With New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer allegedly caught nibbling the fruits of a high-class, tech-savvy prostitution ring, it's clearer than ever the world's oldest profession is doing a fine job of harnessing the latest technology.

The red light site at the center of the Spitzer scandal is EmperorsClubVIP.com. Now offline, it's described in FBI documents (.pdf) as a professional online storefront offering conveniences like e-mail confirmation of appointments, and linking clients and prostitutes across the United States and Europe.

Archived copies of the site show it presented visitors with a menu of women, complete with photographs in which female bodies are on display, while their faces stay out-of-frame or are digitally obscured. The site ranks the prostitutes from one to seven using sparkling, animated gif diamonds. Hourly rates went according to the assigned ranking – seven diamonds being the highest and most expensive.

The more valued a particular client was, the more access he would have to restricted sections of the site, the FBI said in an affidavit.

"For example ... the Emperors Club charged $1,000 per hour for a three-diamond prostitute and $3,100 per hour for a seven-diamond prostitute," the FBI said in an affidavit. "The web site offered the Emperors Club's most valued clients 'membership' in the 'Icon Club,' a status which allowed the clients to access restricted areas of the web site and permitted them to schedule appointments for illegal prostitution services with the most highly-ranked prostitutes whose fees started at $5,500 per hour."

Internet-based prostitution businesses are easy to find online. They range in size from sole-proprietorships posting on Craigslist to large organized rings allegedly like the Emperors Club. In 2006, federal prosecutors took down a Manhattan-based e-escort service operating as "New York Elites" and "Exotica 2000" that had raked in $13.5 million in revenues in four years.

The industry is robust enough to have its own specialized support sector. The Emperors Club web site was crafted by an all-female web design firm with a Texas phone number called Working Girl Web Designs, which also offers hosting. Working Girl has an impressive resume, crafting the websites for businesses with names like companionescorts.com, YourLittleSecretNJ and VHotGirl.com. For operators in a hurry to get started, the firm offers six turn-key layouts, with templates like the spare "Noir Chic" design and the lush "Parisian."

A woman who identified herself as Adrianna answered the phone number for Working Girl Web Designs, but declined to provide a last name. She acknowledged designing the original Emperors Club website, but says she'd rather not take credit, since the owners have made a number of changes on their own that detracted from her original concept.

Adrianna's phone number is also the official ad-sales line for gfeclub.com – an ad site for escorts offering what's known in the trade as a "girlfriend experience," in which kissing is allowed. Visitors can view an escort's stats and photos, read their blogs and check their availability on a pop-up calender.

Sex workers also have their own internet message boards. On mypinkbook.com, professionals discuss everything from faking orgasms to avoiding arrests and dealing with "sex worker burnout." In a recent post, a user searches for "a new work space" in San Francisco.

"I am very discerning, responsible, neat, a clear and open communicator, extremely reliable about money and agreements. I am happy to bring all my own supplies or if we share linens, will do cleaning etc," the post read.

In The Emperors Club case, court documents filed in the Southern District of New York say the ring made as much as $1 million through a front company to which clients were directed to make payments. The four alleged ringleaders often texted to one another about business dealings. In one intercepted message, according to the FBI, "the defendants communicated via text message about the fact that the three-day rates for two of the Emperors Club prostitutes were $50,000 and $35,000, respectively."

No alleged clients are charged in the case. Spitzer, according to reports, is identified in the documents as "Client-9".

But just as much as the alleged prostitution ring employed technology to further its reach, the authorities uncovered it the same way. The FBI, according to court documents, intercepted more than 5,000 telephone calls and text messages, more than 6,000 e-mails, bank and travel records – all, the bureau said, with court authorized warrants.

(Image: Three escorts and their diamond ratings on display in a June, 2007 archived version of EmperorsClubVIP.com)