Last week, we told you about an anonymous, wealthy West Palm Beach man giving away $5,000 to strangers so that his wife would have sex with him. It sounded like an April Fool's joke, yet hundreds of people wrote in to his website, dealfool.com, explaining why they deserved the money.
Turns out, the essay contest may be real, but it may also be designed to promote a Groupon-style website that gives discounts to local businesses. A cached version of dealfool.com as it appeared on March 26 says, "DealFool introduces savvy customers to unique and entertaining experiences by giving them foolishly great discounts."
It then lists links to "Today's deals" and "Recent deals." The site also lists an address in Fort Lauderdale.
An assistant who answers the phone at Tommy Alastra Productions in Los Angeles distributed the original news release about the $5,000 essay contest. She said her agency represents the wealthy man who's giving away the money.
When the Juice called to inquire if the contest was simply a clever promotion for dealfool.com, she said no, "That's not what his agenda is."
The man hired a social media firm to set up his contest site, she said, but she'd never heard of the older, Groupon-style dealfool.com website.
She insisted that the essay contest is real and that the deadline to pick a winner has been extended until tomorrow, April 8.
So, it looks like we'll have to wait one more day to find out if this is all a marketing ploy or just bizarre philanthropy.
