Are you a 'Potential Prostitute?' If you don't know what that means, then you obviously haven't heard about the latest internet craze—labeling innocent women as hookers and then shaking them down for money to take it all back. A website known as PotentialProstitutes.Com is in the headlines for this reason, and the negative attention they're receiving is well deserved.
Basically this website operates under the claims (eye roll) that they're doing a public service to help stop online prostitution (think Craigslist or Backpage, to name a few). However, as the Huffington Post points out, it seems that this is actually an exercise in forcing innocent women to pay for the removal of harmful libel. The FAQ section of the website also makes it clear that they are not interested in removing the profiles of falsely accused women unless they pay up, and the price is rather steep—$99.95!
So basically, you can find beef with someone you don't like online and if you have enough information on them—and a photo—you can submit these details and then they too will be referred to as a 'Potential Prostitute' until they pay this steep price for removal. Sadly, by then the damage may be done, especially if the profile of the victim is screencapped and shared via social networking enough. It does indeed seem as though this website is operating with cruel intentions—not the benign mission they claim to have on their front page. And the worst part about it is that the site is registered to unknown owners in Sweden, so it's unlikely that it will be shut down or stopped anytime soon.
Photo: IMGR/Chelsea Hoffman 2012
Crime analyst, profiler & future criminologist Chelsea Hoffman can be found on Huffington Post or Chelsea Hoffman: Case to Case. You can follow her on Twitter @TheRealChelseaH or contact her via her personal blog. Fan the Facebook page for updates on missing persons cases, issues in civil rights and details on Chelsea's fiction works.
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Comments: 52
Hope they get what they deserve, a multi million dollar lawsuit filed against them real soon.
Yes. Yes I am.
Missed your wit, good to have you back.
Been kinda busy lately, but I've been trying to poke my head in from time to time for an irreverent jab here and there. I've definitely missed cavorting with you all and battling with the social conservative halfwits. Will have to try harder to make more time for both. :)
A combination of noxious gasses and fart dust.
Your analogy of the word potential in regards to humans would at first thought seem to be logically appropriate and in most instances, it would be. However, not all of us are young and energetic, also in my case you would need to add, unattractive, overweight and living on a fixed income. Therefore it's highly unlikely that I would qualify, even as a potential.
Not all of us, Jeanne. I peddled my fanny all over town on my 10-speed & didn't get so much as a literal nibble--not even a cheap thrill--a girl's gotta have her cheap thrills, ya know? *sigh*
And yes!! I always win!!!