Deanna Brodsky, who is a licensed massage therapist living and working in Bend, has something to say:
No, creeps; she doesn’t offer happy endings.
Brodsky has worked as an LMT for a combined 10 years in upstate New York, Colorado and now in Bend. As the owner of her practice, Brodsky registered Sweet Dee Massage, LLC, with the Oregon Business Registry. She conducts her bodywork in her backyard ADU in the River West neighborhood. The number of solicitations for sexual services she has received in Bend skyrockets each summer, with the most recent as the worst.
“I was like, ‘Why does this keep happening to me?’” Brodsky recently told the Source.
This summer, an inquiring client tipped her off that her likeness and phone number appears on a website called WinkNKink, which is like a Craigslist for “local escorts.” The bottom of each webpage features pornographic images that are — ahem — decidedly Not Safe For Work. Alarmingly, Brodsky’s likeness and business details, seemingly scrubbed from her Google business profile (which she has since removed) appear, with some telling details changed. With some online sleuthing, Brodsky realized her likeness also appeared on sites including Nuru Finder, a (“local erotic massage directory”), Rub Maps (“Where fantasy meets reality”) and Rub My Body, which purports to compile “verified erotic massage therapists.”
Notably, Brodsky’s hours of operation — “I close at 8 pm, not 10 pm” — her hourly rate and her race — “I’m not Asian” — have been incorrectly listed in these listings.
“When I saw all this, I felt a sense of disgust, rage and sadness,” Brodsky said. “Nothing on my website indicates that I offer sexual services.”
(Willamette Week published an exposé last year on the rise of illicit Portland “rub & tugs” that profit from sex trafficking; it’s not inconceivable that a seedy slice of Central Oregonians are after the same.)
In the interest of spreading awareness about what licensed bodyworkers do — and definitely don’t do, at least the law-abiding ones, she says — Brodsky has shared with the Source an online drive of sexual inquiries she’s documented. Each oversteps practitioner-client boundaries. Brodsky, who’s 33, wanted to go public because she says she increasingly feels unsafe.
“I really love what I do. It’s a part of my identity. I want to be able to do it freely,” Brodsky said. “I don’t want to be crying to my partner about it. It’s an unsafe creep show.”
Most of the inappropriate solicitations Brodsky has documented occurred via text. Like many bodyworkers, Brodsky lists her mobile number on her website. While Brodsky does attribute the increase of inappropriate requests to the influx of summer tourists to Bend, she said it’s a “mixed bag” when it comes to senders’ area codes. Some are local; some out of state. As evinced by text chats Brodsky screen-grabbed from her phone and shared, some inquiries are relatively polite yet clueless:
“…Had a random question for you. Do you know anyone that offers any type of tantra style massages [rose emoji]?”
Other clients seeking sexual services had already received a conventional massage from Brodsky, and then followed up with salacious requests:
“Thanks for today,” such a person texted on May 30. “Check this out if you have any interest in learning more about Tantra. Happy to talk more if you’re interested in discussing it.” The text includes a link to a Tantra explainer article.
“It felt so gaslight-y,” she said. “All LMTs know what Tantra is.”
This faux-innocent mansplaining — Oh, did you hear about this interesting spiritual/sexual practice?! — is one of the more common methods would-be clients use to broach the subject that Brodsky encounters. Other sexual winks happen during the session.
Some will say things like, “You remind me of my tantric masseuse.”
Others will glimpse Brodsky’s armpit hair, even though she purposely wears a large shawl that renders her into what she calls a “shapeless blob.”
“Your pits are so sexy,” she recalls one telling her.
Often, in the text correspondences Brodsky shared with the Source, she opts for a constructive route. In responding to a question about whether she offers Thai (not sexual), Lomi (not sexual) or Tantra (in this context, likely sexual), Brodsky replied:
“Yep! I do offer Thai massage! The others, no.”
“Okay, well I pay BIG :)” texted the would-be client.
“No. I’m a licensed practitioner. I offer strictly professional therapeutic services,” Brodsky replied.
That was the end of that particular correspondence. Yet with each week, more would trickle in.
The Source reached out to the top 10 Bend LMT clinics listed on Yelp, asking for comments about whether they share Brodsky’s frustrations. None responded by press time. Several bodyworkers who had shared with Brodsky their own harassing correspondence with potential clients, which the Source reviewed, did not respond to interview requests.
What can she do?
By September, Brodsky had had enough. She searched her legal options online for getting her likeness removed from sex websites. Brodsky filed a report with the Internet Crime Complaint Center, which is operated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and funnels complaints to appropriate FBI field offices and partnering law enforcement agencies. Due to an overwhelming number of complaints, IC3 cannot reply to every submission, according to its website. Brodsky hasn’t received a follow-up.
Thomas Lilienthal, a detective sergeant with the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office who specializes in digital forensics and internet crimes against children, said in an interview that he empathizes with Brodsky and those in her situation. Yet this matter is beyond the jurisdiction of Oregon statutes, he says.
Lilienthal scanned the webpages that have appropriated Brodsky’s likeness, including those on Nuru Finder and Rub My Body. Lilienthal noticed that the sites appear to be identical, running the same pornographic ads and even featuring a matching page design. The web domain, he pointed out, is Swiss. Lilienthal ran the URLs through the database run by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. The nonprofit coordinates the global management of the Domain Name System, allocating IP addresses and domain names, according to its website. He learned that both were purchased in April.
