Mai Watanabe from Nagoya, Japan, who professes expertise in manipulating men, has transformed her advice into a series of books purportedly instructing young women on exploiting financially vulnerable middle-aged men. These titles, accessible on her social media platforms, include "Textbook for Sugar Babies: The Right Profile and Magical Words to Make Men Pay." The books propose strategies such as inventing stories of hardship or illness to elicit sympathy and financial support.
Watanabe commenced selling her fraudulent guidebooks last year, priced between 10,000 and 20,000 yen ($67-$134), with additional fees for exclusive lessons, as revealed by sources within the Naka Police Department.
Following the arrest of a 20-year-old woman, known online as "Itadakijoshi Riri-chan (Riri the Sugar Baby)," who allegedly defrauded two men of a total of 10.65 million yen ($72,000) using methods from Watanabe's books, police initiated an investigation into Watanabe's activities. Riri, an experienced paid dating expert, also faced accusations of stealing approximately 27 million yen ($182,500) from a 50-year-old man in September, as reported by The Mainichi.
Additional charges were filed against Riri last month following a claim from a 54-year-old man who reportedly sent her nearly 117 million yen ($780,000). It is believed that the tactics used to defraud this man were derived from Watanabe's books.