I'm interested in financial domination and I don't know if that makes me strange. Is findom a real kink or is it always someone getting scammed?
Rituals, Protocol & ServiceFindom is a genuine kink with an established community of practitioners. Like any kink involving real-world stakes, it also attracts predatory actors who exploit people with no genuine interest in the dynamic. The difference lies in negotiation, consent, and whether both parties are honest about what they are doing.
Financial domination is a power-exchange dynamic where a submissive (often called a 'pay pig' or 'finsub') derives erotic or psychological satisfaction from giving money or gifts to a dominant as an expression of submission. For the people who practise it authentically, the financial element is not incidental; it is the specific form their submission takes.
The kink is real and documented across decades of BDSM community history. The psychological mechanism is the same as other submission dynamics: the transfer of control, the voluntary yielding of something significant, and the recognition by the Dominant. Money functions as a concrete and irreversible form of giving that some submissives find more satisfying than physical submission.
The scam concern is legitimate because the findom label is also used by people who target individuals with money while performing no actual dynamic and who would not describe their behaviour in kink terms at all. The distinction from the perspective of a potential finsub is whether a genuine negotiated agreement is in place: are limits on transfers agreed? Is there a relationship and communication? Does the Dominant know and care about the submissive as a person?
A findom relationship built on those principles is structurally no different from any other kink: negotiated, consensual, and designed to work for both parties. Walking into sending money to someone you have never spoken to outside a tribute demand is a different situation entirely.
If findom appeals to you, the same frameworks that apply to any BDSM relationship apply here.