BDSM-related personas, massage therapists, people hosting parties and events or group sex activities.

Romance scammers

• The scammer will attempt to gain your trust by claiming to be in the military, a doctor, or business person working overseas. 
• They will often emphasize how honest and trustworthy they are, and how they are looking for the same in another person because they have been hurt by others before. They tend to come on strong about romantic intent very quickly and can be very pushy and insistent. They may become defensive, aggressive, or manipulative if you question them or express hesitancy.
• These scammers will typically tell you they are in a complicated situation intended to dismiss any questions you may have about their location and the fact that their language patterns may not match those typical of a person from the location they are claiming to be from. 
• Once they have your trust, they will tell you a story about how they need money. For example, they’re stuck in a foreign country and need someone to deposit a check for them and transfer the money. They may also ask you to send money via money transfer services, or buy gift cards.
• They'll try to move the conversation outside of SCRUFF, because they are typically suspended very quickly.

Sugar daddy scammers

• The scammer will claim to be a sugar daddy who wants to send you an allowance in exchange for some type of interaction, usually sending nudes, often with very specific dollar amounts and wanting to connect via Cash App, Venmo, or another payment service right away. They will also sometimes offer to pay by check.
• After promising to send you a large amount of money, they may tell you that a previous sugar baby betrayed them. This is how they’ll justify asking you to send them a smaller amount of money first, in order to prove your loyalty.
• The scammer may also connect stolen credit cards to Venmo or Cash App and use them to transfer the allowance to you. They’ll then say that they accidentally sent you too much money, and ask you to return a portion of it. If you do that, the scammer will have deleted the stolen card info from their account and added their own, so the “refund” goes to their own card instead of the stolen one. Eventually, if the stolen card is reported to Venmo or Cash App, any money that was stolen from that card will be returned, so you’ll be out the “free money,” and the scammer will have yours instead. 
• Recently, some sugar daddy scammers have been using nudes or other content and information that people send them to attempt to blackmail their victims. They may threaten to share your nudes or chats with your contacts, family, or employer if you don’t send them money. In some cases, they may also demand that you create SCRUFF accounts for them and give them the login credentials. They may also demand the login credentials to your existing accounts, which they will then use as scam accounts (see below section on “Sextortion/ Blackmail” scams).

Examples:

• "Hello I'll cater for your needs as your sugar daddy text me on telegram now if you are interested"
• "wow u look cute & interesting I Will like to have u as my baby u Will be paid $10000 if u accept to be my baby add me up on WhatsApp @ [insert scam number here]."

Blackmail scammers

Blackmail is a term for when someone threatens to distribute your sexual content or other private and sensitive material if you don’t give them what they want. There are two common scenarios:

• Skype/video blackmail. The scammer asks you to connect on Skype, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, or other social media. The scammer will ask for Skype sex calls or nudes, often using fake/pre-recorded video so you never actually see the person behind the scam. The scammer secretly records the intimate video conversation, or saves nudes or screenshots sex chats, and then threatens to send the content to your social media contacts if you don’t pay them money. These scammers often specifically target people who are married or looking for discreet interactions.
• Underage sextortion. The scammer sends intimate photos and asks you to do the same, or initiates a sexual conversation. After photos and messages are exchanged, the scammer later claims to be underage. You are then contacted by the “parents” who state that if you pay their demand for money, they will not go to the police.
  Note: SCRUFF is for adults ONLY. Users must be at least 18 to use the app (or older in certain jurisdictions). We take any potential underage use of the platform incredibly seriously. If you come across anyone who appears to be underage, please contact us and report the profile.
• Discreet/married blackmail scam. In this scam, the scammer seeks out people who are looking for discreet encounters and who do not want their usage of SCRUFF to be known by others close to them. Often they will pretend to be in a situation similar to yours, in order to gain your trust. They figure out your identity from information that you give them (phone number, social media, etc.) and then threaten to share your chats and nudes with your contacts if you don’t send them money.

Verification app scammers

These scams are designed to get your personal and financial details by asking you to register with a third-party site claiming to be a “security" or "verification" app, which is fake. The scammer often claims that they were previously assaulted by someone they met on an app and that the registration is to ensure their safety. These scammers sometimes use partial names of real organizations in order to appear legitimate.

Examples: 

• “Before we meet I need to make sure I am safe with you. Can you add me on (MAFA meet and fun affairs) on google?”
• “Before we can meet or maybe fun? I need to make sure I am safe with you. Can you do the MMRM verification first? You can search it on google "MMRM meetmyrightmate.”
• “But before we meet I need to make sure I am safe with you. Can you add me on (EASY AND WELL VERIFIED)?”

Third-party link scammers

A common scammer method is to “spam,” or send mass messages with links to third-party sites. Generally, they know that it will be an obvious spam message to most people, but if they get only a small portion of people to click through, it’s worth their time. These messages will ask for payments or credit card information or send requests to search for a name that leads to a third-party site. These sites will often contain malware, bad ads, or will solicit your personal information or money. 

Examples:

• “Нi, We are hosting a sex p*rtу. Wоuld yоu like to jоin? Click here to see photos of past parties.

Support scammers

Our support team will never try to get you to go to a third-party site, or offer “free money”. Emails from our support team come from scruff.com or via our in-app support section, not from a SCRUFF profile. 

Examples: 

• “Dear User, You've been selected as the winner of a SCRUFF Premium Membership Award. You've won the sum of £50,000. For more information contact our claims manager.”
• “Hello. We've prepared an invitation to an online sex show from SCRUFF. Please follow this link. Best regards, SCRUFF Support!”

You can report a scammer profile to our Support team in the app using the steps provided below.

If you encounter a serious violation, please submit a support request from the main settings menu in SCRUFF so that we can review it immediately.