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Victoria Police Police are to investigate an illegal prostitution business that advertises on Chinese social media and operates in Melbourne's top hotels.

Following an Melbourne Times Weekly investigation last week, website Sweetybabe.net closed - but it has assured clients it will be back.

Melbourne Times Weekly exposed the mobile brothel operating at hotels including Crown, Hotel Grand Chancellor and Flagstaff City. The hotels have denied any knowledge of illegal prostitution. Last week Sweetybabe assured its clients via Chinese-language social networking website QQ that it was not under police investigation. "We have been checking every day," it said. "We are not being investigated."

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said, "With the growing prominence of online technology, we are seeing illegal activities conducted in new ways such as via websites and social media," she said. "Victoria Police is adopting appropriate strategies to meet these changing dynamics."

The Sweetybabe website was set up in February, a day before SICU – the leading police agency for investigations into Victoria's multi-million-dollar illegal prostitution industry – was established. Sweetybabe was stating it also had girls in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth, and was due to release a mobile app, before the website shut.