TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: erotic services

  • Erotic services backlash

    I got an e-mail yesterday from a reader by the name of Jon. He had developed a website that basically was the craigslist vigilante posse I’ve been wanting to organize. Its goal was to flag the obvious illegal ads in the erotic services section of craigslist.

    According to Jon, the site was making good progress in at least one major city that has a problem with craigslist prostitution. A large number of ads for illegal services had been removed. This is exactly the kind of thing that Jim Buckmaster himself says is supposedly happening on craigslist to curb illegal activity. What he doesn’t tell you is that flagging ads just leads to more criminal activity.

    Somehow the denizens of the erotic services section were able to obtain Jon’s personal information and were able to use it into harassing Jon to take down his site.

    Basically, they were calling and saying I needed to mind my own business and implied that things were just getting started. They also posted a bunch of CL ads with my phone number for free stuff at my house and used my email to sign me up for adult services online. I wasn’t too worried until they started calling my wife and using expletives and breathing heavy. I sent a complaint to CL, have not heard back from them. All the calls came in blocked, so I have no phone numbers or email for these people either. I’m sure CL could find out who posted the bogus ads, but I am not going to hold my breath that they will want to help me.

    Of course not. That would cut into their revenue stream. craigslist says it makes no money off of its erotic services section but that’s just not true. The erotic services section brings in cubic assloads of traffic to the site and some of them are employers who use the site to post job ads which is where craigslist makes their money.

    So I know that some craigslist employees read this site. How about helping Jon out with these creeps. If you contact me I’ll be more than happy to put you in touch with him and I’ll keep it confidential.

    Like Jon, I’m not holding my breath either that they’ll get back to me.

  • NY politician calls for craigslist crackdown

    Pol calls for Craigslist prostitution bust:

    A New York City politician has called on the NYPD to crack down on craigslist’s erotic services section. City Councilman Eric Gioia called a press conference yesterday likening craigslist to the wild west.

    What used to happen on seedy street corners and brothels has moved to the Internet,”

    Gioia and his staff conducted an investigation of the top 100 listings on the erotic services section for about three weeks and found that 85 percent of the ads seemed to be advertising illicit activities. The councilman said some of the ads used vague wording to offer paid sexual acts, such as “companionship” for “a generous donation.”

    “They’re pretty obvious,” Gioia said. “It’s high time that law enforcement in New York take a hard look at what’s happening.”

    The NYPD had no response and craigslist had their usual ‘we’re doing everything to help law enforcement except taking the erotic services section down’ excuse…

    A Craigslist spokeswoman said the site recently implemented new measures that reduced the number of erotic services ads by 80 percent, and other improvements have eliminated a high percentage of other objectionable content.

    “The misuse of Craigslist for illegal purposes is completely unacceptable to us and we are continuously devising new means of detecting and blocking such activity,” spokeswoman Susan MacTavish Best said in an e-mailed statement.

    Again, if it was so unacceptable they’d do away with the section.

  • Cook County Sheriffs want erotic services eliminated

    Sheriff wants Craigslist to drop ads for erotic services:

    The Cook County Sheriff’s Department in Illinois wants craigslist to shut down their erotic services section for various reasons. Two of which are…

    When a Cook County sheriff’s investigator posed as a 14-year-old girl looking for sex online earlier this year, this was one of the replies:

    “I’d love to chat with you and set up some fun this afternoon. Do you have a pic of you?”

    And…

    In one case, the prostitute rented one room for her business and another for her children, Mateck said. After the woman was arrested, she failed to tell police her children were staying in another room, Mateck said.

    “Our officer went to the room, knocked on the door, and the woman’s 4-year-old daughter opened it,” Mateck said. “They went in and found the woman’s 2-year old son scooping water out of the toilet to drink.”

    But there are no victims, right?

    Cook County sheriffs have contacted craigslist but as of the time of the article, they have not received a response.

  • craigslist CEO reacts to Conn. AG

    Dipping once again into the well of craigslist’s ugly ass blog we come across this missive from craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster about Conn. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

    While I think AG Blumenthal is out of his ever-lovin’ mind I do want to take Mr. Buckmaster to task for a quote in his post.

    Unlike the telephone yellow pages, many newspapers, and countless websites, which for many years have profited from “erotic service” ads, craigslist derives no revenue (let alone profit) from “erotic services”, and in fact we incur significant costs in enforcing our terms of use regarding these ads.

    It’s not about the cash Jim. It’s about the anonymity. Newspapers, phone books, etc can easily trace back to their clients if need be. On the other hand, you can not. It’s not just about the erotic services either, at least not with me. The anonymity of craigslist provides all types of criminals to prey upon the law-abiding users of craigslist.

  • craigslist CEO on erotic services

    Speaking of craigslist’s ugly ass official blog, CEO Jim Buckmaster posted this entry the other day about craigslist’s new phone verification system for their erotic services section. I have yet to check it out but I’m sure I can find numerous ways that it can be circumvented. Anyway, he claims that it cut down on the number of erotic service ads by 80%. That’s still 20% too many. Even one instance of child prostitution or human trafficking is still too many.

    Mr. Buckmaster also said that they are looking for additional ways to eliminate criminal activity on craigslist. I’ve got two ways that would eliminate most if not all the crime on craigslist. Take away the anonymity and do away with the erotic services section.

    I’ll be awaiting my consultant’s check Jim.

  • More underage prostitution on craigslist

    More underage prostitution on craigslist

    FBI investigates allegations of underage prostitution on Craigslist:

    More allegations of underage prostitution on everyone’s favorite website of scum and villainy, craigslist. Two girls out of Sacramento, California, ages 14 and 17, were found to have had ads on craigslist’s “erotic services” section.

    The affidavit describes the “erotic” ads as facilitating communication between prostitutes and clients, complete with code words calling the prostitutes “providers” and the clients “hobbyists.”

    The Sacramento site’s erotic offerings include many women posting images of their genitals and listing prices for half-hour and hour-long sessions. One ad depicts a pregnant woman, posts a phone number and offers to show callers that “pregnant women do it better.”

    The affidavit indicates that the underage girls allegedly photographed by Moore show the 14-year-old girl nude and touching herself suggestively. The 17-year-old’s ad offers various styles of sex and promises: “I will guarantee to fulfill all your naughty fantasies.”

    As usual, craigslist had a non-answer.

    The Sacramento case is the latest to focus legal scrutiny on Craigslist and prostitution ads on the highly popular Internet site. Craigslist has been linked in news accounts to prostitution stings from New York City suburbs to Chicago to Seattle. The company did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

    I wonder why? 🙄