I think you’re going to get replies to your post telling you to only meet providers with good reviews On Daddy’s Review Site - and that’s solid advice. But I will try to provide some extra thoughts:
1) Pay attention in these forums. You will get information (in the Deli section in particular) about providers who have no reviews on the site.
2) If you don’t already, use the Search function in the forums to look up possible threads on a provider you are considering.
3) Don’t be afraid to start a thread in the Deli section asking about a specific provider. You will see many threads simply titled “411 on xxxxProvider”. You might be surprised that some Forum members have already had experience they can share about the provider that interests you.
4) Regarding the catfishing problem - try to think what a Catfisher would do when placing an ad - Some red flags commonly found in ads that are too good to be true could include:
- Very little information is provided in the ad. A catfisher is typically not going to take the time to fill out a lot of the question fields in the ad. He is also not going to write multiple paragraphs about himself. Most fake ads tend to look alike - a few great pictures with little ad copy provided.
- Speaking of pictures, if there is just one or two pictures, that can be a red flag. Headless pictures of a spectacular body are also common in fake ads.
- Pay attention to the date the ad was created. Many fake ads are “new” - and as is discussed often in the Forums - a guy creates an ad on Monday and by Wednesday he has three five-star reviews on the ad - that is unlikely to be a real provider.