Lilienthal said it’s not clear which country the website is being operated out of, but that its server is likely somewhere in the U.S.
“But the person running these sites could be anywhere in the world. The internet is really the Wild West,” Lilienthal said. “What we as a sheriff’s office can do to address these websites is, realistically, not much.”
Lilienthal pointed out that there are grounds for civil recourse, however. Those begin with issuing a complaint to the websites, which, interestingly, list email addresses for such matters. But Brodsky already did that, she says. She didn’t receive a response.
The next step would be filing a formal cease-and-desist order with the help of a lawyer. That’s where Brodsky is at. Doing so will take the time, money and emotional bandwidth that she’ll need to save up for, she said.
Andrew Gilden is a lawyer and faculty member at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles. Versed in Oregon law, Gilden taught at Willamette University School of Law in Salem for nine years.
“There are a ton of potential legal issues here,” said Gilden.
The websites’ appropriation of original photos that Brodsky took, or had taken, may rise to the level of copyright infringement, especially given the commercial context in which they’re being used, he said.
Secondly, Gilden points out, the websites’ use of Brodsky’s personal and/or business name in a distinct commercial context raises questions about trademark infringement.
“Basically, will consumers be confused about whether [Brodsky] has some association with Rub My Body or these other ones? That’s a false or confusing signal of association,” Gilden said. “That’s something that trademark law cares about.”
Additionally, the use of Brodsky’s face or recognizable likeness for commercial purposes is not allowed. Oregon courts have recognized a right of publicity, which grants an individual the right to decide when and how their likenesses are used for commercial purposes in a trade setting. That’s potentially a misappropriation of likeness.
Also concerning are the false statements about the services Brodsky offers; those could hurt her reputation — a qualification for defamation.
“Those are the four intellectual property issues I’m seeing,” Gilden said.
Generally, websites that are hosting infringing material are highly likely to take it down, Gilden says. If they don’t, they’re potentially liable for copyright infringement. This is a much more powerful tool in the context of victims of revenge porn getting their images removed from offending websites, Gilden said, but less helpful here in what he calls the world of publicity. There isn’t the same obligation.
Copyright is a well-developed federal law which maintains that the creator of an original work is automatically its owner, according to the U.S. Copyright Office. Yet we have very little information about infringement of publicity in Oregon, Gilden says, because it has only been recognized in a few written decisions.
One weird quirk regarding Brodsky’s photos: the photographer who created Brodsky’s photos would be the one with authority to ask the websites for removal, says Gilden, via a cease-and-desist.
“Whoever clicked the button is technically the author or the copyright holder,” Gilden said. “They’d be the one who could most easily get those taken down.”
Trademarks are different. That an Oregon business owner has registered with the Secretary of State doesn’t mean the business is automatically trademarked, Gilden said. Filing with U.S. Patent & Trademark Office ensures national protection.
‘No response was received’
Situations like Brodsky’s are not unknown to the American Massage Therapist Association. In a written response to the Source, the AMTA says it has pursued multiple avenues to protect LMT members whose information is misused. (Brodsky previously purchased insurance through AMTA; she is not currently a member.)
The association only receives a handful of requests a year, yet each one is taken seriously, says an AMTA spokesperson.
In recent years, AMTA investigated RubMaps, sending formal letters to the web hosts, which they discerned operated in Switzerland, but also Belgium.
“Unfortunately, no response was received,” the spokesperson wrote.
The association took matters to the federal level by reaching out to agencies including the Federal Trade Commission. Under current internet laws, however, AMTA learned they don’t have the authority for direct court action — that must come directly from the individuals directly harmed. That’s Gilden’s understanding, as well.
The AMTA says it encourages individuals in Brodsky’s shoes to file reports with law enforcement agencies including the FTC’s fraud reporting webpage (reportfraud.ftc.gov/#/form/main).
‘Wanna go with me to Maui?’
Brodsky points out that sexual predation of bodyworkers has a couple recent precedents.
According to a federal indictment, the late financier Jeffrey Epstein had sex-trafficked girls as young as 14 and engaged in sex trafficking conspiracy. He allegedly lured minors and young women into his sphere by soliciting legitimate massage work. While in custody, Epstein reportedly committed suicide in 2019, The New York Times reported.
More recently, Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson settled more than 20 lawsuits filed by massage therapists who allege he turned their appointments sexual without their consent, according to The New York Times.
Brodsky showed the Source documented interactions that go beyond the clueless. One interaction chilled her to the core. On June 5, a man purporting to be in a local country-music outfit invited her to travel with him to Nashville for onsite massages.
“Hi there! Thanks so much for reaching out,” Brodsky replied, using some emojis for effect. “Do we know each other? I don’t normally fly to the other side of the country with random people.”
The texter acknowledged she hadn’t worked on him before; he apologized for the late notice. When he later invited her to fly with him to Maui, Brodsky let him know that the whole exchange reeked of potential sex trafficking.
He stopped texting.
With a lawyer’s help, Brodsky intends to take the next step in issuing cease-and-desists.
“I just hope all this will stop when I get myself removed,” she said.
This article appears in the Source October 9, 2025.
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