What It's Like to Be a Phone Sex Operator in 2016

Anyone who ever stayed up past 1 AM watching late-night TV during the 1990s is likely well-acquainted with the ubiquity of skeezy lo-fi ads for phone sex operators. The commercials were typically just endless b-roll footage of women in bikinis or lounging in lingerie, backed by tinny on-hold versions of soft rock hits and breathy invitations to "calllll nowwwww, because I'm loooooonely." In the isolated days before chatrooms and Tinder, the options for connecting to random strangers was fairly limited, especially if you didn't want to leave the comfort of your underwear/couch. But many companies made great sums of cash by enticing people to use their phones for talking dirty to anonymous women for dollars a minute.

While hardly the industry it once was, a small market for phone sex still exists. From her home office outside of Toledo, Ohio, 32-year-old Sarah* works as a phone sex operator. She's logged hundreds of thousands of minutes having sex while assuming different characters (herself, teens/barely legal, role-plays). She's also had her share of orgasms while providing the ultimate in customer service calls. We chatted about what it's like to have phone sex for money, and who the hell pays for this service in the age of webcams.

VICE: How did you get into this?