Posted on 06/19/2002 2:10:31 PM PDT by mikenola
TAMPA, Fla., June 19 — The operators of a Florida Web site that served as an international advertising hub for prostitutes have been arrested following a two-year investigation, police said Wednesday.
THE TAMPA-BASED Web site, Bigdoggie.net, carried advertisements from prostitutes in the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany and South Africa that enabled then to arrange dates with customers, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
About 50,000 people worldwide paid $129.95 per year to join the Web site, which gave them access to the list of “escorts,” some of whom offered discounts for members, as well as customer reviews of the woman and lists of their “specialties.” Some of the dates with adult movie star actresses cost as much as $17,000 for a night, the sheriff’s office said. “If you were computer literate and had a laptop and you were a businessman, anywhere you traveled you could use this Web site to get ... a date for a particular evening,” Hillsborough County Sheriff Cal Henderson said Tuesday at a news conference to announce the arrests.
As part of the investigation, detectives posted a fictitious ad on the Web site for “Lia Nice” using a photo of a bikini-clad female informant. The ad, which offered the woman’s services for $300 an hour, attracted thousands of responses and six men were arrested for solicitation.
They agreed to cooperate in the investigation and are expected to be witnesses against the site’s operators. Advertisement
The sheriff’s office said Charles Kelly, 51, of Tampa, Florida, and Steve Lipson, 39, of Boca Raton, Florida, were arrested Tuesday and charged with running the service. Kelly was ordered held on bail of $195,000. Lipson was to be arraigned after being transferred to Hillsborough County. Twenty-one women in the Tampa area also were arrested on prostitution charges, including a 29-year-old high school special education teacher in Osceola County, police said.
Reuters contributed to this story.
Some of the dates with adult movie star actresses cost as much as $17,000 for a night
$17K for a night with a high mileage porn actress with more STD's than you can count on one hand. Sounds like a bargain.
The posters took great pains to refrain from posting anything that might be construed as prostitution. Instead, they used vague compliments like "you'll definately get your money's worth." or "you'll come away with an empty wallet and little else." etc.
It was quite entertaining.
You sure? It's been a while but the name bigdoggie sure rings a bell.
Oh, and for the record, I never took advantage of services offered.
And well you should! How do we know for certain that Ossama bin Laden wasn't a member, hmmmm??? For all we know, a devastating terror attack has been averted because Ossama can't get his rocks off now.
And that's why they call him "Osama bin Laid" :-)
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