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Seattle Man Accused of Using Social Media To Set Up Fake Porn Agency (nbcnews.com)
The Washington State Attorney General's Office has charged a Seattle man for setting up a fake talent agency for adult entertainers in order to trick women into posing nude and having sex with him. NBC News reports: Michael-Jon Matthew Hickey is accused of creating a fictitious business and using deceptive ads with bogus employment offers to find his victims. The lawsuit alleges Hickey offered and advertised commercial services solely for his "own personal gain" and to "satisfy his sexual desires" with no intention of following through on the promised services to help these women find jobs. Hickey, a 40-year old technology blogger and aspiring photographer, is charged with numerous violations of the Washington Consumer Protection Act and the Commercial Electronic Mail Act. Assistant Attorney General Andrea Alegrett, who is handling the consumer protection case, told NBC News Hickey had developed "a sophisticated scam" which involved fake business websites, fictional people, and bogus contact information. The lawsuit alleges Hickey pretended to be a woman named Deja Stwalley, who claimed to live in Las Vegas where she ran a number of talent companies, including New Seattle Talent, West Coast Talent and FMH Modeling. The New SeattleTalent website stated: "We work as recruiters and scouts for some of the top studios in the Northwest. Our goal is to be the top recruiting group for girls in America. We're woman-founded and woman-owned, and take the talent's safety and welfare seriously." Hickey, posing as Stwalley, would contact women between the ages of 17 and 25 via Facebook and offer them a chance to audition for an adult film studio. Stwalley assured each woman that they "TOTALLY have the look they're going for" and could earn between $1,200 and $3,500 a day, the AG's complaint alleges. Digital Security expert Adam Levin, Chairman and founder of Identity Theft 911, said this case shows just how easy it is for someone to use social media for fraudulent purposes.
Sydney Brownstone at The Stranger (Seattle "alt: weekly) did a whole slew of articles on this guy who actually used to work at The Stranger. The dude is also up on rape charges, and there's some question if the ladies claimed rape only after the fraud, and if that's legit.
http://www.thestranger.com/authors/20774260/sydney-brownstone
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
This is the coolest thing I ever heard of.
Is he the guy with the black leather couch and video camera in his office?
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
this case shows just how easy it is for someone to use social media for fraudulent purposes
No, this case is SAD! I'm the best example of using social media for bigly fraudulent purposes. No one knows fraudulent purposes better than me, folks.
"between the ages of 17 and..."
Thanks for playing: go directly to jail. Goodbye!
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
So i suppose this guy was making casting porn where they trick women that they are "trying-out" for porn when there is no intention of signing them up for any porn other than the porn they made in the casting "interview"
Oh well, maybe I'll cross that off my 2017 business plan then.
Based on there being a ton of "casting couch" porn, this seems like it happens a lot...
He (and his parents) should be prosecuted for that alone!
Deja Stwalley
But his conviction should be reversed for choosing that name...
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
If he filmed any sex acts with a 17 year old, he's done.
Read the article. The point is he didn't film and sex acts because he's not a porn producer.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
...ever since the invention of Photography.
How many young girls haven't been lured from the promise of a model career, but can't afford to pay the photographer or agents, and gets into the hands of fake agents and "hobby photographers" with professional looking gear.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
Does the state need to help women become prostitutes and porn actresses? If anything scaring them away from this awful occupation would be a good thing. By the speed some government agencies work, maybe they should give this guy some more years to com up with opportunities?
Maybe he's not done filling out all the papers yet.
"Personal gain". Hello, are you hearing yourself. If this was a crime everybody would be in the slammer.
"Satisfy his sexual desires" Hello, again, is this relevant to the law? Do these porn actresses not have sexual desires that need to be satisfied too?
The guy should be rewarded.
When the police do an undercover prostitution sting they also can be charged with this law?
If he put out fake adds and only asked the women to perform a typing test just to waste their time if he would have been prosecuted. I'm sorry but if you are going into THAT line of work you better stop treating sex like its so damn special.
Fyi, ANYONE who says he runs a recruiting company for major porn sites is lying. It doesn't work that way. If you want to be a porn model, join modelmayhem.com or email Brazzers and the other major networks. Also, hundreds of photographers sell photos and videos, and thousands of web sites buy photos and videos, through adultcentro.com. They can refer you to a legitimate photographer in your area.
Source: 15 years working full-time in the porn industry.
Yeah, we figured this out a little bit ago...
