I had to ask since from all the reading of articles (and recent news coverage) and spams, does Casual Encounters and Seeking Parnter links really work?

I believe it will never work because of the spammers and fake people redirecting. Also, could you really trust a stranger with your email address (let alone your pictures of you)?

I read that Craigs list sex encounters were being taken off. Seems that the police in one city were saying that Craigs List is sort of being a pimp for the hookers advertsisng on their site.

We have several stories about Craigslist lately. Here is the one about them revamping the "Erotic Services" category.

Craigslist Replacing Erotic Services with Adult Category

That does not surprise me but from what I've seen is the casual encounters and W4M are all fake and pseudo-people to get you to their dating service/adult site. So CL is becoming nothing more than spams with postings (and you will know if you reply back and their email responses)