...and therein lies the problem. The sweet, friendly girl on the phone can turn into a Bait & Switch, a Cash & Dash, a scammer or police bait when you finally meet.

Or it could be the girl of your dreams.

I look at some of the escorts, particularly on Eros, and get my hopes up then I find they either have no reviews or bad reviews and I get all disappointed (see Madison in San Diego as an example).

So, ask yourself how much you're willing to write off if the girl turns out not to be as good as advertised? Think of it like the money you'd spend gambling in Vegas. If you lost it all, would you feel cheated or would you figure you'd already spent the money anyway? If you are that cavalier with your cash that you're willing to risk it on a bad experience (which might be a great experience), then try it.

Or play it safe and find a "sure thing" here.

IF they are LE, you can use comon sence to protect yourself. Don't talk about services, place the donation on the table, and move like you would with an old Girl Friend. LE needs you to solicit for sex to make an arrest. And will try to make you say "can I get this since I payed you this". And she would be very unlikely to move on to LFK, DFK and futher without getting you to say the wrong thing.
 Think of it this way all you would have to say was "I though she was giving me a signal that she was interested in me. She never sad no or I would have stopped."
  As for a psycho, that you are going to have to gamble on. But you could start at an hour (if you are comfortable loosing that much) and if it goes well you can proceded from there.

You can tell her that you will use a visual quality check upon seeing her. But that will only assure you that she is the woman in the ad. Her performance is another issue. The fact that she is in fact the woman in the ad is one good sign. If after she takes the donation she says that she has to go back to her car or driver, stand between her and the door and ask for your donation back because it is highly likely that she is a cash and dash artist. If she is the woman in the ad, accepts the money and stays in the room for next steps, move slowly, start by having a short chat then see whether she will allow touching in non-private areas and/or kissing. You may have to add more cash to get everthing that you want, but some ladies are worth the extra cash.