The Sex Business – Prostitutes, strippers, sex clubs and blackmail
It always surprises me how many guys don’t understand the sex business and end up in trouble because they get duped by girls using routines that have been around since women realized how dumb guys were. It amazes my as a security professional how many guys get themselves into situations that can damage their health, safety and professional reputation by being stupid. So, here are some words of advice and warning from someone who understand how things work!
Looking back, I was very lucky at being exposed the realities of the sex business in my late teens while serving in the British Army in Cyprus. I was in an Infantry unit and after a two-year tour of Northern Ireland we were posted to the Mediterranean Island for two years, which with its abundance of cabaret clubs proved to be a very good training ground for an inquisitive 19-year-old squaddie.
Like in most places the cabaret clubs and prostitution business in Cyprus is a Mafia run business, at the time the working girls were from mainly Asian with some Eastern Europe’s. Were they the victims of sex trafficking; I am sure they were making more money as hookers in Cyprus than they would in their own countries, business is business. To be honest I never heard of our guys being scammed by the girls but we were just young soldiers with little to offer and nothing to lose. For most of us the novelty quickly wore off as the abundance of tourists meant getting laid was not a problem and the polite girls even paid for the drinks.
But, boys will be boys and we had those that fell in love with these working girls. As I remember several of the guys who were spotted much too regularly in the cabarets even went to the Philippines Embassy in Nicosia to try to help the girls get a ticket home. I am sure the girls were just playing the sympathy card for some extra cash or hoping these naïve young men with British Passports would marry them and give them access to the European Union. I bet if the girls knew what the guys whose virginity they took were doing to help them they would not have been very happy. I am sure they really wanted to be deported back to where they come from and explain to the businessmen who arranged their flights, visas and employment how they were going to pay their debt off.
It’s a fact of life that people have vices and I do not judge people on what they do in private, as long as it is between consenting adults. I discuss the sex business with my clients as it’s an area where unwary people can and do get themselves into a lot of trouble. One example of an avoidable problem was the situation the U.S. Secret Service had in Cartagena, Colombia, which was absolutely ridiculous on many levels.
The most common and accepted side of the sex industry are the strip bars and they can be found in most places, some are very classy and well-run businesses but many are not. During the late 90’s I had more than a few business meetings in strip clubs in central, eastern Europe and also supplied security for several clubs in London, so I know a little bit about how things work. You need to understand this basic fact; more than most places as soon as you walk through the door you are a commodity.
The sex business is a business, it’s all about hard currency, so forget the emotions. Remember you’re paying for the show, you’re paying for attention and the working girls are just doing their job as long as you’re paying. Strips bars should be thought of as the same way you think about a patisserie. You go, select your cake, buy it, enjoy it and move on until next time. Many times in Europe I have seen the drunk businessman trying to dance while surrounded by two or three hot young women; if he has the money and he wants them they are his, for a few hours or the night at least.
Hopefully before the gentleman leaves the club either alone or with the girl who’s within his price range, he has avoided some of the common issues with strip bars and clip joints. A typical scam is to vastly overcharge for drinks, when the bill is presented our gent finds out his couple of beers cost a few hundred dollars. When he protests he is confronted by a couple of thugs who shows him the price list for drinks, which is well-hidden behind the bar. In most cases he will have his wallet emptied and may be escorted to an ATM machine and instructed to draw out more money or just beaten and robbed. If the gentleman is with friends, one may be held in the venue while the other is sent to get more money. These operations rely on the fact that the people going into these places will not report these incidents to the police as they don’t want people, such as their wives and bosses to know that they were in a sleazy strip bar in the first place.
It was common in Eastern Europe for those who flashed money and jewelry around in the clubs to end up drugged and robbed, their drinks being spiked by the bar staff or those they were socializing with. If they reported the robberies to the police they would not be taken seriously, what was to prove they did not drink themselves unconscious, they could not remember what they were doing, so they could have given their valuables away etc.
The threat from violence is also always present, be it from the jealous guy who’s infatuated with the girl that’s giving you all the attention tonight or the wannabe gangster that see’s you as an easy source of a few dollars. Most of the working girls are also more than capable of hurting more than your feelings, don’t be surprised if the pretty young thing who took your wallet defends her honor by putting a glass in your face; now explain that to your wife after the bouncers finish throwing you out.
In most places prostitution is illegal but in some places it is a licensed business and even where it’s illegal, you will not have to look far to find sex for sale. In Eastern Europe it’s not uncommon to get hookers phoning your hotel room offering their services; your details supplied by their associates working in the hotel. Or the hotel concierge can arrange girls for you, maybe for a fee but be assured everyone is making a percentage of any deals that the prostitutes makes with you.
