They Were Told It Was a Porn Audition. It Wasn't

The Stranger has a cautionary tale about an alleged scam to dupe young women into having sex. The newspaper reports that at least six women tell a similar story: They were solicited on Facebook by a person who called herself Deja Stwalley. She told them she was a recruiter for an indie porn studio, promised big money, and suggested they meet with her photographer friend Matt for an audition. Three actually did have sex with Matt, including then-19-year-old Allysia Bishop, who slit her wrists afterward in an unsuccessful suicide attempt. Now it appears the whole thing was an elaborate hoax. After some online sleuthing that involved examining IP addresses, the women say Matt created the fake Stwalley profile and impersonated her. The Stranger identifies him as freelance tech journo Matt Hickey, who has done work for the Seattle newspaper.

"I agree it's weird and also ridiculous, but I'm sorry to say that at this point I can't talk about anything specific, though I may in the future," Hickey tells the paper in an email. The women have gone to police, but the case is in murky territory: They gave consent but under false pretenses. "[The detective] said everything that I'm telling him is really f----- up, but that there are no grounds for a sexual assault case," says Bishop. The police investigation is continuing. The Stwalley profile disappeared when the women began discussing their experiences in an online forum, though the newspaper tracked down a real "Deja Stwalley"—an old middle-school classmate of Hickey's who says he had a "weirdo crush" on her. They also found the woman whose photos were used without her knowledge for the profile. She doesn't know Hickey. Click for the full story. (More porn industry stories.)