Many providers use screeners/appointment secretaries.  Their use is disclosed on websites and in the autoresponse emails.  The reasons for this and the concerns have been discussed before. If it saves a provider time and increases security for them, it is fine with me.

A while ago, I saw a provider and after appt sent her a PM through TER on a technical issue during the screening.  The screener was also logged on to the TER account and receiving PMs first which she was then passing along to the provider.  I have not seen PMs intercepted by screeners before to my knowledge.

Is this common? Reactions?

This came up a while ago but I did not want to post on it to avoid getting names involved.  
I am not going to name names, so do not PM me to find out who I am talking about.

I have contacted several (not local) ladies via PM and gotten a response from someone who identified themselves as her assistant.

...it's called the nonexistent assistant. It's easier for a provider to play the strict gatekeeper when soliciting references from a guy and use a different name. That way there wouldn't be hard feelings between the provider and her client which could kill the mood. I've had that sneaking suspicion a number of times that a provider and her assistant were the same person.

END OF MESSAGE

If a provider is using an assistant, it's not surprising the assistant would have access to the TER account as well.  Many guys use the TER PM system to set up appointments.