For those of you who have been wondering what happened to the site, apparently, they were raided by the FBI and shut down in June.  They have pleaded guilty to facilitating prostitution.  See the linked story.

The word is that this came about because authorities went after backpage.com (and are still going after them).  Backpage, in an attempt to garner support, contacted other agencies like escorts.com seeking assistance.  This led to the raid by the FBI.

From what I'm hearing, and why I'm posting this here, is that the authorities are still going after backpage.com, and are now looking at sites like eros.com where many of the ladies who post here advertise.  From there, they will probably go after any agency that advertises on Eros which could include Pam's agency, Lita's agency, Global Courtesans, TLC, BodyMiracle, etc.

There's an excellent article here: http://www.xbiz.com/articles/141193 regarding the campaign against online escort sites.  Anyone currently running an escort agency, or a website where escorts advertise, should read it.

For those of you who have been wondering what happened to the site, apparently, they were raided by the FBI and shut down in June.  They have pleaded guilty to facilitating prostitution.  See the linked story.

The word is that this came about because authorities went after backpage.com (and are still going after them).  Backpage, in an attempt to garner support, contacted other agencies like escorts.com seeking assistance.  This led to the raid by the FBI.

From what I'm hearing, and why I'm posting this here, is that the authorities are still going after backpage.com, and are now looking at sites like eros.com where many of the ladies who post here advertise.  From there, they will probably go after any agency that advertises on Eros which could include Pam's agency, Lita's agency, Global Courtesans, TLC, BodyMiracle, etc.

There's an excellent article here: http://www.xbiz.com/articles/141193 regarding the campaign against online escort sites.  Anyone currently running an escort agency, or a website where escorts advertise, should read it.

From what I'm hearing, and why I'm posting this here, is that the authorities are still going after backpage.com, and are now looking at sites like eros.com where many of the ladies who post here advertise.  From there, they will probably go after any agency that advertises on Eros which could include Pam's agency, Lita's agency, Global Courtesans, TLC, BodyMiracle, etc.

Backpage.com is owned by Village Voice, and did not contact Escorts.com causing for escorts.com shut down. Escorts.com demise came due to the fact that they also ran well over 400 other sites (and own thousands of .com's) which were online porn sites, in specific Hotmovies.com. They had been under investigation for quite sometime - which was one of the reasons that they had taken the review aspect of their site down, but the lucky break for the Feds came when they were able to ascertain that one of the ladies in one of the porns that was being run through one of Escorts.com sites was underage causing for a raid on their Philly offices, where they also had phone lines set up.

Upon the raid, they were finally able to obtain the information they needed to also facilitate the shut down, although not immediately, of Escorts.com  Anyone who had been a member of the site can tell you that after the raid on their Philly office, they went off line for a few days, and then came back on, but shortly after sent out emails to everyone letting them know that they would officially be closing on May 31st 2011.

They were NOT raided in June. They were raided October of 2010. The trial began in June. In other words, Escorts.com ran for 7 months after they were raided, as a fully functioning web site.

While the Feds had always had a great interest in Escorts.com it was actually one of their other sites that they also ran that facilitated their demise, and not Backpage.com

Backpage.com is being targeted, much as CL also was, but is a much bigger powerhouse than CL was, as their parent company is the Village Voice, meaning not only have they been in the publishing game long before CL was ever even thought of, but they have learned from CL, as well as many other sites and publications mistakes.

I often find it odd that more are not fully aware of all that goes on with all of the online sites. TER was taken down once before too and not because of the original owners arrest for drugs and weapons. TER was taken down well before that and was the reason that many at one point were purposely trying to get banned. As was The Big Doggie. ASPD.net, as well as many other start up sites along the way. All you have to do is a simple Google, Dogpile or what ever site you choose search and you can find all the information at your fingertips.

With the new legislation that recently passed, and goes into effect January 1st 2012, in regards to sites like this, as well as working girls and clients, there may very well be a huge shift in how the online community works, as online review boards can be fined a million dollars per 'offense", clients arrested can face a thousand dollar fine, and ladies charged with felonies.

This whole online community has been under attack for quite sometime, and a lot of it has to do with our own actions, the blatant disregard or respect for the fact that much of what does occur can be considered illegal, and the whole graphic review process is like waving a huge red flag in front of a bull.

Sites like Eros and BP have several things going for them, the main one is that they do not allow for reviews with drop down menus, (strangely this is a big deal with how the laws are written), while they do take money for advertising from women, they do not allow for any specific menus or services to be discussed, they do not allow for overly graphic photos to be posted, or for "price menus".

I could go on and on but honestly, I have been making this new legislation known for sometime, and until the online community actually changes how it behaves it will never matter but I will sum it up the best that I can.

Our online community is under a real threat, one of which many seem to be unaware of as they would rather think up their witty verbiage of things like how much stubble is too much stubble, instead of considering how all of our actions will be our own self destruction and until things change, drastically, we are sure to find ourselves in a place of peril.