Online ads for "erotic services" in Dallas pop up by the dozens each day on Craigslist, the hugely popular Internet classified site.
MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ/The Associated Press
"Cute girl needs money," says one, along with the picture of a half-naked blonde. "Perfect body," boasts another, offering all-night specials.
The ads are part of a flourishing sex trade online, with Craigslist once again under scrutiny after a Boston man was charged last week with murdering a masseuse contacted through the site.
With more than 50 million users each month, Craigslist is one of the busiest Web sites in the world, offering ads for everything from carpools to computers.
The company's chief has promised to review safety measures agreed to last year, but some law enforcement officials are calling for tougher steps.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal urged Craigslist last week to stop "pimping and prostitution in plain sight." He asked the site to immediately drop photographs in the "erotic services" category, hire staffers to screen images and ads that violate the site's terms of service, and fine those who violate those rules.
Jim Buckmaster, chief executive officer for Craigslist, promised to work with authorities.
"The site has facilitated billions of human interactions over its history. Compared to human society as a whole, the risks of Craigslist are low, but they're not zero," he told The Associated Press.
Familiar site to police
North Texas police have been dealing with Craigslist-related crimes for years.
On Friday, a Grand Prairie man pleaded guilty in federal court to charges that he sold counterfeit DVDs on Craigslist. In February, a man was convicted of murdering a customer who responded to an automotive ad.
Last fall, several people were robbed in Richardson and Garland after answering Craigslist ads. And two years ago, a couple was arrested on prostitution charges involving a young girl on the site.
Lt. Chesley Williams, commander of the Dallas Police Department Crimes Against Children Unit, said officers speak with Craigslist officials occasionally, and they've "been responsive when we have sought information or given them a heads-up about a problem listing."
Dallas vice squad Lt. Christina Smith said officers monitor Internet sites such as Craigslist regularly and keep a sharp eye for "postings of people that appear to be young in age."
She said Internet advertising makes enforcement of laws against the sex trade more difficult than in the past because the industry is no longer confined to the streets. There, she said, "you stop, you make the case, and you have the arrest."
But with prostitutes on the Internet and customers cruising from their homes, officers must browse the sites, make a phone call to set up a "date," wait for a call back, then go to the location - where the suspect may or may not show up.
"It definitely is more time-consuming," she said.
Discerning who is looking for paid sex from who's just looking for NSA (no strings attached) sex is more difficult.
The ads often use acronyms or code words. A "cuddy buddy" is a "friend with sexual benefits." A reference to "150 roses" or "flowers" means $150 in exchange for sex.
Dallas police have learned to read between the lines. "I have a little cheat sheet of the terminology," Smith said. "Oh, that's what they're talking about."
Smith said that to avoid becoming a victim, users should be cautious and refrain from risky behavior.
Cautionary tales
Boston authorities last week charged Philip Markoff, a medical student, in the April 14 killing of Julissa Brisman. He is also charged in a robbery of another masseuse he allegedly met through Craigslist, and police are looking for more victims.
The high-profile case worries some local Craigslist users.
One Dallas resident whose husband has been advertising their "swinger" or "adult lifestyle" parties on Cragislist for a year said they're going to drop their posting.
"I didn't think about it until I saw it on TV," she said, agreeing to talk if her name was not used.
"I'm going to have to be more careful. It's scary."
Mainstream dating Web site Match.com, which is based in Dallas, relies on more rigorous review of its users than does Craigslist.
"We've got an amazing customer care team," said its spokesman, John Walls. The team "approves every single photo, every single profile that goes on the site, opposed to the Craigslist site that you post yourself."
Craigslist increased oversight of some sex-related ads last year as part of an agreement with attorneys general from across the country and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Craigslist's Buckmaster said the company now requires a fee to post erotic services ads and obtains telephone and credit card verification from the person posting. Funds from the fee are to be donated to charity, though none had been as of last week.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott broke with most of his peers by declining to sign the agreement because he didn't believe the company's effort was sincere, said spokesman Jerry Strickland. If Craigslist executives were serious about stopping criminal activity, they would prohibit such ads completely, he said.
Blumenthal, the Connecticut attorney general, said the agreement has been effective because the number of ads for prostitution and the amount of pornography have diminished.
"Would we have wanted them to do more in the first agreement?" he asked. "Yes. But like any agreement, it was a compromise and it achieved a result much more quickly than could have been done if there had been a lawsuit."
Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said he also was skeptical but believes the agreement was a "good-faith effort" that has shown "substantial progress" in the fight against the sex trade.
Since Craigslist began charging the erotic-services fee and requiring verification, many ads have migrated to its no-fee "casual encounters" category and to other Internet companies.
Still, Blumenthal vowed, states would go after them, too. But Craigslist is "by far the biggest," he said, and "they could be a model for other sites."
Staff writer Tanya Eiserer contributed to this report.
