there seems to be a bunch of hot 'providers' on my local eros guide, none of which have any contact info other than phone numbers or emails... no personal websites or links to reviews, here or elsewhere.  
is one to presume they are all fakes?

yup

it's a good idea to stay away.  Let someone else TOFTT.  I'm sure many of them are probably legit, but do you really want to take the chance to find out?  I sure don't.  If the ad has no website, I don't even look at it again.

Swim

Certain markets are much worse than others,

phone number searches can be a good friend, plus you may want to open up the city to include all, incase there are travelers.

There are some great providers on Eros, but overall, everytime I have taken a short cut or let the little head drive the wallet decision, it has been a bad deal.

You really do need to do your homework.  Personally, I pretty much ignore Eros anymore,  too often I have had bad outcomes, in favor of research scanning TER first.

they don't police their site to verify whos who, with the right money you can post an ad there like anywhere.
Eros looks more polished as a site than many others and they cost more as well but they are Not a verification site so do your research no matter where you find an ad.

There was an article in Business 2.0 magazine that eros has fake ads for LE.

The state of Ohio is notorious for reverse hobbyist stings with eros ads.

Eros used to be a good place to window shop.  I always checked TER for reviews.  No reviews = no date.

There is a reason why the advice offered to newbies is to only see well-reviewed providers who have reviews from establishe reviewers.

Move on.

Not all of them are fakes, but the majority are either fakes or poor performers. If you are new at hobbying avoid sites like eros, cityvibe, craigslist and backpage. There are gems on all the site but you have to sort through rubble to find them. Private escort sites exists where providers that are members are legitimate, but you pay a fee to join. Fees asked by providers on reputable private member only sites are higher than those seen on general escort malls, but you get what you pay for with no head games.

If you "troll" EROS, backpage or Cityvibe, just copy the number and check it out here. Every once in a while, legit providers will advertise.  If no reviews, or reviews by one or two "new" members, then stay away.

They don't?? They put me through verification hell the first time I advertised (July 2009)!  First, they requested the unblurred version of my photos plus a copy of the front and back of my driver's license for comparison purposes.  Since the talented DMV photographer somehow managed to make me appear as though I was being TASERed in my driver's license photo, Eros was unsatisfied with this and then had me send a snapshot of myself holding up a handwritten sign, with "Eros Guide" and the date on it... and FINALLY they posted my ad. I'm certainly not complaining about all the verification steps, as that would make me a hypocrite, but I assumed it was standard procedure for a first-time advertiser.

-- Modified on 2/4/2010 6:08:12 AM

yes Eros verifies you to their own limits, that you are the real you ect but not to the legitimacy of who you are as a provider. For advertising purposes they verify you attained the ad but that has nothing to do with if you are bait and switch, have bad or no reviews and so on Its just and simply an ad venue not a review site and anyone who can man up with verification can run an ad on their site stating to be who ever they are.
Being on Eros does NOT instantaniously mean you are legitimate from a hobbyists point of view.