Mistaken Identity

In the past I posted ads on Craigslist to attract new clients or to spotlight a special promotion that my office was running.  I stopped this practice when it seemed like ads from this site were attracting the wrong clientele, specifically the ones that wanted happy endings.  But really who could blame them for inquiring about sexual favors when many advertisements under the heading "Therapeutic" had pictures of scantily clad women offering sensual massage.  Remember the serial killer dubbed "The Craigslist Killer"?  He preyed on female escorts posting ads on Craigslist as massage therapists for hire.  Never mind the fact that I listed my massage therapy license number and stated all massages were completely non-sexual.....the freaks still called.

It was during this period of my career that I got very good at screening potential clients.  Whenever a male caller would ask me if I had to drape him or ask me to describe what a full body massage entailed, I had a pretty good idea that they were interested in a massage with extras.  Just to be certain that my intentions were absolutely, positively clear, I always made sure to say "Yes, I drape because it is the state law and no exceptions will be made.  If you're asking me if we massage the genitalia, the answer is NO.  Now, if you are interested in getting a professional massage from a licensed therapist, then I would be happy to set up an appointment."  The would-be freaks would hang up and the legitimate clients would chuckle at my speech and then ask for an appointment.

This worked fairly well for me until a couple of years ago.  I began receiving a lot more freaky phone calls and figured there had to be a reason, so one afternoon I was casually browsing Craigslist and found an ad for sensual massage and the chap had used my business name as his own.  He was not licensed and it got worse from there.  He was offering sensual massage for gay men.  I immediately fired off a strongly worded email to let him know that my business name was registered with the state and we were a legitimate massage therapy clinic, and I demanded he remove his post.  To make sure that my business did not get confused with the illegal one, I posted an ad in all caps issuing a warning about the disreputable masseur using my business name and asked other subscribers to flag the impostor's ad as "miscategorized" or "illegal".  I submitted letters to the state attorney general and the administrators of Craigslist explaining the problem.  Although I did not receive anything back from any of the parties I filed complaints with,  the post for the illegal massages was removed within one day.

I still browse Craigslist on a fairly regular basis as I want to be known as the massage therapist that has client's massage sessions ending happy--but NOT with happy endings.