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
A minor may *disaffirm*, or void, most contracts. The contract is therefore not binding on the minor. They absolutely CAN agree to a contract, then either honor the contract or disaffirm it.
They can't generally disaffirm a contract for necessities, such as food, shelter, and clothing. This is so that people can rent an apartment or even bring food to a teenager in a restaurant without demanding full payment upfront.
In New York and California, a minor may have a contract validated by the district court and will thereafter be bound by it. The court checks to see that the contract is reasonably fair, and the minor gives up their right to later disaffirm. This is primarily for young entertainers, who may have multi-million dollar contracts.
> Agreeing to participate in sexual photography and/or video requires a contract between photographer and model.
The contract, called a "model release", is normally signed on the day of the shoot. At the same time, the photographer makes a copy of the model's ID as required by 18 USC 2257.
Wait.. what? How is this even on /.
Sure it talks about porn sites. Which a large proportion of /. readers PROBABLY[0] access. But apart from that, this is nothing to do with tech news etc..
Oh wait.. I'm living in the Naughties[1] back when Slashdot cared about relevance.
[0]Okay Okay Petal. Not you. I know you don't access porn. I'm talking about the OTHER group of /. readers
[1] You know, 2000 to 2010.
Hillary Clinton fought blacks and Mexicans centuries before Bernie Sanders was even born.
You're sentence is a riot but this sentence is much funnier.
You mean to tell me that people in this noble, family loving industry are being taken advantage of?!? Reprehensible!
Why isn't the Pope speaking out about this awful, awful man?
I probably shouldn't spoil the illusion for you, but have you ever noticed how many of those "day after my 18th birthday" ladies look about 24 years old, despite the pigtails? One very popular "barely 18" model, Little Lupe, was 26 when she changed her stage name to Lupe Fuentes and started dressing appropriately for her age (and got a boob job).
This is almost the same story as french journalist a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Marc_Morandini">Jean-Marc Morandini. I wonder if they knew each other business or if they had a common inspirator.
I mispoke. Lupe was 21 or 22 when she stopped being "barely 18". I was thinking of a different model.
... where a guy does just this.
Whether it's a setup porn site, I do not know.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Sheesh, if he'd bought a $500 HD camera and a couple of lights, he could have made actual porn and turned a profit while still having fun.
I know people who have done similar in non-sexual careers and seriously boosted their careers by doing something like this.
Isn't it what 90% of agents do, be it porn, music, movies... ?
just to get laid.
There are a ton of sites out there that tell girls to submit an entire set of nudes along with their application (some even want the girls to pay to apply), and there's no guarantee that the girls will ever get anything out of giving an unknown amount of people access to their images. They have no way of knowing what's happening with their images.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
So if he had just shared the photos for pay or for free, then everything would be kosher.
"there's some question if the ladies claimed rape only after the fraud"
Wait, if it's rape by fraud, wouldn't you expect the ladies to complain only after they became aware of the fraud?
I'm curious about this "rape by fraud" thing.
Are you saying that someone who is convinced to have sex by fraudulent means, and who later finds out that there was fraud involved, can claim it was "rape" by reason of the fraudulent circumstances?
How far does this go? If a man tells a women he's rich and she has sex with him, can she claim it was rape by fraud if she finds out he's a blue-collar worker?
On the topic of the OP, if there were legitimate rape charges I would *expect* the charges to be filed notwithstanding the circumstances of the business. I cannot imagine any of the rape charges being legitimate if the women only come forward after realizing that they were defrauded(*).
I always thought rape was "sex without consent". Is that no longer true?
(*) Presumably these women were defrauded of money, and perhaps payment of services or contract violation depending on the situation, but I have a hard time believing rape if the women consented at the time.
If the guy just wanted sex I suppose all is fair. After all the girls that go for this want to be sexually very liberal anyway. The money part, to me, is where the fraud can take place. If the guy had simply set up shop and told the girls that he wants to interview them and snap pics and send them out in hope of getting work and not charged money he could have still had a lot of sex. But taking money while claiming to be connected to studios puts an opening for the law to punish him. After all, sex is normally about deception. That is why lipstick, cosmetics, pop up bras and the like exist. The clear intention is for a girl to look more sexy than she actually is and that is every bit as deceptive as the guy saying he could get girls expensive modeling work.
There's an entire genre of porn dedicated to this. Are we really surprised someone needed to live out the fantasy?
Believe what you want, if you choose to be intentionally ignorant that's your perogative. Here's a decent article written by someone with a clue, a lawyer, citing relevant cases and statues:
http://p2lawyers.com/blog/2016...
