Tori do you remember your own words "Know your provider"I wished I'd known my provider was going to spill her guts to the media.
The women are Tori/Candace who has supposedly retired. Kris, who changed her name to Kassandra Kink and has been advertising on CL a lot and Mina Scarlett. Straight from da hood!
The Hobby In Atlanta: 'I'm A Pleasure Provider'
(WSB Radio) An hour of companionship for $500. A multi-day travel date for $10,000.
Accusations of high-end prostitution in an exclusive Duluth community made for splashy headlines in the first days of 2007. Protestations of innocence followed, as did promises of an indictment.
While Gwinnett County authorities allege Lisa Ann Taylor and Nicole Probert ran a call-girl ring out of Taylor's mansion in the tony Sugarloaf Country Club neighborhood and that they provided drugs for their clients, the women deny that any such thing happened. Meanwhile, WSB's Veronica Waters sat down to dinner with several women who confided that they, themselves, have worked in a hush-hush industry which is often flush with cash.
Authorities call them "call girls" or "escorts." But "the E-word," these women say, is taboo.
"My name is Mina Scarlett," one young woman tells WSB. The fresh-faced, petite and curvy twenty-something speaks shyly at times, but is quietly confident. "I'm an adult entertainer."
"My official title is, I'm an independent consultant for relaxation and distressing. But what I am is a pleasure provider," says Tori of Atlanta, a voluptuous auburn-haired professional with a quick laugh.
"I provide services to gentlemen who are in need of fetishes and domination. Fantasy," says KK, a full-figured blonde with a mischievous attitude and contagious smile.
The trio of women are "providers" in an age-old pastime now known as "The Hobby." The name, perhaps, draws chuckles for its understatement.
"A lot of guys play golf. A lot of guys race cars. A lot of guys support prostitutes," Tori laughs. "It's their hobby, and it's a pretty good hobby for a lot of guys to have because it's non-threatening to anything else."
Non-threatening, perhaps. But the January arrests of the women accused of running an escort business from a million-dollar home at Sugarloaf Country Club in Gwinnett County brought unwelcome attention and a very threatening feeling to those in the hobbyist community, with the pressure of law enforcement probing what many believe to be a victimless crime.
"I was just like, wow. How did they get busted?" remembers Mina.
What happened at Sugarloaf?
"Who's gonna put a brothel in a neighborhood where you have stay-at-home moms?" wonders Tori.
After the arrests, some providers were angry. The anger was split and dually focused on what some viewed as "stupid" mistakes by the women, who maintain their innocence, and what some viewed as a pointless, political hay-making effort by law enforcement.
KK and her boyfriend/bodyguard, Eric, seemed frustrated when they discussed it over dinner. A listener couldn't help but see a parallel between their frustrations and the current headlines from Washington, DC, stemming from the case of accused madam Deborah Palfrey—who suggested selling her client lists in order to afford mounting legal bills. A judge has since barred Palfrey from selling, transferring or destroying her business records.
"From what I understood, they had way too much information about their clients," says KK about the Sugarloaf case.
"It was like a data-mining operation," Eric explains. "They had extensive, exhaustive records of who the clients were, what they liked, how much they paid." In fact, authorities have said they were indeed combing through detailed computer records and trying to match them up with financial logs to try to find the alleged clients.
Some in the hobbyist community were unsurprised, they say.
"I think the biggest red flag that went up was there was drugs involved," says Tori. "The people who knew Lisa Taylor weren't really surprised, because it was a rolling ball."
Taylor, known as "Melissa Wolf" and billed as one of the most-published Penthouse Pets, has repeatedly denied the racketeering, prostitution and conspiracy to possess cocaine charges authorities brought against her. She has since launched a nationwide exotic dancing tour. Nicole "Naughty Nikki" Probert, Taylor's alleged business partner, also insists she has done nothing illegal.
All the women who talked to WSB said the unwanted spotlight brought the community closer, and made them stronger. Still, it made some women and men nervous, and Tori, at least, decided the time for her to retire had arrived.
