Dating apps being used for prostitution, sex trafficking

Imagine swiping right or left on your favorite dating app and going out on a date, only later to learn that dream date has already booked a hotel room and wants to be paid. Some are experiencing that now.  The Factor spoke to one Houston man whose identity we have concealed.

“As soon as they started closing down certain categories on Craigslist and Backpage like that, seems like all the dating apps have now become flooded with ‘working women'," he says.

We asked him how he knows they are actually prostitutes.

“I mean some of them are pretty bold, man. They’ll tell you the second you match with them, you know.  And then other kind of hide it a little better than that. You get over there, you think you’re going to have cocktails and conversation, you know the night gets going and then bam! they try to stick you for the paper.”

We asked if they ask you to get a room.

“Oh no. That’s one of the ways you can tell. They’ll straight up tell you that they already have a room. You live in Houston but you have a hotel room on the side of the freeway?"

On the Factor to talk about this, is Kathryn Grinan and Deputy Toni Mascione with the Harris County Precinct 1 Constable’s Office.