"Honey" was scared.

"What am I gonna do? What am I gonna say?" the young Lake County woman thought.

And so she told the man she was meeting the truth: This was her first time working as a prostitute.

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The man the 19-year-old met in February at an Illinois hotel turned out not to be her first customer but an undercover police officer tracking Craigslist ads. She was entangled in what local law enforcement officials say is a widening cyber net of easily concealed, and accessible, prostitution in the region.

The woman now is part of a new program of the Cook County Sheriff's Department that works to rehabilitate prostitutes and, in some cases, go after pimps. The Sheriff's Women's Justice Services division provides counseling, plus help and supplies for her infant child. In return, the Lake County woman is cooperating with police in an investigation of human trafficking and prostitution.

She hopes the program will help her regain the promise she had as an A student and high school graduate who had enrolled in college before her Craigslist bust.

Not what she dreamed of

In fall 2007, The Times reviewed hundreds of sexually explicit online posts in Craigslist's erotic services section. The ads claimed women in them lived in various region cities, from East Chicago to Gary to Merrillville.

Since then, the alleged prostitution -- or at least the posts appearing to advertise it -- has expanded to some of the region's more affluent communities, including Munster and Crown Point.

The Lake County woman -- whom The Times has chosen not to identify because she is cooperating with police -- said she first saw her erotic ad when she was arrested in February.

She said she had no idea that as "Honey," she was offering 30-minute sensual massage sessions for $100, that she enticed possible customers to "let me rub you up and down."

In a recent interview, she was stylishly dressed, with well-manicured nails and tall, flashy black boots. But she spoke with caution, wringing her hands through personal questions. She is young, but looks even younger, with a sweet smile suggesting her one-time dream of modeling might not have been far-fetched.

That dream is what she claims initially led her to Craigslist, where she said she found posts offering real modeling gigs.

She said she began talking to a man she never met in person but who offered to get her work. She sent him pictures of herself, fully clothed, to solicit model bookings.

At first, she declined his persistent requests to prostitute for him, she said, finally cutting off contact with him. Then one day, needing money, she said she answered the man's call and agreed to the setup.

The setup

It all happened so fast that soon she was arriving at a hotel in Alsip with few details, waiting for a man expected to pay her for sex.

"I knew nothing about the guy," she said of the potential customer.

She also knew nothing about the price negotiated for her services or what those exact services were supposed to be.

Out of confusion and without knowing the deal, she agreed to take $300 the man offered her, she said.

And then she was arrested.

"My first time, and I got caught," she said. She added, with a nervous laugh, "It must not have been meant to be."

Cooperating witness

She expressed relief that her first stint landed her in the hands of police, cutting off what could have been a dangerous life of hooking.

Even after her arrest, she has seen her photos posted on Craigslist's erotic services section.

She is reluctant to talk about her experience, but said she did so to warn other young women.

"It ain't worth it," she said.