ALBANY — Cristal made it perfectly clear: Her posting on Craigslist, the one promising a “big smile on your face” for $150 to $200, was not an advertisement for illegal prostitution.

The scantily clad woman simply accepted clients’ donations for time and companionship, she explained.

“Anything else that may occur is between consenting adults,” the 25-year-old, blond-haired woman stated in her ad. She stipulated that once customers contact her by phone or e-mail, “you agree to these terms and hereby agree that you are not part of any agency using this advertisement for entrapment.”

Somehow, this did not deter police.

On Thursday, they charged Cristal — Christina Tamburello of Providence, R.I. — with prostitution. It is the latest arrest in a series of Internet-related sex stings in Albany County this year.

One year after a prostitution scandal in Washington, D.C., toppled former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, the illicit practice is attracting greater attention from local police — and players from distant locations.

Tamburello told police she came to the Capital Region March 5 because “the area was fertile and it was a good place to work,” said Inspector John Burke of the Albany County Sheriff’s Department.

Two other women recently arrested on prostitution charges in the area are from Illinois, a third from Colorado. Their employer — a man federal prosecutors say used a bogus airline to front sex-for-sale action — came from outside Philadelphia.

Burke recalled prostitution busts in Albany with women arriving from New York City, Boston or other upstate areas — never as far as Illinois or Colorado.

But one longtime prostitution expert was not surprised.

“If you are in this industry and your clients don’t have the money to pay … you go where the money is,” said Norma Jean Almodovar, executive director of COYOTE, a Los Angeles-based organization that advocates for the decriminalization of prostitution.

Almodovar, a Binghamton native, one-time Los Angeles traffic cop and prostitute, authored the 1994 tell-all, “From Cop to Call Girl.” She also founded a group called the International Sex Worker Foundation for Art, Culture and Education.

Almodovar said the rough economy means men have less money to pay for prostitutes. But she thought prostitutes might flock to Albany, noting, like Washington D.C., “it’s a political market,” which brings a lot of people to town.

Albany County’s prostitution-related arrests dropped from 52 in 2007 to 27 last year. But sheriff’s investigators made at least 12 arrests by late February this year.

In mid-January, they arrested one man and seven women in Colonie in three separate, unrelated alleged rings. Two were allegedly working out of Wolf Road hotels, a third on a quiet street by The Crossings of Colonie town park. There, police said, the sex was being secretly filmed for the Internet.

On Feb. 24, cops busted an escort ring run by self-described airline executive Roger Sedlak, 47, of Perkasie, Pa., who leaped out a window at a Route 9 hotel in Latham as investigators moved in. He escaped, but was later arrested in Pennsylvania on federal charges.

Now Sedlak, his wife, Marianna, and an alleged co-conspirator, Kelli Kaylor, all face up to 35 years in federal prison for allegedly crossing state lines and violating federal prostitution laws.

Federal prosecutors say Sedlak used bogus names, setting up a non-existent airline called CQ Air, to arrange prostitution. He allegedly made his recruits audition before he hired them and would “rate their performance and determine their willingness to engage in sex acts with paying customers,” according to a federal indictment in Pennsylvania.

Before coming to Albany, where he still faces New York state charges, police say Sedlak and his crew were in the Newburgh area.

Tamburello — Cristal — was arrested the following week. On her ad on Craigslist, she shows a vague understanding of prostitution laws.

Almodovar said many women in the industry do not understand prostitution laws — not that she thinks they should exist.

“As long as there are men who have jobs and who want sex, there will be women willing to provide it for money,” she said. “You may push us around a little, but you’re never gonna stop it.”