you should screen new clients or not.
The answer is: Absolutely. Every single time.
Screening is crucial for your safety and also for your
client's safety as well.
By showing that you never skip the screening process, you
are letting your clients know you take your business
seriously.
The good news is, screening doesn't have to be a headache.
However, it does take a bit of work and some creativity on
your part.
Here are the five pieces of information you should be
getting, at minimum, from every potential client:
1. Real name
You want a full legal name and preferably with at least
their middle initial. You can check this against their ID at
the beginning of your session.
2. Phone number
At least one phone number, but preferably a cell and then
either home or work phone.
3. Email address
Preferably you want their primary email address.
4. Where they got your information from
How did they find you, e.g., Eros Guide, P411, your
website?
5. Two references
You'll want to know when and where these visits took place.
You might also ask them to give you some unique details
about their appearance, and some innocent but memorable
details about their sessions. For instance, "it was pouring
rain that day". These kinds of details can help when you
are checking the references. More on this later.
Ok, you've got all this information. Great. Now what?
Now it's time to put on your detective hat.
You want to search for clues to verify your potential client
is, in fact, who they are claiming to be.
1. Google.com (http://www.google.com)
First step, head on over to Google. Take their real name,
email address, and phone number, go to Google and run
searches on this information.
Look for older forum posts, business websites, comments in
blogs, etc.
2. White Pages (http://www.whitepages.com)
Next, check out the online White Pages. Type in their real
first and last name and see what comes up.
Also do a "Reverse Phone" search there, with their phone
number.
3. Amazon People Search
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/search)
Another site where people frequently have their information
stored is Amazon.com. Go over to Amazon People Search and
try a search on their name and email address.
You can learn a LOT about a new potential client by what
they have on their Amazon wishlist!
4. LinkedIn search (http://www.linkedin.com/)
A lot of business professionals use Linkedin to connect with
colleagues.
Finding a potential client on Linkedin with contact
information that matches what they submitted to you can be a
good sign that your client is who they say they are.
5. Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/search/)
Practically everyone is one Facebook these days! Try a
Facebook search for their email address first. Then try
their full name.
6. eBay Find a Member Search
(http://shop.ebay.com/ebayadvsearch/_W0QQ_sofindtypeZ25)
eBay is another great place to find information about your
potential client. Head over to eBay Find a Member Search and
search for their email address (you may need to be a member
of eBay to do this).
If you find your client on eBay, you can see how long they
have been a member for and where they are located.
Click on their User ID to check out the kinds of things they
like to bid on. Anything creepy?
7. Follow up with references
Last but certainly not least, it's important that you get
in touch with the references your potential new client
provided.
You can either call or write these references.
Try to jog their memory with the extra details you
requested.
It's one thing to write "Hey Sally, do you remember John
Smith from Atlanta?"
And quite another to write, "Sally, do you remember John
Smith from Atlanta that you met in April of last year at the
Sundial restaurant? He said it was pouring rain when you
left. I looked up information on him and he has a bunch of
computer books on his Amazon wish-list so I am thinking he
is an engineer of some sort. Thanks Sally."
Once you hear back from both of the references you should
have uncovered enough information about your potential
client to make an informed decision on whether or not it is
safe to see them.
An indication that you MAY be dealing with a potential
scammer:
* There is absolutely nothing about their name or email
address online, anywhere.
* Everything you find was just created recently in the last
few weeks.
PLEASE NOTE: Just because you cannot find anything about
your new client online, doesn't mean he is a scammer or LE.
But it can be a red flag to screen more carefully. In this
case you will really want to double check his references.
Also, just because you DO find information online about your
new client does not mean your client is NOT a scammer or LE.
Really, the bottom line when it comes to screening is, do
your homework and always trust your instincts.
If you get a weird feeling about a new potential client,
even if all his information checks out, it's better to be
safe and just skip this one.
OK, but where is my FREE SURPRISE, Erin?!
Haha, I'm getting to it! Thanks for asking. :)
As you can see, proper screening can be a lot of work.
Well, I've been creating a free tool to help make screening
a little bit easier.
Here is the link to my free "Escort Screening Tool":
http://www.myhoneysuckle.com/escort-screening-tool/
The way it works is, you simply enter the contact
information for the clients that you want to screen and
click "Search".
This tool will automatically search:
* White Pages
* Amazon People Search
And it will show you the results right on that page.
So basically it automatically does steps 1 through 4 in the
screening process for you.
Unfortunately, due to some technical issues with the way
Facebook and Ebay searches work, I could not include those
in the tool, at least not right now. So you will still have
to do screening steps 5-7 on your own.
But this tool can still definitely save you some time in
your screening process.
Check it out, and like I said, this is brand new, so please
let me know what you think!
Especially let me know if anything breaks or if you have any
ideas on how this tool could be improved. Here is the link
again:
http://www.myhoneysuckle.com/escort-screening-tool/
Your safety is deeply important to me.
Be safe and take care,
Erin
PS - Please feel free to share the link to this tool with
your friends. And if you have any ideas on how it could be
improved, please let me know. I am always trying to think of
new ways to help keep you girls safe!
http://www.myhoneysuckle.com/escort-screening-tool/
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