The movie 'Sankie Pankie' in my opinion depicts more of a morally 'decent' Sankie (if you will), there are certainly some more renegade and reckless ones out there. But, I think it did accurately portray the overall mentality behind your average Sankie - getting out of poverty by any means necessary. So within that comes the justification, "que Dios mandame una gringa rubita y linda para sacarme de esa miseria!". In their minds deceiving and exploiting a Woman is not wrong, it is God's answer to their plight. (of course not ALL of them think as twisted, but some do with all sincerity) In reality of course it is just a twisted way of thinking.
As far as a Woman Sankie is concerned the dynamics are much different. As already mentioned, guys are not as gullible and emotionally vulnerable as Women are. So a Woman Sankie has a much smaller variety of 'prey'. Women often 'live in their minds', so they are easy to give in to their own fantasies and dreams etc. So even the most inexperto sankie can manipulate a Woman within the right circumstances. However, a women sankie has to find the right 'type' of guy, and play her cards very subtely and over a course of time. In other words, a woman sankie would be MUCH more skilled at what she does than your average sankie. And she would probably just 'convert' herself into a 'beeper chica' as that would be much easier anyway.
I personally don't think you can define a woman sankie as easily.
If you are worried about your friends dating a woman who may be after his money......well you will worry yourself to death, and that applies to MANY other places, not just in DR. But if she does any of the following, tell him to get away:
1) Falls in love with him IMMEDIATELY - goes from 'como tu ta mi amor' to 'mi cielo te amo! no me vayas' in one day.
2) Starts asking for money for a wide variety of things seemingly out of her control - rare sicknesses of a family member, funeral costs, someone dying who needs money, not able to buy food etc. Even when its something that should be expected she will explain it in a way that makes it seems like she cant do anything.
3) She has the tell-tale signs of someone who is 'working' guys over. She always seems to never have enough money, but has the latest Blackberry and always seems to have new clothes and accessories etc. That usually means she has other novios that are all contributing to her secret empire of deception.
The reality is the Dominican Republic is not a wealthy country, it is growing to some degree but there are still a LOT of people in poverty, so both Men and Women are put in hard economic contexts. Some of them, decide to go the way of the sankie for an easier way out. But to protect yourself (or any other person) you have to use common-sense and not get swept up in some crazy fantasy thinking that out of ALL the beautiful and interesting people in the Dominican Republic that somebody likes you because you are special. You might be special.....but you might also be a fool. Don't let an opportunistic sankie catch you as the latter.
