Apparently lying low after the bust-up of an alleged East Side brothel, two top agencies ? Fleur De Elite and NYCovergirls ? yanked their Web sites.
With buzz on the street that a cop crackdown is afoot, others warily screened calls, and at least two more posted "We are closed for the holidays" messages on popular escort chat rooms.
"This is traditionally the busiest season, but to those of us who have been around awhile, it's not worth the risk," said one industry insider.
"It's like a snowball effect. One goes down and you know there's more bad to follow," said another, commenting on last week's arrest of Jenny Paulino, the alleged madam of American Beauties.
"In 18 years, I've never seen people this nervous."
Yesterday, Fleur De Elite, known in the escort industry as boasting the priciest and prettiest seductresses ? some charging as much as $2,500 a date ? closed public access to its Web site, allowing only members with passwords to log on.
Its affiliate, NYCovergirls, pulled its online site entirely, replacing it with an "under construction" notice.
Neither Fleur De Elite nor NYCovergirls returned calls for comment.
