How to spot a scammer on Scruff

[Old City New Adventures]

I'm well aware that there a scammers on Scruff who advertise massage services, and that being asked to pay something up front is a huge red flag.  For more on that, see threads like these: 

My question is whether there's a good way to spot these scammers BEFORE you get far enough down the path that you're ready to book something.  I recently noticed a new user in my area going by KvErS, with a profile that was essentially advertising massage services.  I asked if he had reviews anywhere and he linked me to zoneofzentherapy.info/sebastian, where the pics, rates, & everything matched with what he told me.  But then I noticed something a little strange: the website didn't give any location info at all.  There were reviews, but it's easy enough to fake those.  I was curious what would happen if I removed the /sebastian from the website, and lo & behold I get the same site (identical text/rates/services/reviews/everything) but with pics of a totally different guy.  I guess there *could* be 2 guys in the business, but this is definitely smelling fishy to me.  

I'm glad I noticed the absence of location, but it makes me wonder what would have happened if they'd been smart enough to check my IP address and display a corresponding location.  What other ways do you have of sniffing out scammers sooner rather than later?  Do you simply assume that everyone who advertises on location-based apps is actually a scammer?

 

[maninsoma]

Just don't pay in advance.  Or if you are inclined to believe it's reasonable to pay a deposit in advance for a one-hour appointment, only book providers with a good reputation on a site like this so at least you know it isn't a scam.  There's no other way to know for sure whether is a scammer.  Sure, there might be an honest guy on Scruff or some other app who follows through on appointments with clients they meet on those apps, but it's very easy for someone to create a profile, use someone else's alluring photos, and then take people's money and delete the profile and create another one.  They know that almost no one would pursue getting ripped off in this way, so ripping off gullible people who will send a payment electronically to some unknown person is just picking low hanging fruit.  Don't be low hanging fruit.

[EastbayMike]

How to spot a scammer on scruff?  They're advertising on scruff!