Gay Romance Scams Under the Radar/The Full Skinny

Has anyone experience with gay romance scams from the website "Seeking Arrangement"?

Scammers will hit ANY website where they can pick up new targets, and websites like the one you mentioned will be be prime hunting ground for them--because it caters to people who are not necessarily realistic about their options, and people seeking extramarital affairs. Both of these are very desirable to scammers--the first, because they are more likely to find middle-aged men and women willing to shell out money based on photos of a young, attractive model (scammers targeting straight men like to use photos and video of internet porn models/actresses, which is perfect in a case like this); and the second, because if the target doesn't fall for the scam, blackmail may still be an option if he/she has been very indiscreet.

The only reviews I found of the site look like typical shill reviews. Many of the "news stories" I saw were on typical publish-your-own-news-story/blog types of sites.

I only looked at the limited profiles shown to non-members.

A quick look at some of the profiles of sugar babies shows a high number of suspicious photos. Checking out the photo of a member supposedly from Las Vegas led me to a profile on another (clearly disreputable) website in which the same photo links to someone supposedly in Missouri. I also found a news article about the site, pointing out another profile containing a watermarked stock photo--and guess what? One of the first profiles to come up had that same stock photo, pointed out as a fake back in March.

As for the "sugar daddies?"
First of all, some of them are wa-ay too attractive. If these men were that attractive and wealthy, they certainly would NOT need to join a website like this to find a young, attractive mistress. The first two obviously bogus photos I checked--one supposedly a doctor--led straight to profiles on modeling sites. In other words, they are stolen photos of models. Another profile, under the name of "Brent," contains a photo of high-profile attorney Earl Nemser, while another one of the "sugar daddy" photos is a photo of a producer on IMDB (since the person in the photo really is a producer, obviously he would have many opportunities to meet young, attractive women without joining a website)

Using location as the primary mechanism for detecting scammers is an extremely flawed approach, as it takes all of 2 seconds for a scammer to join/visit the site using a proxy, and there are new free proxies and compromised servers available every single day. And scammers use stolen credit card information to register on dating sites all the time--so being a paid or premium member is certainly not an indicator that one is legitimate.

Are there real profiles on the site? Sure, though many of those profiles are likely to contain a certain amount of exaggeration and/or misdirection (as is the case on any social site.) But, can you assume that someone approaching you is confirmed genuine? Absolutely not.

I didn't understand the comment about the "Sugar Daddies." I would think that the "Sugar Daddies" are
the "scammee's" (the victims). Why would you see them using fake photos?

The scam works both ways.

Some of the fake "sugar daddy" profiles are probably just average men who are hoping to pick up a good-looking younger woman by using an attractive profile. But many are going to be scammer profiles too.

In reality, the average target of these scammers is not the wealthy man or woman. While they will gladly scam the wealthy (of course,) the truth is, wealthy targets are much more likely to be aware of, and watching for, scam approaches.

The scammers usually have better luck with people with a more "average" income. Often people who aren't wealthy believe they won't be targets because they have less money to spare. They don't realize that a scammer will gladly take a smaller sum of money, or that he will encourage them to go into debt to raise the money he asks for.

It's actually pretty common for scammers to pose as wealthy businessmen on dating sites, and to use those profiles to scam women. You also see a lot of this on sites like millionaire match.

Typically, the scenario goes something like this:
-Wealthy, attractive man (scammer character) picks target on site.
-He tells her that distance doesn't matter, he is happy to come see her, he is quickly falling for her.
-Unfortunately, he is away on business right now, bidding on a contract.
-Success! He just got a multi-million dollar contract to design an oil rig in Nigeria! But don't worry, it won't be too long.
-Oh no! A problem with the contract. 3 employees were killed in an accident, and this wealthy, attractive man needs some quick cash to help the families/pay a settlement (you get the idea.)
-Unfortunately, wealthy businessman has no cash because it is all tied up in the contract. Could target please just send a few hundred (or thousand) dollars so he can settle this? After all, he has fallen in love, and as soon as the contract is over, he will come to her, they will be married, and will live happily ever after with his millions.

The emergency or problem can vary considerably, but the intent is the same: create a scenario that convinces the target that sending money now will secure her future with her wonderful millionaire fiancee.