I can think of one reason, particularly in regards to newbie providers, though it applies less here where ladies are nominally verified. Someone who screens seems less likely to be a pimp luring marks to a robbery. Why would a crook limit his or her target pool? But it's doubtful that many if any ladies have that in mind when screening, and almost as unlikely that it occurs or matters to most hobbyists, save as one more subliminal consideration in the background radiation of our own reputational research.
Originally Posted by Centaur
I can think of another. Law enforcement. Not really such a concern if you are seeing a lady on here with lots of reviews, the same with the gent (who have established themselves with reviews, etc). . I have come around to using triangulating information on this board as a form of screening, although it still makes me nervous. But, someone with 15 plus reviews and no alerts in three years has done his time and made the effort to create his persona, and I am open to using that as a valid screening resource. I don't think getting a "he's cool" from another women is offering me information at that point. So, that can work sometimes.
So, I can understand a guy seeing a woman who is well known not being so concerned with her not asking for references as both have invested the energy into their reputation. However, I am always a little shocked to see the alerts from gentlemen who walked into a BP scam in one form or another. If she has no reputation, do you not think twice when she asks you for NO information. And honestly, I see more of those alerts from the men than from the women.
This is illegal. There are people out there paid a decent salary to put us in jail for engaging in this. That's a fact. As a guy, I would very wary of seeing a woman with little to no investment in the community who asked for jack before seeing me. I know this is really anecdotal, but I watched this CNN show, not sure what it was, but they were filming the whole transaction between the police officers and potential johns. Do you think the police made it difficult for them to come in? Nope. That asked for nothing. Like five guys, boom, boom, boom. The consequences for being caught at this are really terrible. I would never get another job again, not in the day and age of background checks. It would be devestating for me, for almost anyone, unless you are just independently wealthy.
To address to Ops original question. I am intrisincally distrusful of data as it can usually be manipulated however you want. Just logically speaking, there are people out there who get paid to catch us doing this very thing. Does it make sense to put absolutely no barriers out there between you and your freedom? It doesn't to me. I have posted this before, but I will say it again. I've been contacted by a police officer. I don't know how he got my number (which I don't have anymore), but my best guess is they confiscated someone's phone; my number was in there and they cold calling. I keep no numbers in my phone, never have. Makes it harder to give references, but if my phone is ever confiscated, they will find nothing. This is what I got:
"This is so and so."
"Okay"
"I was wondering if we could meet?"
"I'm sorry, I don't know you. Who are you looking for?"
(at this point, realized he didn't even know my hooker moniker)
" where did we met?"
"oh you know, probably out by the airport."
"I gotta go".
Repeat that same conversation almost verbatim but with different officers on several different occassions until I changed numbers.
That sort of shit is rare, but it happens. It happens. And that dude did something stupid somewhere and then someone in Houston's police department had my fucking number. I do believe that had he been more circumspect in who he sees, that would not have happened. So, yeah, I think screening goes both ways. And not doing anything, puts us all in danger. It's not whether it is perfect or not. It never will be. We are in a constant cat and mouse game. But, does it make you safer? It would seem just by sheer logic that it does.
As far as meeting crazies, that's a much more grey area. I would seem to reason that having to be responsible to a communit, would make a lot of bad behavior difficult to conduct. The safety of this is fueled by reputation on both sides.