But the old saying, "there's no such thing as bad publicity," may have proven true yet again. Despite the over-the-top sensationalism of the idea of $10,000 weekend dates—or perhaps because of that—the splashy headlines brought new business.
"It was really funny because there were men who didn't even know, and it just exposed it to everyone," Tori says.
Who are these women? Learn a little more about them Tuesday.
-- Modified on 3/30/2007 1:56:11 PM
-- Modified on 3/31/2007 5:31:23 AM
Day 2 of the series!
The Hobby: Who Are The Providers?
(WSB Radio) Stilettos, stock options and stethoscopes. Get to know some of the women who work in this companionship services industry known as "the hobby," and find out that these things are far from mutually exclusive.
Many providers used their time in the hobby to build wealth, careers, and opportunities for themselves.
For many people, their preconceptions of escorts--someone who is desperate for money, someone who answers to some kind of pimp, someone who looks cheap or sleazy--may be turned upside-down upon learning about these women.
"We are all mothers, wives, sisters, teachers, counselors, socialites," says KK. And it's true that meeting them, they look like one's colleagues, or relatives. There is no tell-tale skimpy outfit, six-inch stilettos or flashy makeup.
"People need to stop forming their opinions because your best friend could be working in the hobby now, and you wouldn't know it," says Tori. "As a matter of fact, your wife could...your mother could, and you wouldn't know it."
Mina Scarlett says guys "just want to be with a beautiful girl," and it is true that many of the providers are lookers. Why not be arm candy?
"If you know you're a hot girl and people are digging you, then you should take that opportunity, quick, and do something with it," Mina laughs.
One thing is often true: It's the potential money that draws them into the field, for however short a time.
"I was working on my master's degree and realized that I had been accepted into an institute to get my Ph.D.," says Tori. "I had heard these horrible stories about, 'Well, when you're going to medical school you're gonna be poor and your lifestyle's gonna be compromised and you're gonna be living with four people...' and I'm just like, 'I can't do this.'"
KK was a stressed-out divorcee working in a restaurant when she first learned about the industry and decided to give it a whirl.
"I just wanted to be able to support my three kids nicely," she says. "And working 120 hours a week...what time do you have to spend with your kids?"
Mina recalls that she got slapped with a $175 traffic ticket for making an illegal U-turn. She was going to pick up her then-boyfriend--who later then refused to help her scrape up money to pay it. He urged her to "pray about it," which she says tickled him and angered her.
"I was making $8.50 an hour, paying my rent, paying all my own bills," she tells WSB, saying her money was so tight then that missing one day at work would throw her entire budget off-kilter. "It was at the point where I had to portion my food because I couldn't afford to buy groceries. I felt like if I had to pay that ticket all by myself, something was going to get cut off. Either I was going to lose my car insurance, my apartment, lights were going to get cut off—something."
Tori says in the 1990s, she went to work on "the Circuit," a multi-state ring of swanky brothels which supplied high-priced prostitutes to wealthy clients. The Circuit was broken up in 2002, but Tori claims that after working for nearly one year, she had earned enough money to pay for four years of graduate school and a comfortable lifestyle during which she could devote her time to studies and not have to work. Mina has gone on to proudly launch a career in adult films, and counsels other up-and-coming starlets on how not to be taken advantage of in the money-hungry video industry.
Many providers are successful, professional women, who are also civic-minded. They count among their ranks—past or present—doctors, graduate students, web designers, public relations pros, and other corporate types who used the hobby to fund their higher education. Some of them contribute to foundations, adopt kids, support charities.
"It is very easy, if someone has a business plan, to go into this business and within three years they will be set to open any business they want to," says Tori. "I don't know too many professions that you can work three years and be set for life."
Who gives them all that money? Hear about the hobbyists Wednesday.
Part 3 - The Hobby: Who Are The Men?
The Hobby: Who Are The Men?
