But they are selling something that has to be delivered in person, what's so hard about setting up undercover sting operations on both sides -- setting up meetings with pimps, and advertising to catch the johns? They don't even need backpage to help - like you said, the people placing ads aren't using their own phones or credit cards, so it's not even clear what help backpage could offer.
Seems like police should be able to make a steady stream of arrests just from this one website.
> what's so hard about setting up undercover sting operations on both sides
There are not enough qualified investigators or time in the day to run down every prostitute with an ad while Backpage plays shell games with the ones featuring children.
You don't need enough to catch them all in a single day. If 1 in 100 ads was a sting, in a few years all the pimps will be locked up and all the johns in the system.
Seems like police should be able to make a steady stream of arrests just from this one website.