Visa, MasterCard and American Express are no longer payment options for people who wish to post sex ads in the adult section of Backpage.com. U.S. law enforcement officers say that the website Backpage.com facilitates sex trafficking by making it easy for any would-be trafficker to access thousands of sex buyers anonymously on the internet. According to law enforcement, many of the women and girls whose services are advertised on Backpage.com are victims of human trafficking who are exploited for sex. By limiting payment options on Backpage.com to the digital currency, Bitcoin, advocates hope that fewer pimps and traffickers will place ads on the site, thus limiting the number of victims they can exploit.
Compiled from: Alter, Charlotte, Visa Nixes Cards as Payment Option for Online Sex Ads, Time (July 1, 2015).