Craigslist, which provides online classifieds for jobs, housing, and events, also rakes in the cash from adult service ads.  For every advertisement promoting prostitution and escort services, Craiglist makes a cut. This year Craigslist is estimated to make  $122 million in total, $36 of this being from the adult service business.

Unfortunately, this makes Craigslist a wonderful, inexpensive, and effective tool for traffickers.  Don’t believe me?  Just this week this Chinese woman, Jin Hua Cui  was charged with sex trafficking, promoting prostitution, and conspiracy for coercing young Korean women applying for jobs as nail salon attendants into prostitution.  The women had responded to help-wanted ads for nail salons and ended up as sex slaves on Long Island, while their madam lived in a million dollar mansion.

If this isn’t enough, the FBI arrested 14 members of the Gambino crime family on charges of selling the sexual services of 15 to 19 year-old girls on Craigslist.  In Canada, girls were being sold on Craigslist during the 2010 Winter Olympics.

If you have a U.S. address and want to sign a petition for Craigslist to put an end to these ads, you can find one here.  Let’s fight human trafficking by making our voices heard!

Michelle Brock