Prostitution in the technology era, 'marketing' via Facebook and Zalo in Nghe An

Sophisticated tricks

It is no longer simply the old forms such as public prostitution, hiding in conditional business establishments, in the form of karaoke hostesses, cafe servers, employees at massage establishments, hair salons, motels...

With the rapid development of technology, the exploitation and use of social networking sites and dark websites to advertise and contact for prostitution is secretly taking place. Prostitutes often give themselves beautiful "stage names" and attach a few provocative photos on Facebook and Zalo, so that customers can search, get acquainted and bargain.

Lieutenant Colonel Phan Van Giap - Deputy Captain of Team 6, Criminal Police Department (CSHS) of the Provincial Police

That is also the form that Ho Thi Thuy Hang (born 2001, residing in block 9, Le Loi ward, Vinh city) used in the prostitution ring she ran, which was established by the Criminal Police Department in coordination with the Criminal Police Department of the Ministry of Public Security to eradicate on July 30, 2019. At the Criminal Police Department, Hang confessed that through social networks, Hang made friends with girls aged 18-25, with attractive appearances, who liked to party and show off, thereby luring these girls into her ring.

After recruiting the "prostitutes", Hang asked these girls to put on beautiful makeup, wear sexy clothes, and take pictures to post on Zalo to "attract" customers. When customers call, Hang lets them choose their "products" through the photos, then negotiates the price and "sends the prostitutes" to serve. The lowest cost for each visit is 2 million VND, for girls with outstanding beauty, it is from 4 million VND/visit. This is the money customers pay to the prostitutes, and for Hang, customers have to pay from 500,000 - 1,000,000 VND/visit, not including room fees.

The services that Hang provides to customers are quite diverse. In addition to prostitution brokerage, Hang also provides "prostitutes" for customers at wild parties, even "flying and shaking" sessions using drugs, with prices ranging from 4 to 10 million VND for each session. In addition, Hang also arranges girls to participate in "sex tours" according to customers' requests. Depending on the length of the trip, the distance, the service price is also different, but the lowest is 10 million VND/trip.

Subjects Ho Thi Thuy Hang and Hoang Duc Dinh. Photo courtesy of PB

Similarly, previously on November 19, 2018, the Criminal Police Department, Provincial Police coordinated with the Criminal Police Department, Ministry of Public Security to successfully crack Project 328D, arresting Hoang Duc Dinh (born in 1992, residing in Hamlet 9A, Hung Trung Commune, Hung Nguyen District) for prostitution brokerage.

According to the investigation agency’s documents, in addition to asking the girls to wear makeup and provocative clothes to take pictures and post them on Zalo to “attract” customers, Dinh personally went to get acquainted and contact rich and influential men to entice them to show him the pictures. If the customer wanted to buy sex, Dinh would negotiate the price, contact the location and hotel, and then send the “prostitute” to serve.

To be safe, Dinh chose large hotels as places to buy and sell sex. The average price for each customer is from 1.5 to 5 million VND; university and college students with beautiful, hot looks have higher prices, from 4.5 to 5 million VND/time of buying sex. Of which, Dinh benefits from about half of the money. Dinh's call girl network has about 10 "long-legged girls". To attract more customers, Dinh also often goes to universities and colleges to recruit new "prostitutes".

Kidetermined to fight and destroy

According to statistics, as of August 2019, in Nghe An province, there were 3,113 establishments providing services that are prone to prostitution, such as hotels, motels, massage parlors, karaoke bars... with 8,987 service workers; about 200 people suspected of prostitution. In 8 months, the authorities discovered, arrested, and handled 27 cases, 71 subjects of prostitution.

Major Nguyen Thanh Hai - Deputy Head of the Criminal Police Department, Provincial Police said: In reality, this type of crime and social evil is constantly "transforming". If in the past, the subjects of prostitution were simply unemployed people, people in difficult circumstances... Now, most of the subjects of prostitution are young, even students, who like to party and compete.

There are subjects who both directly sell sex and manage prostitutes under their management for customers, creating a closed loop. Most of the subjects use phones and social networks to direct and dispatch prostitutes when customers request. In addition, during the process of carrying out prostitution transactions, if the brokers see that the sex buyer is a stranger, they will be cautious and will not accept the transaction. This causes many difficulties in the work of grasping the situation and fighting to eradicate it.

According to the law, to handle criminal cases, it is necessary to clarify the organized brokerage behavior. In the case of prostitutes advertising and selling sex themselves, if discovered, they can only be handled administratively. Meanwhile, the sanctions for prostitution are not strong enough to deter.

According to Decree 167/2013/ND-CP, a fine of VND 500,000 to VND 1,000,000 is imposed for buying sex; a warning or a fine of VND 100,000 to VND 300,000 is imposed for selling sex.

In addition, according to many detectives, the areas where prostitutes operate are motels and hotels that are frequently changed, making it very difficult to detect and collect evidence to prove their violations.

For example, to eradicate the call girl ring run by Ho Thi Thuy Hang, detectives from the Provincial Police Department's Criminal Police Department spent 6 months monitoring it. "All transactions between Hang and customers as well as the subjects in the ring were conducted via the social network Zalo. Moreover, the hotels and motels are not fixed and change frequently, making it very difficult for the authorities to monitor," said a detective.

According to Major Nguyen Thanh Hai - Deputy Head of the Criminal Police Department, Provincial Police: With the goal of resolutely fighting and eradicating prostitution in general, and prostitution via social networks in particular, the Department's high-tech team is currently investigating suspects of prostitution activities on social networks to set up a special project to fight.

That will be one of the important and effective measures in preventing the abuse of social networks to commit violations in general and prostitution in particular.

The areas where prostitutes operate are motels and hotels which are frequently changed. Photo courtesy of NH

Regarding the Department of Social Evils Prevention and Control under the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs of the province, Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong - Deputy Head of the Department said: Currently, the prevention and control of prostitution focuses on activities to prevent and inspect service establishments that are prone to prostitution, while the specialized agency, the Department of Social Evils Prevention and Control, does not have the authority to impose penalties, so the prevention effect is not high and not enough to deter. In the first 9 months of 2019, 65 establishments were inspected, and only 25 establishments were handled by warning.

In the upcoming plan, Ms. Huong said: Along with continuing to promote propaganda work on preventing and combating prostitution, especially in key areas, the Department is currently coordinating with the SCDI organization (Center for Supporting Community Development Initiatives) to conduct a survey and select Vinh City as the locality to pilot the model "Supporting capacity building of peer groups, self-help groups, and clubs of sex workers in accessing, communicating and supporting harm reduction, preventing and combating gender-based violence".

Subject Ho Thi Thuy Hang at the police investigation agency. Photo courtesy of Pham Bang

Thus, it can be seen that although prostitution has decreased on the surface, it still has many hidden complications and increasingly sophisticated tricks, with new subjects and forms of prostitution appearing.

Therefore, the authorities need to step up propaganda and legal education to the people, and at the same time strengthen management and grasp the situation of motels, hotels, and karaoke bars to promptly detect suspicious signs related to prostitution; coordinate with the People's Procuracy and People's Court to strictly try prostitution-related cases for the purpose of deterrence and prevention from afar.

In particular, based on the Law on Cyber ​​Security, it is necessary to have tighter control over the management of information posting on websites and personal pages, not allowing subjects to take advantage of social networks to commit violations in general and prostitution in particular.