this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2023
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[–] hogunner@lemmy.world 187 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Alleged prospective sex buyers in this scheme first had to respond to a survey and provide information online, including their driver’s license photos, their employer information, credit card information, and they often paid a monthly fee to be part of this.”

Wait, what? (͡•_ ͡• )

That should make the prosecutors jobs much easier.

[–] squiblet@kbin.social 116 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Wow, imagine willingly providing that information to what you know is a criminal organization. The people who signed up are obviously a major security hazard to whoever they work for.

[–] Phlogiston@lemmy.world 115 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah. This is the real issue here.

Sex work should be legal and the morality discussion here is about people lying to their spouses and if anybody is being forced into sex work… all interesting topics.

But anybody implicated in this situation needs all security clearances and access dropped because they are high risk morons.

[–] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 46 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's signing up to a blackmail scheme.

[–] hemmes@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Coasting0942@reddthat.com 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Oh, well in that case will you need me to provide my clearance number as well?

Obviously it’s the sex workers that are going to jail for this, for tricking all these high level citizens.

[–] hogunner@lemmy.world 33 points 1 year ago (1 children)

100%. I wouldn’t even give all that information to my online pharmacist and I need some of those medications to survive.

[–] Lemjukes@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago

Yeah my employer don't need to know fuckall about what meds I'm on.

[–] cuibono@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Seriously. How dumb do you need to be to be in an actual high ranking (government) position and willingly give up all that info to an even slightly shady organisation? Never mind an illegal prostitution network you are sure is both illegal and easily blackmailable.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Say something is exclusive and idiots will do anything to get in.

Facebook got so huge because at first you had to be in college to be on it. After a couple years they opened it up to everyone and pretty much everyone signed up.

[–] wahming@monyet.cc 3 points 1 year ago

Doesn't always work. See Google+.

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 36 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The ease of prosecuting is directly proportional to how wealthy and influential the accused is.

Remember, it's a legal system ... not a justice system ... you can easily distinguish the difference by how wealthy you are (or are not)

[–] hogunner@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago
[–] IWantToFuckSpez@kbin.social 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Could be a honey pot. Either the guys running it wanted to use the info to blackmail the clientele or sell the info to foreign intelligence

[–] SheeEttin@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Or they use it for further identity fraud to open new locations.

[–] bassomitron@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

I'm guessing it was that one P411 website or whatever. That site has been in the news in the past. It baffles me that people would willingly comply with such invasive identification requirements for something that's illegal. I get the idea behind it is to try and prove that you're not a cop/murdery type of criminal in order to protect the sex workers, but... yeah, lol.

[–] DigitalTraveler42@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Criminals and criminals masquerading as religions love to get blackmail on their clientele/members, it's probably the more lucrative part of their enterprise, and it keeps those members/clientele loyal, because who wants their nasty ass secrets leaked out or sold to their enemies?

[–] EatATaco@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not really, because the people who made the survey are probably smart enough to not include anything about exchanging money for sex. Basically, there's nothing illegal about filling out a survey about who you are and what are your likes or dislikes. There's also nothing illegal for someone to pay another person for their time.

So no mention of exchanging money for sex and it's incredibly hard to prosecute.

[–] hogunner@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

No idea if you’re right or not but that’s not what I meant. I meant they don’t have to hunt down the johns, the johns already provided all the possible info the prosecutors would need to find them.

[–] Furbag@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think what the person above was implying is that having your name on that list is not de-facto evidence of participation. I'm sure the DOJ has more than just that one piece of evidence if they've already made arrests, because sex workers in America are nothing if not extremely careful about how they conduct their business to avoid exposing themselves or their clients to law enforcement stings.

[–] RedAggroBest@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Hell, if they're actually smart, they have red herrings in the list that muddies who is actually a client

[–] tookmyname@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Are Johns (and sex workers) even worth prosecuting? I think the DOJ is interested in a organized prostitution ring and it’s leaders, involved in conspiracy and money laundering, not a few dudes paying for (adult) sex.

I don’t think they’ll waste their time.

[–] EatATaco@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago

How exactly does that help? It's not like they are going to do stake outs on these guys. It's not enough probable cause for any type of warrant or anything.

It would help support a case if you already had one, but as an entry point it's all but completely useless, if not actually completely useless.

Which is why they won't release the names, because doing so would open them up to lawsuits. All risk no reward.

[–] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

None of that's illegal, aside from the card info it's actually a lot of the things a trustworthy sex worker will be asking you for as a background check before agreeing to meet you.