(WSB Radio) An appealing, attractive hostess; an interesting, well-heeled executive or celebrity. These are often the stereotypes of those who participate in the escort industry.
Who are the hobbyists, really--those clients who shell out hundreds of dollars an hour to be in the company of these unique women who fulfill their requests for companionship or fantasy?
Women who spent months or even years in the industry and talked to WSB about that time say clients can't be pigeonholed into one category. Much like the providers themselves, the men who used to be called "johns" cross socio-economic and racial lines.
"They could be anyone from the average, everyday working man to corporate [types] or business owners," says Mina.
"Anytime there's a Baptist convention, a Pentecostal convention..." says KK.
"Anyone who's protesting hard against this," says Eric, who provides security for KK. "Anytime the Republican convention's in town, everybody's making money."
While for some it is a "hobby," often, the men want to feel as if the provider is their girlfriend, even if just for a short period of time. Those who have participated in the hobby believe that in many ways the "girlfriend experience" provided to clients is a more honest relationship than most outside relationships, even if there is an element of fantasy involved.
"Speaking as a client, I had just gotten fed up with relationships," Eric says. "I had had two different girlfriends, at a certain point, who were cheating on me and lying about it. All this other stuff--a divorce, and drama. It was just terrible."
Eric and others assert that the escort business, in its way, is essentially a public service--that it even helps take the tension out of clients' personal relationships and other interactions.
"The same hormones that make you fight, and make a man more aggressive and cause road rage and altercations are the same ones that make you need sex," he says. "If you're getting that release, you become more calm. Now, I'm the most peaceful fellow you could possibly meet."
Interestingly, sex is not always what the men want, and these ladies don't hesitate to point out that often, gentlemen just want an ear or some empathy; a dance, or someone to accompany them to an event. In fact, Mina says she was shocked the first time a man indicated he was hoping for something more.
"The guy's calling you to be his companion," she explains. "To talk to him, give him a massage, dance for him, watch TV with him, go out to eat with him or whatever." If two consenting adults found a mutual attraction, she says, what they decided to do with that attraction was between them--and not ever something negotiated or planned.
KK reiterates that although she spent time in the business catering to those with fetishes, her clients, too, sometimes just wanted to talk.
"I had one client come over, pay for an hour, and he cried on my shoulder for a full hour because he'd just found out he had prostate cancer," she says.
But the protesters as a big client base? It's true, they say.
Tori, remembering a trip to Birmingham with friends before she left the business, says, "One of the girls said, 'Oh by the way, you can't have any of your toys in a carry-on, because if they search it it's against the law in the state of Alabama to own a vibrator.' I said, 'That's okay, because I know one of the representatives who voted for that bill and who his provider is. So if we get stopped, I'm pretty sure I can have her call him.'"
Remembering the outed Colorado minister who preached against gay marriage, a reporter asks whether it bothers them that some of their clients publicly posture against what they do, while privately paying for, say, strap-on action. They say no.
"That's what makes the business what it is, because gentlemen are paying for the right to protect themselves to being a hypocrite," Tori says.
How do these men and women come together? The Internet aspect is detailed next.
Part 4 - The Hookup
The Hobby: The Hookup
(WSB Radio) The escort industry hides in plain sight on the Internet.
"Since the Internet became involved with it, it has just opened the doors to so many people that wouldn't have normally been exposed to it," says Tori.
Not surprisingly, Mina says, having an online presence boosts business.
"People are getting to the point where they're so busy in their lives, it's just easier to buy stuff off the Internet," she says.
Danny Porter, the district attorney in Gwinnett County where January's "Mansion Madam" case is, says anyone who can't find escort sites online can't use a computer.
"In some ways, it's like hunting over a baited field," Porter says. "It's not that difficult."
A quick Internet search can pull up hundreds of pages of agencies or independent providers. Porter says online members of some of the longtime hobby websites can post reviews of their dates' looks and performances--which are characterized online as "fictional."
