MYRedbook

[Redballs]

I think MYRedbook has been shut down. Anyone have any info?

[GroobySteven]

I think MYRedbook has been shut down. Anyone have any info?

Correct.
FBI seized it and arrested owners last night - charges included money laundering and prostitution over state lines.

[NightmareX0666]

Correct.
FBI seized it and arrested owners last night - charges included money laundering and prostitution over state lines.

Ouch!!!!
http://www.sfexaminer.com/imager/myredbookcom/b/original/2830031/bdb7/my_redbook.jpg

And here is the story for those who want to read it:
http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/sf-based-escort-website-myredbook-siezed-by-fbi/Content?oid=2830030

[Turlington]

Don't know about the money laundering, but technically they're right about the prostitution.

Eros, Backpage, and Craigslist might suffer the same fate eventually...

[gaysian71]

I dont think they got shut down. I think they got hacked. I doubt the FBI would really put up a page like that.

[saifan]

I dont think they got shut down. I think they got hacked. I doubt the FBI would really put up a page like that.

Did you read the article?

They did the same thing when they seized all of those poker sites a few years back.

[GroobySteven]

I dont think they got shut down. I think they got hacked. I doubt the FBI would really put up a page like that.

They got shut down. It was in the news.
Generally if I post something as fact and not opinion, I've checked it for a source.

[Rusty Eldora]

They got shut down. It was in the news.
Generally if I post something as fact and not opinion, I've checked it for a source.

very much fact as Steven noted, when there are scribe links of the actual indictment in the articles someone is in serious trouble.

When someone doesn't share with the IRS large amounts of money, the IRS does get fussy.

[holyshit]

Well this just sucks. I found out about myredbook one month ago. Didn't get a chance to use the service. I seen a few listings. But now they make it harder to look for local escort. At least backpage and eros still up.

[daltx_m]

So its because the IRS pimps didn't get paid?

[Nikka]

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

[LilyRox]

I dont think they got shut down. I think they got hacked. I doubt the FBI would really put up a page like that.

When the FBI seizes a website for illegal activity they always update the website like that. Normally they focus on shutting down websites for highly illegal activities like child trafficking, but like in this case they also shut down sites for laundering millions of dollars. Megaupload.com is another big name domain name that also got shut down for money laundering.

[natina]

Backpage.com and the prostitution law that could take down Twitter, YouTube, and Wikipedia

If you want to pay for sex in the United States — or offer sex services for a fee — and you’d rather not troll derelict city street corners late at night, chances are you’re going to use backpage.com.

Of course, Backpage’s adult classifieds are cloaked in the coy poetry of online sex advertising; you’re searching for an “escort” instead of a “prostitute” or a “full body sensual mutual touch” instead of something more crudely sexual. But recent studies from the Advanced Interactive Media Group (AIMG) cut through coyness to offer at least one blunt statistic: About 70 percent of the revenue generated from online sex transactions in the U.S. goes to Backpage. Last year, AIMG figured Backpage generated around $2 million in revenue every month from online sex sales.

To put it another way: The Village Voice Media-owned online classified ad service could be seen as the main source for online sex in the U.S.

And with Craigslist no longer offering sex services on any of its 700 sites around the world (Craigslist dropped its “adult classifieds” section in 2010), Backpage’s adult market share has nowhere to go but up.

But there’s a hitch. And that hitch not only threatens to put Backpage out of business. It also threatens to completely change the way websites handle third-party content.






While few government agencies seem particularly concerned about the criminal ramifications of adults offering sex with other adults for sale online (prostitution is legal only in some parts of Nevada), at least one high-profile case shined an unflattering light on Backpage for allowing users to traffic children for sex.

That high-profile case involved a 15-year-old from St. Louis identified only as “M.A.”


“Imagine Twitter without real-time posting,” he said. If Washington State’s law is allowed to pass, it “will destroy the user-generated content community.”


http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/18/3093146/backpage-com-prostitution-law-take-down-youtube-twitter-wikipedia

[nysprod]

And with Craigslist no longer offering sex services on any of its 700 sites around the world (Craigslist dropped its “adult classifieds” section in 2010), Backpage’s adult market share has nowhere to go but up.

See the "casual encounters" section on CL.

[nysprod]

It is highly doubtful that Backpage or Craigslist (where sexual services are offered in the "casual encounters" section), will become a target of the government as Myredbook did however, there's a potential that Eros could.

Web sites are protected by the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which states that Web site owners are exempt from responsibility for the content of their users. The idea here is that the speaker is held responsible, not the soapbox. In August 2012, a judge dismissed a lawsuit against Village Voice Media that claimed backpage.com was aiding and abetting sex trafficking by allowing users to post advertisements for sex.

There's an important difference between sites like BP and CL compared to myredbook; BP and CL take ads of all different kinds while MRB does not. The government is going to argue that MRB is set up specifically to aid and abet something illegal (prostitution) and therefore should not be protected under the CDA, while MRB's attorney's will of course argue that it should be.

Ultimately, the courts will decide the case on the CDA and the boundaries will be more clearly outlined...MRB could indeed be in a lot of trouble but as for BP and CL, we're likely to see those exist in their present form for quite some time unless the owners get cold feet and voluntarily decide to not accept ads of this type.

[EvonRose]

Eros has. I know a few of my friends who were arrested but I do think they target certain cities more so than others...

I also know of someone arrested in casual encounters by an undercover cop browsing for solicitation. Again certain cities are more susceptible to stings than some.

PS. A cop does not have to say he is a cop or not for there to be an arrest, once solicitation or trade has been said or done whether in person or trough the phone it is prostitution, and in some states an ad itself is a legal means for an arrest once the advertiser is contacted and met in person.

[LilyRox]

As far as the FBI shutting down big sites with people that seem to "suggest" prostitution I don't think they really care as long as they aren't laundering tons of money. It will always exist as long as social media is around, which doesn't look like it's going away anytime soon. The cops that organize single sting operations for this kind of stuff are just dicks. There's something wrong when there's hundreds of murders every month and police are dicking around with trying to set up prostitutes. I don't know how many people have had luck using craigslist before, but what I've heard it sounds like a lot of ads posted are fake.

[SuzySnappz]

The loss of the online advertising at myredbook isn't really that big a deal, there's always backpage and other sites. What really sucks about the shutdown is the loss of the online discussion groups specific to escorting. Yes, there are some discussion groups here on HA too, but the ones on myredbook were really all about escorting as opposed to porn, and so a lot of escorts actively participated in a way that they don't here... it was a real resource, which is now gone. :( And there's not much else out there like that as far as escorting discussion groups go, at least in the U.S., as far as I know.