Sugar Daddy Sites Attract Sexual Blackmailers
Stephen Dent, Wealthy Blue Blood, Was 'Vulnerable' Target for Con Artists
By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES
May 15, 2009
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Stephen Dent was perceived, above all, to be a family man, playing ice hockey with his two sons on the weekends, vacationing in Palm Beach and Nantucket.
Sugar Daddies
Sugar Daddies.
(ABC News Photo Illustration)
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But behind closed doors, the 54-year-old Greenwich, Conn., multimillionaire was a "sugar daddy" and "slave master" who courted his "sugar babies" online, lavishing them with thousands of dollars in exchange for companionship and kinky sex, according to court records.
But his sex life turned sour because he was repeatedly extorted over his flings with numerous sugar babies on the dating Web site SeekingArrangement.com, according to court records. Now police are charging a young couple with blackmailing Dent.
Dating sites like Wealthymen.com, Sugardaddy.com, Establishedmen.com and others can be fertile ground for con artists who take advantage of men with deep pockets, like Dent.
"The news is unbelievable," said one family acquaintance who did not want to be identified. "I am completely blown away by this. I've always seen him with his wife and children all the time and, honestly, he seems to be a real family man."
"Anybody on the outside would say his life is perfect," the acquaintance told ABCNews.com.
Just this week, the Greenwich Times exposed Dent and the five-month long investigation by Greenwich police and the FBI.
April 12, 2009 10:50 AM PDT
The site where sugar daddies find their sweet babies
by Chris Matyszczyk
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"Does the money make me more attractive than I really am?"
I know those are words have pummeled the lips of many of you out there, bursting to be heard. You swallow them with your pride, just in case the answer might be, well, yes.
So perhaps you might be one of the 300,000 who populate Seekingarrangement.com, a site that tries to bring together those who have money (and are, by virtue of the virtues of capitalism, older) and younger things who wish to earn money in exchange for being, in the site's immaculate vernacular, sugar babies.
Seekingarrangement.com is profiled at some glorious length in Sunday's New York Times and one could scarcely think of a more appropriate subject for Easter Sunday. Here we have luminous Hefners in search of, hopefully, bed-hopping bunnies.
Indeed, the CEO of the site, Brandon Wey, decided to take on the name Brandon Wade. Because, he told the Times, it sounded more Hefneresque.
The Times' story is full of enchanting students who need money and pampering with the so-called finer things in life. You know, Fendi purses, Pucci dresses, and broccoli boiled in gold leaf. Of course, these finer things also may include hanging out with an old, balding, paunchy dude who just happens to have a black American Express card.
Um, this lady doesn't seem impressed with the Sugar Daddy concept.
(Credit: CC IfindKarma/Flickr)
The site itself explains it in far more lyrical (and historical) terms: "In the past, Kings, Shahs and Emperors have had multiple lovers or concubines. It is human instinct to be attracted to beauty, as it is to be attracted to wealth and power."
Well, this human instinct seems to lead (mostly) men, who have to pay to be on the site, and women, who don't, to seek each other out for mutually beneficial relationships.
These arrangements are described in quite loving detail in the Times: sugar daddies who begin to feel real affection for their babies; sugar daddies who get jealous when they discover that their babies actually have nonpaying boyfriends at college; sugar daddies who have sour breath that kills their baby's sweetness.
But the hero of the piece is Sam.
Sam's goal is not rhythm. It is algorithm. He treats Seekingarrangement.com as the perfect scientific experiment. He establishes a trust in his sugar baby's name that pays $5,000 a month. Each daddy/baby relationship is a fixed-term contract. The money continues to flow even if the river of the lady's love experiences an unexpected drought.
Sam always has a fixed budget and even has quarterly reviews to assess progress. Naturally, he has certain exigencies--no tats, no implants, no veggies, for example.
But here is the bad news for everyone out there--those working for Google and those not--who believe that life can be boiled down to rational constructs: Sam has found little evidence that spending more money brings a better quality of relationship.
And so humanity trudges on, in desperate search of its own salvation in the arms and bank account of another.
Do you see any hope, people? Any hope at all?
Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET.
“The “Sex, Money and Sugar” post struck a nerve with me, as I do NOT plan on becoming intimate with my future SD under any circumstances. There is absolutely no compromising or negotiating in this area for me. In fact, the very idea of sex thoroughly disgusts me! I’m certain I’m not the only sugar who shares this sentiment (minus the palpable disgust, of course).
Not only have I submitted and read a few comments in previous posts reflecting same, but I’ve given and received the suggestion that giving up the sugar search altogether is the only solution. I personally have suspended my search for personal reasons, but just the same I’d like to finish what I’ve started with renewed confidence. If my search takes longer than average (whatever that is; I understand results vary), so be it.” -Novemberaine~306712