Hi barbchuck,
Greetings from Atlantic Canada.
Dominican Sankie Pankies are men who prey on young women's hearts and pocketbooks. They are charming, suave, have great lithe young bodies, can dance up a storm, and could care less about the feelings of their prey as long as they get her money, or use her as a way out of the D.R. They will pick up young (or not so young) tourists at the disco and invite them to a disco in town or just stay at the one where they met. They will always have a sob story (sick mother, broken car, friend in jail, etc., etc.) so they need money, so they don't look like they are mooching off the girl (machismo, you know). Once hooked the lies increase and there are promises of eternal love, faithfulness, marriage, etc., etc. Many young women lose their hearts to a Dominican who is totally faithful until the airplane leaves (if that long). The unlucky ones do not realize this and support him financially, even after she returns home and she is in fact supporting him in his pursuits of other women. In addition many male resort workers (especially the entertainers) are in fact Sankie Pankies by any other name.
Some form or another of this type exist in many areas where relatively well-off tourists are in close touch with less well-off locals. in Jamaica the term is "beach boy" or sometimes "rent-a-rasta" or "rent-a-dread".
Gregg