Forget Red Lights, Prostitution Has Moved Online
While the Web site for the Emperor’s Club VIP that ex-New York Gov. Spitzer allegedly used has been taken down, online prostitution is so competitive that many of the services offer online booking directly from the sex worker’s Internet calendar.
Law enforcement officials say they’re concerned, but already so overworked trying to curtail Internet crime like online child predators, identity theft and online fraud that prostitution is seldom investigated unless it involves extraordinary circumstances.
For what the Internet has done to most every other field it has done for the world’s oldest profession, with online call girl (and boy) rings being actively advertised and promoted with barely disguised offers of sexual services under the code words “full service” or “GFE,” meaning “Girl Friend Experience.”
Sometimes, other euphemisms are used.
For example: A woman identified as “Heavenly Hailey” is advertised on a site called Cupid’s Addiction. She describes herself as “upscale courtesan based in the SE Michigan area.” The American Heritage Dictionary makes it clear what a courtesan is: “A woman prostitute, especially one whose clients are members of high social standing.”
“Organized prostitution has taken to the Internet in a major way,” says Special Agent Dawn M. Clenney, a spokeswoman for the Michigan FBI. “It’s a very effective and affordable way for them to reach huge numbers of persons. It’s a big, big problem as is just about every other kind of crime that has taken to the Internet. We’re doing what we can”
Apparently so. On an area of the Detroit Craigslist site that specializes in sexual services, someone has posted a warning that makes it obvious law enforcement knows what’s going on online. It lists a 313 area code phone number with the notice: “Be careful its a sting operation … My boy just got caught.”
That area on the Detroit edition of Craigslist has more than 700 posts offering sexual services. With so much activity, police can barely make a dent in the problem.
“The Internet is a place where you can by and sell just about anything, and prostitution is widespread on it,” says Oakland County (Mich.) Sheriff Michael Bouchard. “It’s not high on our list of priorities because there is so much of it and we are concentrating on the ongoing and serious problem of child predators but when we do find it or get a complaint, we do take action.”
That happened last summer, when Bouchard’s department got a complaint about a high class call girl who advertised online as Candy Dancer, charging $250 an hour. Cops went to the hooker’s Web site, set up a sting and made the bust. But then they were stunned to learn that Candy Dancer was actually Christy Newlin, 45, the wife of Randy Newlin, a veteran Oakland County Sheriff’s deputy.
If prostitutes are worried about getting caught, it’s hard to tell in their online posts. Typical is this one on Craigslist from a female near the M-59 and Crooks area near Detroit:
“GREAT RATES! OLDER LADY,VERY UNDERSTANDING. IN AND OUT CALL (OUT CALL HOTEL OR MOTEL). LONG LEGS,AND BUSTY(40DDS). CALL JEN xxx-xxx.xxxx SERIOUS INQUIRIES ONLY.”
The Internet is filled with paid ads and links to dozens of individuals and services that spell out the costs. Google Maps even pinpoint some the locations where prostitutes are located.
Most, like the Web site of the sex ring Spitzer has been linked to, have pictures of the women and men being offered, usually scantily clad.
It’s like that all over the country, with just about every city and state. There are even portal sites for prostitutes, linking escort services and women who advertise they have no pimp and work independently of an agency or service.
It isn’t just Google and Craigslist where such services are openly advertised and linked in search directories. Yahoo! has a category that is filled with seven pages of paid ads for sex workers.
Some of the sites try to qualify their offerings and explain away the rates they charge for their services. The boilerplate language found on most reads: “Money exchanged is for time and companionship only. This is not an offer for prostitution. Time together is between two consenting adults, and whatever else may occur is up to the individuals involved and not, in any way authorized or sponsored by the agency.”
Right.
But sometimes, those who use the net for sexual exploitation are exploited themselves.
As another indication on how fast something scandalous can be turned into a money-making opportunity, a Web site called Busted Tees is offering a $14.99 T-Shirt that says: “Emperor’s Club VIP Client #9.”
It has been widely reported that Spitzer was the customer identified as Client #9 on the FBI warrant leading to the bust of the prostitution service.
Capitalism thrives online.
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