WUNRN
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/07/01/visa-mastercard-stop-business-with-backpage/29558315/
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/01/usa-chicago-prostitution-credit-idUSL1N0ZH1OQ20150701
Visa, MasterCard & American Express, End Use for Backpage.com Sex Ads
BY MARY WISNIEWSKI
– July 1, 2015
July 1,
2015 – Chicago - Visa Inc said on Wednesday it is joining MasterCard Inc and
American Express Co in barring its credit cards from being used to pay for ads
on Backpage.com following a request from
a Chicago sheriff who said the site is used by sex traffickers.
Cook
County Sheriff Thomas Dart said that "escort" ads on Backpage.com and similar classified
advertising sites make up the foundation of a sex-trafficking industry that preys
on the young and vulnerable.
Earlier
this week, he asked both Visa and MasterCard to cut off any association with
theBackpage.com "adult"
section.
"Visa's
rules prohibit our network from being used for illegal activity,"
spokesman John Earnhardt said in a statement on Wednesday. "Visa has a
long history of working with law enforcement to safeguard the integrity of the
payment system and we will continue to do so."
MasterCard
spokesman Seth Eisen said on Tuesday the company agreed to stop allowing the
card to be used on Backpage. American Express had previously disallowed the use
of its card for adult ads on the site, said spokeswoman Sanette Chao.
This
leaves only Bitcoin, an electronic currency, to pay for Backpage adult ads,
which Dart said will make placing the ads much more difficult.
"We
have no naive notion that we'll end prostitution, end trafficking, end
exploitation of children," Dart said. "What we've wanted all along is
to make it more difficult and make (traffickers) easier to catch."
Liz
McDougall, Backpage's general counsel, said in an e-mail on Tuesday the company
had no comment. She could not be reached on Wednesday.
Backpage
offers forums to find roommates and sell goods, like other classified
advertising sites, but its primary revenue stream is through its adult page,
according to Dart's office.
Cook
County Sheriff's police have made more than 800 arrests since 2009 stemming
from Backpage ads, Dart's office said.
"We commend these credit
card companies for
making it more challenging for traffickers to profit off of the exploitation of
people," said Bradley Myles, CEO of Polaris, a Washington-based
anti-trafficking group. (Reporting by Mary Wisniewski; Editing by Will Dunham)