By Peter Berton

OTTAWA – There always will be people who stand up for what’s right, even in the most unexpected of circumstances. Take Cowboy Kenny, for example. The force behind The Cowboy’s Diary, Cowboy Kenny rides the wilds of cyberspace attempting to rein in escorts who rustle images branded by other folks.

The cowboy is a one-man posse. Image rustling is a dead-giveaway an escort’s ad is fake, he said, and that kind of fraud just chaps his hide. Of course, some of the villains he calls out in public don’t take kindly to being raked with virtual spurs, but Cowboy Kenny continues his lone vigil anyway, despite threats of lynching.

YNOT.com moseyed over chew the fat with the masked man behind the wanted posters.

YNOT: How long have you been dodging a virtual noose, pard?

Cowboy Kenny: The Cowboy’s Diary has been around for almost six years now. Sadly, there is no shortage of content to feature on the site.

What kind of content do you post?

I primarily focus on ads that use fake photos. I show the original source of the photo and usually provide a bit of background about the faker. Often the same people pull the same scam over and over again, but with a new phone number. I try to present the information in a lighthearted manner with some dry tongue-in-cheek humor.

Why did you start the site?

In a lot of escort directories and free classifieds, photos are familiar or “too good.” I began noticing recognizable images porn stars and internet models. Because I had been misled a few times myself, I learned to use metadata and other tricks to search the internet for suspicious images. This was all before Tin Eye — a reverse search engine for images — and Google were readily available resources.

Bait-and-switch is bad for all involved. It’s bad for the clients because they can become jaded and skeptical of any ads they see if they’ve been mislead a few times, or even once. It’s bad for providers — the honest ones — because they have to work harder to prove themselves. While they’re using real photos of themselves, they’re competing with stolen, Photoshop-ed professional images of women who’ve got a team of stylists, makeup artists, lighting techs and photographers behind them.

There is already a public misconception that the sex trade and sex workers are a shady bunch, which is not the case. Scammers and fakers just add to that stigma, which is something this industry doesn’t need.

I work in creative arts and multimedia communications, so it infuriates me to see other people’s works stolen without payment or permission, and especially so when the thief misrepresents the intended use. People seem to think that if a picture is out there on the Internet it’s free for anyone to use, which simply is not the case.

Are you the Consumer Reports of escort ads?

I would say my site allows clients to make informed decisions. I’m not saying [readers] shouldn’t visit these providers; I’m just letting them know what they’re getting into.
I don’t do reviews of providers’ services on my site; however, I do contribute to a number of Ontario and Ottawa forums where providers are reviewed and recommended.

What kinds of scams do you see most often?

For the most part, most of what I see is perpetrated by independent providers with “managers. Few agencies pull the bait-and-switch tactic, although just the other day a new agency popped up with a roster of fake pics. Within hours of being exposed on The Cowboy’s Diary, they deleted all the fake photos on their website.

Sometimes fake ads precede outright rip-offs. After money is exchanged, there’s a knock at the door or some other distraction designed to spook the client and make him leave.

Another popular scam is the cam-show verification. In this one, the client is directed to join a cam site and pay $25 to $30 for a show. The fee is supposed to apply to a private show — but no cam show ever happens. “Technical difficulties” always seem to arise once the scam artist has your credit card number, and they don’t answer emails or subsequent phone calls.

These scams work because they prey on the new clients who discover this hobby every day. The newbies don’t know any better. This is where The Cowboy’s Diary comes in, to help guide newbies and vets alike through the maze of fakers, scammers and dangerous situations.

How do you lasso the bad guys?

When I first started exposing the bait-and-switch operators, my efforts came from an understanding of how search engines work and collect information. Armed with that knowledge, I could easily track down a good percentage of fake ads.

Then tools like Tin Eye became readily available. Tin Eye enables you to do a reverse image search.

While the tools are out there, The Cowboy’s Diary still maintains good traffic. Newbies, both clients and scammers, crop up every day, so there’s no shortage of material or readers.

Why do outlaws perpetuate these scams? Do they actually get away with them?

It’s hard to say why they do it. In most fake-image cases, it’s because the provider is nowhere near as attractive or toned as the woman in the stolen image is.

I hear excuses from scammers saying it’s to protect their privacy, or they don’t want to be recognized. I don’t buy it: If your brother or father knows what you look like in thong panties, then there are bigger issues at stake.

As I mentioned earlier, sometimes these are outright rip-offs; no service is provided at all. A scammer lures a guy to a location using a woman as bait, and then the scammer strong-arms the client for money before scaring him off. This happens quite a bit — not just in Ottawa but all over North America.

Is there anything clients can do when they have been scammed?

The one thing they shouldn’t do is make a scene or try to get their money back. Just accept the situation for what it is and move on. Money is only paper, and it’s not worth getting hurt or worse over.

What they should do is find an internet forum and join the discussion. There’s pretty much one or two [forums] for every region, and they usually have a section to report scams and share information with other hobbyists. Information is power.

Of course, folks in the Ottawa, eastern Ontario and western Quebec regions can always drop me a line. I’ll look into it, check out the details, and if it turns out to be fact or likely fact, I’ll issue a warning on the diary.

What sort of response have you received from your efforts?

There’s a lot of people who don’t like me or my site; however, they are in the minority compared to the readers, clients and providers who enjoy visiting and find [the site] to be a useful resource when seeking out paid adult companionship. The site sees anywhere between 300 to 800 unique visits a day and about an average of 10,000 hits per month.

I’ve been threatened a number of times by various bait-and-switch perpetrators like Asian agencies — those advertising Asian escorts, not agencies owned by Asians. Some of them are infamous for shifty tactics and fake pics. There’s also a failed agency operator who likes to try to discredit me from time to time, likely because I’ve exposed his fake pics, stolen text and other shoddy schemes every time he opens up a new “agency.” Let’s just say he doesn’t send me Christmas cards anymore.

What advice do you have for consumers who’d like to be able to tell when someone is scamming them? What are the warning signs?

Do your research! There are lots of great resources available to hobbyists, like discussion forums, review boards and, of course, The Cowboy’s Diary. Most regional discussion boards have great communities of like-minded people who, for the most part, are happy to share their successes and failures.

In addition, do your thinking and decision-making with your big head, not the little one. The little one has a long track record of making bad decisions.

Are you a real cowboy, or do you just play one on the internet?

[He laughs.] That’s a question I’m asked often. I do own a cowboy hat and a pair of cowboy boots, but the only horses I own are the ones under the hood of my car.