"Their websites are linked to The Erotic Review, and from there, once you get to the provider's website, then you go through whatever screening process that provider has and you set up the date on your own," says Porter.
The screening process is incredibly detailed and can occasionally take days to complete. Men whose information can't be verified aren't allowed to book appointments.
"The only thing he knows about me is what he's read on the Internet," says Tori. "I, on the other hand--to make an appointment with me is like filling out a mortgage."
It is here that trust between hobbyist and provider really begins.
"They know that most girls would not give up their name or what's going on with them because if that girl did, she'll lose her shirt, her pants, her house...her life," says KK, referring to one's reputation and livelihood.
Once the info is verified, the traces of it, they say, are destroyed by a good provider. As for security during the date, some providers like KK use a bodyguard at all times, and code words.
"Either he is a phone call away or he is on the phone," she says. "He knows exactly where I am, what I'm doing."
For others, safety is often upped by check-in calls from a friend of the provider when time's up.
"The gentleman is aware that there is someone 'watching,' and he's not gonna stay forever," says Tori. "And he's also aware that he's accountable for what he's doing."
Just how much money do the escorts make? And how do some in law enforcement view this industry? WSB's series concludes Friday.
oh here we go again,
save it, its been done to death,
if you like the hype that much, go buy the book when it comes out,
I just hope it just goes away.
It seems the massive amount of space brought to the ATL board obviously wasn't enough for some alias poster-
Believe it or not the sky didn't fall (*as some would have the community to believe it was going to*) and nothing new was revealed about anything or anyone that wasn't already common knowledge.
While I do appreciate all of the interest that was generated by the 'unknown" alias poster.... the entire week, I have expressed my concern for the dis-respect shown to the value of the space on the public discussion that this individual has shown to the rest of the providers who are limited to one ad per week and was pushed off the front page because of the irresponsible manner in which the Atlanta board was dominated. Although I would love to take credit for all of the self-promotion alas I can not and I seriously doubt the Moderator would have allowed it if had been done under my screen name.
Let me reassure the board that anyone who is familiar with me has known for more than a year what my intent was. I will always be grateful for the generous support of the Adult Community and would never compromise or jeopardize anyone by anything I do or have printed.
I am sorry again that this individual has invaded your space, I truly believe the Atlanta board was tired of the alias and stated such... so they just moved to your board in a hope for acceptance. What can I say, some are just to cheap to compensate a provider for the attention they need, so they seek it on the boards. kisses ~Tori
It looks as though another personality has just surfaced. How many can we expect, Sybil?
Regards,
Syd
BTW: Maybe you should just retire in a more graceful manner.
It's a little confusing. Would you please explain what you mean? I would really appreciate it!!! 
)))~
PS: I'll be calling you soon!
I find it baffling that someone would bring the "hobby" back into the news and then try to defend themselves by saying they were trying to glorify it. You can't!!! Society as a whole has pretty much labeled it illegal and will for many decades more. So, while you and the others think you are doing something, oh so positive, YOU AREN'T!!!!!! You are making it harder on others. Screening processes will most likely become more rigorous due to this and guys will have to seek and find providers that they think are honest, discrete, and trustworthy.
Whether you feel what you did was wrong or right, it is seen as wrong here. There was no need for the interview, IMHO. It's bad enough a book was written by TORI but to go on a local radio station and broadcast your "views" on the hobby and try to sugar coat it to your liking, was so very disappointing.
By the way have you received your MD degree or was this just another fantasy figment of your imagination.
-- Modified on 3/31/2007 5:11:51 AM
-- Modified on 3/31/2007 10:21:10 AM
If a guy had done anything like this, he would be banned and labelled a pariah.
for bringing this to the attention of the DC community. I agree with everything you said and want you to know it is appreciated.
Personally, I think you find every thing in life baffling.
The hobby has been in and out of the news for decades. To even consider this as something new is ridiculous. Do a little research before you go on your witch hunts.
JMHO,
Syd
BTW: Have you looked in a mirror lately?