If you care to name any state I'll be glad to take 30 seconds to link the relevant state statutes for you and you can read the actual law for yourself.
... Fake Nudes?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The guy who I saw first doing this ("Rick" on Backroom Casting Couch) sure made it look real.
Many of the girls he films seem completely believable as total amateurs, so much so that if these girls are putting on an act, someone in mainstream Hollywood needs to talk to them about acting in real films. I just don't think strippers, hookers or low-end porn pros can pull off some of the facial expressions and awkward pauses that happen in BRCC's videos.
I always assumed there was a gimmick to them, though. My assumption is that the action actually plays out as it appears, but afterward he has them sign a release and probably has to pay some of them something to get it signed even though during the video he tells them that they're not getting paid today.
Some of the episodes seem rigged, as if he had to actually hire a few entry level pros to get episodes made on schedule, but most of the time it has a really remarkable reality to it that seems as if many of these girls really are amateurs falling for his ploy. It's basically too real appearing to be entirely contrived.
You'll be missed!
1. Would the suspect be a good example or a bad example, of a social media user who simply wants to make the most of his so-called social skills in a very social-centric online world?
2. If it's a fake porn agency, would this item be considered as fake news, and Slashdot a fake news source for nerds?
3. Would a real porn agency be equally newsworthy?
Man hires 17-25 yo women for pr0n!
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
Am I the only one who thinks that he should have gone the extra step and actually do it for real, same 'personnal pleasures' and you get paid
Tricking woman into sleeping with a man or a tricking a man into sleeping with a woman is as old as prostitution.
How many men in Los Angeles claim they are close with some actor/producer/studio to bed a wanna be actress? How many men tell women they love them to sleep with them?
How many women pretend to be attracted to a man to have him buy her things?
This is clearly overreach. Carmela Harris and her attack on backpage is the same, despite the 9th circuit telling her so, she brought new charges.
Fight Spammers!
Bad on him for taking advantage of those girls... but hey, it takes two to tango.
Because it's always been funny to me how pulling out a camera and recording two people having sex suddenly elevates the act to some exalted position of empowerment, as opposed to just prostitution on film.
I hate people who don't get "subtle" differences in scenarios. Let me help you:
1: Go to a party as your unwashed loser self.
2: Take a shower and dress nicely. Lying about/false appearance of not typically being an unwashed loser.
3: Tell them you are a rock star. Little more lying.
4: Telling them you are a rock star and take them to your friend's (who is a rock star) apartment in your friends car. Adding false supporting evidence for your lies.
5: Telling them you are a rock star and will give them money/gifts/take them on a trip, etc. Promising them something.
Level 2-4 involve some level of deception but you have promised them nothing other than a "good" time. However, level 5 stands out because you have now promised them something in exchange for sex. The fact that he promised them something (a job) which he had no intention of delivering is what makes this fraud.
And to the aholes who believe it's the women's fault for agreeing:
They didn't just take his word for it. He created an elaborate scheme involving false companies, people, and offices. I may be inclined to see some point in what you say if he had just walked up and said "I'm a producer and I'll get you a job if you have sex with me." and the women said "OK!". However, as noted, they did look for proof what he said was real and he worked to make his lies appear as real as possible. This was not just women failing to critically evaluate promises. Unless your point is no women should believe a man ever when sex is involved.
Lol. About five years ago, I learned "when someone tells you they are crazy, stupid, or dishonest BELIEVE THEM!" Captain Dork told me "You can't school me." I believe him.
And the funniest sentence of all: Hillary! gets 13 years for grand aggravated sexual obese and leaving the scene of an autofellation
How many guys out there are thinking right now, "Damn! Why didn't I think of that!"
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
So, all other "fake agent" porn is professional, right?
Why didn't he just just set up a real recruiting agency? He could've gotten a lot more (ahem) bang for his buck with only a little more effort.
(Score: -1, Stupid)
Fresh out of Man of the Year awards. I think this guy deserves an invitation to Washington DC on January 20th. If the president elect can, anybody can
This guy totally fucked himself by not actually putting out the porn. I'm guessing he would be in the clear and make shit loads of money if he did.
Small dick, probably.
"Sleep with me! I run a legitimate porn studio!"
You girls love your fakeup makeup, you're raping millions of men, slippery slope they enacted by using a bogus case to implement it. Someone "broke"/snuck into a house and into a bed where a woman was. She somehow thought this man was her boyfriend and had sex with him....
"You are sentence"
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.