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A woman who was groomed into prostitution after signing up to become a sugar baby on Seeking.com is urging young women in Leeds to avoid the website.

Megan King says she joined the website when she was a 23-year-old single mother who was working part-time, to raise money for a master's degree, but she was soon coerced into selling her body for sex.

The controversial website allows young men and women to create an account, speak to 'sugar daddies' or 'sugar mommies', exchange photographs and arrange to meet up.

Seeking.com, formerly known as Seeking Arrangement, is billed as a website where "beautiful, successful people fuel mutually beneficial relationships" and it states that sugar babies "get to experience a luxurious lifestyle and meet wealthy people on a regular basis."

However, Megan claims that it is used by men to prey on vulnerable young women who are often desperate for money.

Thousands of students at UK universities have signed up to become sugar babies, and hundreds of them are living in Leeds.

"It's not just 55-year-old guys with a bit of cash they want to spend on spoiling a 20-year-old," said Megan. "That's the pipe dream they sell you.

"It's a lot of men with really strange and dark fantasies.

University of Leeds sugar babies signed up to Seeking.com 728 2019 530 2020 Seeking Arrangements

"When I signed up three years ago, I think I was quite naive at the time. It seems really stupid now.

"You get the idea that it's not really sexual, as that's the image portrayed in the media.

"When I went on it, I thought I wouldn't really have to do a lot. I didn't realise the level that was expected.

"I thought, at the worst, I would have to send some photographs and do some webcam-ing, I didn't know how explicit it was going to be and just how awful it is.

"It's a load of men with really obscure fantasies and fetishes. A lot of it is about inflicting sadistic stuff on girls and students who are vulnerable. It's all pretty extreme."

She added: "Most of the men had wives, girlfriends and other lives, but it's a hidden way of communication, so it goes from chatting on Seeking.com to 'meet me in a hotel and bring this and that'.

"Through me being on there, I was recruited into the sex industry."

Megan, now 26, said that when she first signed up, men would send her money for photographs and arrange to meet up, but she backed out of several of these meetings at the last minute because she felt it would be "too risky".

'They use these lies to get you in'

However, one man seemed to be more charming and open. He gave her his number and even offered to show his driving licence before he asked her to come and work for him.

"He said I'm looking for girls to dress nice, serve alcohol and party with men for £75 an hour," she said. "It seems stupid now, but they use these lies to get you in.

"The first time I met him, he took me to a bed and breakfast in Heathrow and when I got there, he said he had agreed for me to have sex with a man and I would get £150, but would give half to him.

"When I got there I couldn't really back out. I was on my own, had been driven there late at night and didn't really know where I was. It was also just me there with these two men."

Megan said the pimp, who cannot be named for legal reasons, took her to have sex with other men over a period of eight months and she became "trapped" in a cycle of self-loathing and misery.

She managed to escape from that murky world, with the help of a friend who converted her to Christianity, and she now works for an exit support service that helps other women working in the sex trade.

'Just because we are adults, it doesn't mean we are not vulnerable'

The mother-of-one is also working to raise awareness of the risks that come with being a sugar baby.

She said: "With grooming, in schools there's been a lot of education to tell children what to look out for, but most young adults don't know what to watch out for.

"Just because we are adults, it doesn't mean we are not vulnerable. Men still prey on you. The predators and the pimps prey on 18 to 25-year-olds that they know are financially desperate."

She added: "If you do end up doing it, don't be afraid to reach out and get support if it is affecting you. The shame and stigma often prevent people from coming forward."

'Please proceed with caution'

Seeking Arrangement has not taken the opportunity to respond to her claims, but it does warn users about criminals, sex opportunists and financial opportunists.

The website states: "Seeking Arrangement does not perform background checks on every member, so please proceed with caution.

"Do your own research, and always find out more about someone before you decide to meet them.

"Don’t discuss sex in your Seeking Arrangement profile description or messages you send to members."

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