Washington State

Office of the Attorney General

Attorney General

Bob Ferguson

Gannett News service reports on another case of a teen arrested in a Backpage.com-related crime:

A 16-year-old boy is accused of telling a masseuse at a hotel in town that he was a police officer and then demanding she have sex with him, police said.  The boy, who lives in Greenburgh and attends a Roman Catholic high school, had responded to an advertisement for massages on the website Backpage.com, police said...The boy is accused of saying he would arrest the masseuse if she didn't have sex with him, police said. A sexual act occurred, police said, but they did not give any details, citing the investigation by police and the Westchester County District Attorney's Office.

While the details of what happened are not entirely clear, one thing certainly is: Backpage.com's black market for mostly illegal services puts both those who place ads, and their customers, at risk.

-Dan Sytman-