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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.
"between the ages of 17 and..."
Thanks for playing: go directly to jail. Goodbye!
The age of consent is 16 in many states, including Washington.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
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
...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.
The only one making the mental jump from contacting 17 year olds, to raping them and possibly filming it, is you. Even the AG isn't being that absurd.
A defense of "she lied about her age" is about as worthless as claiming the cops forced you to do it. Pornography is covered by some seriously powerful laws that require the publisher to obtain, photocopy and retain documentation of proof of age for 10 YEARS that can be requested at any time by just about anybody and if you don't produce the documents you go directly to jail.
"but she had a fake ID", good luck with that defense too. You apparently aren't aware of how strictly regulated pornography is in the US.
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.
Based on there being a ton of "casting couch" porn, this seems like it happens a lot...
If you watch enough porn you will realize lots of those in casting videos are actually established porn stars -- not big name ones, but ones that appear in several other videos already, so it's unlikely they were really first-time auditioning.
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.
"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.
Nah. He's a "reporter" specifically he's a reporter who had a hate-on for gamergate. Seems to be a running thing for these anti-gamergate people, everything that they accuse their ideological opponents of whether it be doxing, harassment, and so on. They're actually guilty of themselves. Whether it's Devin Faraci, Zoe Quinn or Randi Harper, same shitty people engaging in shit behavior.
Some more stuff on this very special individual.
Om, nomnomnom...
... 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.
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.