For two years, the middle-aged, professional man was a regular on The Review Board. He liked being with prostitutes who advertised online or in the back of weeklies, but wanted to know what he was buying before plunking down $250 an hour.
So, he relied on the local online board, where an underground community of men rate women whose sexual services they buy. They describe women's bodies, their rates, their "energy level" and "believability." They don't explicitly mention sex, but use euphemisms for certain acts.
"The bottom line is just sex, and everybody who's involved knows that full well," said the man, who stopped using the board about a year ago and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Review Board -- and the booming business of online call girls -- came to light publicly this week, when the King County Sheriff's Office announced that it had arrested two women for investigation of what they say is a major prostitution ring.
Police say the women ran a service called The Garden of Eden, in which they booked high-end clients on dates with women, often through ******. Many of the service's customers posted information about Eden on The Review Board. Detectives must know the lingo to get inside a closed, savvy group of customers and prostitutes, who call themselves "hobbyists" and "providers."
"It's difficult. It's such a tight-knit community. They really try to stay a step ahead of us," said Tony Baily, a vice squad sergeant at the Seattle Police Department.
Seattle Police made 642 prostitution arrests last year. But last year, Seattle got tougher on the other side of prostitution: the "johns." It enacted an ordinance to let police keep any money johns give to undercover officers. And it increased the fine the men have to pay, from $50 to $500.
A few months ago, the department netted 59 johns. Baily said that about 50 of them were married and that one man brought his 9-month-old baby along, while his wife was in choir practice.
"The No. 1 question they had was, 'Are you going to call my wife? Are you going to call work?' ... We would like to see to it that the guy's names are posted in the paper," he said.