Woman Arrested for Selling book on how to Scammed Sugar Daddies
Mai Watanabe, a 25-year-old self-proclaimed dating scammer from Nagoya, Japan, was arrested in August for selling how-to guides on defrauding ‘sugar daddies’ through paid dating. Her controversial manuals, featuring titles like ‘Textbook for Sugar Babies: The Right Profile and Magical Words to Make Men Pay,’ provided detailed instructions on how to approach vulnerable middle-aged men and extract as much money from them as possible. Some of the tactics included claiming to have had an unhappy childhood, feigning illness to gain sympathy, and falsely stating the urgent need for financial help to pay rent.
Watanabe began selling these manuals in the previous year, pricing them between 10,000 yen ($67) and 20,000 yen ($134) per copy, with private lessons available at an additional cost. It was reported that she managed to sell around 2,000 copies of her books before her arrest.
Her arrest followed an investigation initiated by the police, triggered by the apprehension of a 20-year-old woman who had allegedly swindled 10.65 million yen ($72,000) from two men in Aichi Prefecture using tactics learned from Watanabe’s books. The self-proclaimed author, who went by “Itadakijoshi Riri-chan (Riri the Sugar Baby)” online, admitted to the allegations, acknowledging that she was helping her customers commit fraud.
Mai Watanabe’s arrest raised questions about her expertise in sugar daddy swindling, considering she was selling a manual on the practice. In September, it was reported that she had swindled 27 million yen (approximately $182,500) from a 50-year-old man by falsely claiming to have borrowed money to open her apparel shop and resorting to selling her body to pay off the debt. Furthermore, new accusations from a 54-year-old man emerged, alleging that he had transferred roughly 117 million yen (about $780,000) to Riri the Sugar Baby, further highlighting the extent of her fraudulent activities.