Whether the hookers are found online, at a strip bar or supplied by another sources they can all bring big problems, not only disease but also robbery and blackmail. If the hooker has friends in the hotel they can access your hotel registration details, which will more than likely include your home address, business address and credit card details. How much would most men pay to stop the photos or video from their hotels security cameras showing him and a young lady getting cozy in the hotel bar and then going to his room being sent to his wife? Get the picture?
I have heard quite a few stories of men taking hookers to their business and their homes when their families are not there because they are too cheap to get a hotel room, I usually hear the stories when they start to be extorted. The U.S. secret service agents in Cartagena, Colombia were stupid enough to take hookers to their hotel rooms where they had their weapons, presidential security plans, phones and computers etc. There are plenty of “by the hour” hotels in Colombia, so why take a hooker to your hotel, the less your new friend knows about you the better, even if you are in love!
5 Star hotels and exclusive venues are always a favored hangout for attractive women seeking to better themselves and make some hard currency in the process. Be it London, Paris, Miami or Port Harcourt these ladies will not be hard to find. One funny story involves a gentleman I know who exchanged phone numbers with a very attractive lady he met in a high-end hotel lobby in West Africa. After an evening exchanging texts, he invited a girl to his hotel room. When she got to his hotel room an argument quickly broke out as he did not realize he had to pay for her time, I think his ego was hurt. He ended up paying the girl, which was the right thing to do, he was dumb and had wasted her time, for her it was business, if he just wanted a conversation he should have Skyped his wife.
As I said in the beginning, a lot of the sex business is run by organized crime to some extent and in a lot of places the police provide protection for the venues and the girls. With a call to her friends in the police our dumb friend’s actions in West Africa could have caused him a lot of third world problems which would have cost him a lot more than the girl’s fee to make go away.
While providing security for high-end events in London’s West End I have had numerous arguments with very well dressed, attractive young ladies trying to gatecrash exclusive events. At one very stuffy black tie event two stunning girls managed to bypass security by paying the £500.00 each for tickets and at the rate they were giving out business cards I am sure they made a profit on their investment that night alone.
For the high-end and well-connected girls when not socializing or on call in exclusive venues, they tend to work from apartments in usually very nice parts of town. And for those that can afford them they are a far safer bet than the girls that you will encounter at the strip bars. For the starting fee of $1000.00 for an evening of conversation with the option to negotiate for sexual favors you should also secure maximum discretion. But be assured the girls and their employers have taken their precautions, these days usually in the form of their apartments being equipped with covet cameras which are monitored by a close at hand minder. An incriminating video is a lot harder to explain away than a few cuts and bruises right?
But I am sure most of these city gents and dapper Casanovas who as far as their wives are concerned are socializing at their old boys’ club, have only honorable intentions. What’s more honorable than a quick haircut at Harrods and a couple of hours with two girls of your choice who are there to please. Hopefully it never occurred to these gents that 45 minutes before they turned up, some with flowers and some without, that the girls had been servicing someone else. And hopefully for their egos sake if it was not their first visit the girls actually remembered them, a reason to tip well or be a real kink eh!
If you miss the warning signs and are set up, “honey trapped”, your world can quickly go from extreme ecstasy to extreme misery. At the low end of the scale that hot chick that promises you a night of debauchery will just take you to a shady hotel room or apartment where you’ll be beaten, robbed and maybe raped by her waiting accomplices. An imaginative honey trap happened to a French businessman in 2002. He met an attractive Russian girl online and agreed to meet her in Moscow. She met him at Sheremetyevo airport and took him to a waiting car where he was kidnapped! The first his wife knew about him going to Moscow was when she received a ransom demand for $3,000,000.00. His kidnappers were not professional and he was rescued by the Moscow police. This case made the international media, so how much damage it did to his credibility, not to mention how he would explain the situation to his wife.
At a higher level a more intricate honey trap can go on for an extended period of time until you believe it’s some form of relationship, of course the sex, the more deviant the better would be videoed and then used to blackmail you for business favors or hard currency. A common criminal tactic is to pimp out a girl or boy who looks the legal consenting age for sex and then claim after the sex has taken place they are underage. That way they have a lot of leverage on the unfortunate and stupid gent who has without knowing possibly committed a serious criminal act, sex with a minor.
I do not judge others’ lifestyles; I have been fortunate to experience a lot of what the world has to offer, I understand how things work and see a lot of things a lot differently that most. I tell my clients not to get into situations and environments they do not understand because things can go very wrong, very quickly. Especially in the world of the sex business, be it legal or illegal. In many cases if things go bad the police will not be interested in helping you, even if you can report the crime without being implicated in illegal activates yourself.
Always remember what I said earlier, the sex business is a business, it’s all about hard currency not emotions and you are the commodity.
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Intelligence Gathering: Front Line HUMINT Considerations
The things I talk about in this book are double-sided; can be used against others or you.
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