Nov 12, 2008 11:00 pm US/Eastern
I-Team: The Call Girl Next Door
Reporting
Jim Osman
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
The owner of the Web site Craigslist and 43 states recently announced an immediate crack down on sex trafficking on the Web site.
CBS 3's Jim Osman and the CBS 3 I-Team go undercover to expose how local women are still allegedly selling sex out of their suburban homes.
The CBS 3 I-Team went undercover in a tree lined suburb in Pleasantville, New Jersey. It's a place with a Main Street and a police station and nine churches.
And we visit a woman who tells us she's a grandmother.
We found the 47-year-old woman on Craigslist under the "erotic" section.
She's in need of work and calls herself a busty playmate, who is voluptuous and "very attentive and accommodating."
She talks about her body in ways we can't repeat and on the phone told our researcher something that even surprised us.
"She told me she had to get someone to watch her three grandchildren before we could make an appointment," our undercover CBS 3 researcher said.
We make and appointment and the woman greets us at the door in a bathrobe.
We never go in but we listen to what she has to say.
"There of course is a fee for the hour and we take it from there," said the woman we contacted.
And she leaves no doubt what was going to happen. She tells us her place is fully stocked. The woman tells us she has condoms.
This issue first came to light last month when a mother-daughter pair in a Northeast Philadelphia home were arrested.
Lieutenant Charles Green says the pair offered themselves up for sex for $200 on the erotic section of Craigslist.
"People who do no participate in this kind of activity are shocked by the fact that people are plying their trades on the internet and working out of their homes," said Lt. Green.
And there are plenty of suburban neighborhoods that have no clue what's really going on.
A woman's ad on the Craigslist erotic section led us to a Lindenwold, New Jersey neighborhood.
And another ad led us to a place in nearby Clementon, New Jersey.
The woman's ad says she's "the ultimate freak" and that she wanted to be used to the "fullest extent."
Our undercover researcher shows up for an appointment and enters a public hallway where we're told how much it would cost.
"It's $80 for 15 (minutes) ... $100 for the half (hour) ... full service. We do what we do and then it's over," she told our undercover researcher.
As well, this woman tells us she has condoms.
That's when our researcher leaves.
Philadelphia Police tell the I-Team if you see an alarming amount of strangers going in and out of a neighbor's house you should report it to police to investigate.
Craigslist says it recently put in place a phone verification system for the "erotic services" section.
It requires a working phone number and requires the blacklisting of numbers connected to inappropriate ads.
The Web site says it has reduced ad volumes by 80-percent and "significantly increased compliance with site guidelines."
As for the mother-daughter team you saw in our report, they are out of jail for the time being and awaiting their day in court.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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