All it takes is one click, and numerous ads advertising a person for sale will appear in a search feed. It happens on Backpage.com and the deals happen all over Southwest Florida.
The site is used by traffickers to advertise the people they're selling and there's very little regulation on how the deals happen.
"I didn't even know what Backpage.com was until getting involved with these people and stuff".
That's what one woman told Four In Your Corner. We spoke with a woman who was a trafficking survivor and came to Fort Myers for help. She says Backpage.com was used to sell her and other women she came in contact with.
"I would have to pose for these pictures in like a thong or something. That's it. And they would just post you and you wouldn't even know what they post with these pictures".
Fox 4 is concealing her identity to protect her. When Four In Your Corner spoke with her, she said that after the ads were posed, traffickers would get calls and set up places for her to meet other men. The Backpage.com ads with her image were circulated all over the internet.
It's something that says was one of the worst parts about the experience she says she's now been able to move on from.
She came to Fort Myers to heal using Teen Challenge and met the organizers at another organization, Be the Light which she says helped empower her to tell her story in hopes it would help others. She's happy that part of her past is behind her and says the faith she gained helped her heal.
She told Four On Your Corner, "I just feel like God used all this to bring me to the point of looking for him and finding him".
