THE LATEST summer accessory among New York’s wealthy elite? A vasectomy.

When Scott, a male model who says he’s in his 30s, kicks off the Hamptons high season this weekend at his Sag Harbor waterfront house, the unattached hunk won’t have any reservations about hooking up with women he hardly knows.

“I had a vasectomy a few months ago. Having a house in the Hamptons and being fairly well-off, I’ve encountered some problems — women try to get pregnant,” said Scott, a regular on the society scene who earns a cool half-million a year.

He recalled sex partners who have lied to him about being on birth control. “It’s a trick. [They say] ‘I love you, [we] don’t need a condom.’ ”

Scott — who describes himself as “Tarzan with light eyes” — typically beds up to 10 different women per summer and estimates that 20 per cent of the single ladies he encounters are looking to trap a rich guy with a baby.

The goal? At the very least: 18 to 21 years of child support and, in some instances, a green card for the mother, since their child would be born in the US. At best: Scott said, “Women want that Cinderella story [of happily ever after], but I’m noncommittal at this point in my life.”

Area urologists report that they’re seeing more well-off bachelors request vasectomies ahead of the Hamptons season. Matt — a divorced, 41-year-old Brooklyn Park Sloper who works in media and drives a Jaguar convertible — had his vasectomy performed four years ago “at the beginning of May in anticipation of the summer,” he said. It can take up to three months for sperm to be 100 per cent eliminated, but for men who just can’t wait, an ejaculate test can determine if their system is cleared sooner.

“There’s a spike in single guys” who get the procedure in spring and early summer, said Dr. David Shusterman, a urologist in Manhattan’s midtown.

“They don’t want to be in the situation of being accused of fathering an unwanted baby,” said Dr. Joseph Alukal, a urologist at NYU. “That’s their fear — being told you’re paying for this kid until it’s [an adult].”

“This extortion happens all the time. Women come after them. [They get pregnant and] want a ransom payment,” said Shusterman. “Some guys do an analysis of the cost — for three days of discomfort [after a vasectomy], it’s worth millions of dollars to them.

“I never see a poor guy [asking] for a vasectomy,” he added. “Rich guys are a population that’s abused a lot.”

Just ask John, a 34-year-old bachelor who had the procedure this month. (He asked that his name be changed for professional reasons.)

The real-estate developer and Upper West Side resident — who said he can have a different sex partner in the Hamptons every weekend — doesn’t want a repeat of last summer, when a woman he met at a party tried to pull a fast one after sex.

She offered to dispose of the used condom, but when she was in the bathroom for a while, John got suspicious. He found the woman seated on the toilet and inserting his semen inside of her.

“She denied it, but she tried to get herself pregnant,” said John, who grabbed a towel and made her clean herself and then shower. “After that, I have to be a lot more careful.”

Especially now that he’s bought a $1.5 million Southampton house. “I’m a single guy doing well — more girls come along.” The vasectomy, he added, “is insurance.”

As added insurance, John has frozen his sperm in case he decides to one day have children with a woman he loves. Shusterman recommends this to his patients and points out that reversing a vasectomy has a success rate of about 50 per cent.

“It’s not that they don’t want kids [someday],” he said. “They don’t want kids on other people’s terms.”

Manhattan matrimonial lawyer Ira Garr said of such unplanned, paternity cases: “I deal with this every year. There’s potential to [have to] pay out a lot of money.”

Child support is 17 per cent of the father’s salary up to $400,000, after which the amount is at a judge’s discretion, according to Garr. For someone who makes $1 million a year, Garr estimates annual payments of $100,000 — a total of $2.1 million until the child turns 21. Meanwhile, a vasectomy is typically covered by insurance or costs $1,000 out of pocket.

Garr gave a thumbs-up to the bachelor snip: “It’s a foolproof way to fool around and not get in trouble.”

Alex, 37, already has two kids with his wife, but the health care administrator got a vasectomy late last year specifically so he could fool around — no strings attached — in the Hamptons. The Downtown Brooklyn man and his spouse of 10 years are in an open relationship, but he almost screwed things up last summer when he got stealthed by a comely Russian model he’d met at dinner in Southampton.

During sex, the woman pulled off his condom.

“I asked, ‘WTF?’ ” recalled Alex. But he didn’t stop the sex. Two weeks later, he got a call from the woman claiming she was pregnant.

“Could her motive have been to shake me down for child support? I don’t know. But it didn’t work, thank God,” said Alex, who never heard from the model again. “It was a wake-up call. It’s not like an STD you can treat. It’s a kid.”

He told his wife, who supported his decision to get the vasectomy shortly after.

The question remains: Surely there are women in the Hamptons looking for romance but not pregnancy?

Scott admitted that his choice of partners might be to blame. “If it’s that easy a lay, there are [probably] strings attached.”

But he’s not in a hurry to change things. In fact, he requested his last name be withheld so women wouldn’t know he’s “shooting blanks. They just might move on if they have the motive [to try to get pregnant].”

This article originally appeared on the New York Post.