"Can you tell which thing is not like the others"

When I first wrote a blog entry warning people not to believe everything on they saw on the Internets and that fake hookers walked among us, I didn't mean to start a firestorm. But that's just what happened. Who knew that so many legit, well reviewed, long time activists and respected members of the escort community also thought that the emperor wore no clothes, I know i didn't.

Soon after my article went up I was contacted and interviewed by Monica Shores for a story she was writing for Carnal Nation about sex workers who write about their lives and work and the accountability of bloggers. What happened after that, has taken on a life of its own.

I never mentioned who I thought the most egregious of the impostors was (there are a few) leaving the reader to think about reality versus fantasy, fact verses fiction. The whole point of the blog post was to encourage people to question and think for themselves. Giving away who the usurper was, would be counterproductive to my goal of trying to get people to use their noggins and THINK!

but to my surprise.. just like a terrorist bomber, she claimed responsibility.

My blog, twitter and brochure site were linked to her site, along with all kinds of nutty convoluted, backasswords babble, coupled with her responding to the quotes of mine that were published in the Carnal Nation story. Oh goody... web hits! Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth I welcomed my new twitter followers and crossed my fingers that the click-overs would bookmark me and come back and read again another day. Though I was pretty disappointed in the numbers. Having heard "Princess Cariboo" brag for so long about how many hits she was getting to her blog and how popular she was, I really had hoped for more traffic then I got. It was rather paltry compared to say the people linking my story about the bust in Houston (thanks fellas!)

I did however get a flurry of emails from people sharing their personal experiences of interactions with "Dr Charlotte Bach" and how they thought she was a fraud, man, cop, reporter, failed screen writer. It was pretty entertaining as these people never would have found me had Zelig not linked me and created an online scene. As I said before, I never said who I believe to be the biggest faker in the land, just that there was one.

Some have even tried to devise schemes like Mistress Matisse, she suggests that miss-fake-alot call in to Dan Savage - to what, umm prove shes got a female voice I suppose. Well hot damn! I wanna call into Dan Savage too, I've always been a huge fan of him and his work and If he hears my voice he will have to show the world that I am really Cinderella. We all know that Cinderella was female. Besides it's not like there any record of my previous work as a sexy voice over artist or podcaster to compare my voice or anyone who will recognise me as someone other than who I say I am. What a wonderful Idea. Where's his number!

Then I started getting the links... ahhh the links, truly golden. This story had legs and it was taking a walk. Let me share them with you now.

Kat Stories: This faux ho's life as a stripper doesn't ring true to real live working strippers.

There's a whole stripper forum discussion about her fake-a-bility

Seattle writer/professional dominatrix Mistress Matisse has her own take on why someone would pretend to be a sex worker... "for the attention."

Tasty Trixie: who brings up the most compelling argument pointing out Fakey McFakerson's position as a blatant unrepentant content thief. Acting much like a trick who thinks he's entitled to a freebie.

Male bloggers have even written about it calling this "David Hampton" wannabe "the worst kept secret" and writes about how on private message boards she was whispered about and laughed at.

Amber Rhea re-posted a quote from the Carnal Nation story to her tumbler

The first person to publicly question her and the most damaging accusation, bringing up her self proclaimed inappropriate behavior with minors

there are tweets too
Amberlily, Kat Stories Adora Cash Zoeynym Melissa Gira Vivian DaSilva Vivian Again Furrygirl Bubbles

***My favorite tweets (added 12/23) are from BluEyedCass, model and webcam girl *** ( it's her pictures fake-o-holic was stealing and passing off as her own)

It just keeps going and i'd be surprised if this was the end of it. People have been discussing this Pierre Plantard in their private circles for a while and its just bubbling to the surface now. Is this the only fake hooker out there running around the innertubes screaming "look at me, look at me"? Naw, but she is the one that got the furthest in the charade in a long time.

Writing the truth of sex work is hard. It's not all fun and games until someone loses an eye. It's a roller coaster of emotions, it's complex and challenging. It's not a flat one trick pony of nymphomaniac fantasies... no matter what some wanna be Michael Sabo would lead you to believe.

"Fraud and falsehood only dread examination"

Since hookers are the new black and by that i mean it's almost acceptable to be a sex worker these days. There are T.V. shows, movies and articles written about us all the time now. Though its still not in the mainstream, it's a lot more acceptable then it was just a few short years ago when i started working. As a result I've noticed a new trend. Though trend might be an over exaggeration. What I've observed is fake online sex workers. Yes i said fake. What that means is fairly high profile "escorts" that are not real working escorts. They are made up figments of their creators imaginations. With a little knowledge, a little research, it would be easy to make up a very salacious prolific online persona that was a sex worker and that is just what some people have done.

It angers me and makes me laugh my ass off, when I see people fall for this shtick. It angers me because these made up persona's are setting themselves up to represent the profession I work in and they are not real. I work hard to give my honest account of the sex worker subculture and my place in it. To not sugar coat, sensationalize or glamorize what I do. I am as honest about it as I can be. When you see people who are just making up stuff out of thin air, being touted as "authorities" on the subject of sex work, when you see these sock puppets being as sensationalistic as they can be to draw as much attention to themselves as humanly possible.... its upsetting.

When you watch the blind masses falling for it, its often sad and hilarious. How betrayed will these people feel when they find out that hot sexy little minx they read the blogs of, follow on twitter or Facebook feel when its revealed that the "sex worker" isn't a sex worker at all but some made up persona who doesn't exist. Someone who capitalized on a trend that took the ball and ran with it and MADE UP a person? I think they will feel quite betrayed because they cheer for her, believe in her sexual freedom, encourage her to succeed and support her. They do get invested in her and she is not real. How much backlash will there be for us REAL sex workers when these fakes are eventually outed for what they are. For most sex workers who quietly go about their business it probably wont impact them much but for the activists who work daily to decriminalize and fight for the rights of sex workers and for a girl like me who does speak to the press, does write honest accounts about her feelings of being involved in this world, there will be just that much more work to do to convince people were not all drugged addicted, pimped out skanks, who cant do anything but spread our legs for a fast buck. That is the real disservice these fakes do. When it is revealed they are fake no one will believe that the intelligent sex workers who speak out...are real.

I was interviewed for the LA Times this summer. The reporter wanted to meet me face to face. I agreed after checking her and out ascertaining she was in fact real herself. She explained to me why she needed to meet me face to face, it was simple, she originally thought i wasn't real. She wasn't ingrained into the escort world (most reporters aren't) She didn't know how to asses someone legitimacy with reviews, screening services, etc.. she needed to confirm with her own eyes and a face to face interview that I, Jenny DeMilo was in fact the same girl who tweeted, wrote blogs and was in the pictures on my website.

She did this because she was a REAL reporter a professional journalist. That's why i will acquiesce to certain media inquiries where they require a face to face. I know that professional journalists don't just believe whatever the Internet tells them to believe and neither should you.

So think people. Use your noggin. Take the Woodward approach of needing two separate and reliable sources of information to confirm a fact. Don't be so fucking gullible. Anyone can say hey are anything on the Internet. Astronauts, race car drivers, pirates, Tom Cruise and in the case of online hookers there are plenty of fake ones out there making up the most unbelievable crap and passing it off as legitimate and real.

I wont even get into the motivation behind perpetrating such a fraud because the Internet is a strange and weird world and people do all kinds of crazy shit from behind the protection of their computer screens. And no, i wont tell you who i know these frauds to be. If you use a little brain power you can figure it out in a hot New York second all by yourself.