High-Priced Call Girls' Lips Are Sealed

"The people charging $50 an hour on Route 1 and those charging $300 are probably for the same acts," said Capt. Ron Lantz of the Fairfax County vice unit. "You're just getting charged more at Tysons [hotels] for women who consider themselves a higher quality."

That promise of quality often includes good looks, a clean bill of health and the ability to serve as a charming conversationalist and elegant companion at social functions. In some cases, experts said, this Hollywood fantasy can actually be true: Sudhir Venkatesh, a professor of sociology at Columbia University who has interviewed prostitutes in New York City, said some of them left behind highly skilled jobs.

Venkatesh said his research showed that, in more than 40 percent of the liaisons between johns and prostitutes at this high price point, no sexual intercourse actually occurred. "It's an expensive conversation" in some cases, Venkatesh said. "It happens a lot more than we think."

But in many cases, local investigators say, a high price is no guarantee of quality. Gilkey said that men who hire expensive escorts face the same risks as those who hire streetwalkers, including the chance of being robbed or blackmailed.

"STDs, HIV-infected people," Gilkey said, listing other threats. "I mean, you can't tell by looking at them."

Nor can exclusivity assure secrecy. Venkatesh said Spitzer's experience proves that. By all accounts, Kristen was faithful to her profession's code of discretion.

"They want to be able to trust somebody," Venkatesh said of johns. "And, in this case, you find out that you can't do that every time."

Particularly when IRS agents start wondering what you get for $4,300.

Staff writers Allison Klein, Ernesto Londo¿o and Jenna Johnson contributed to this report.