I know..I feel the same - someone emails me or PM's me, and I get all happy and wag my tail, but if someone approached me in a parking lot, "hey, lady..do you know.." and I would be suspicious and ready to jump in the car (welcome to CA) - so what's the difference?

Sometimes we do have to keep in mind 'who' we're 'talking' to.
If you don't know him/her, you should probably be wary. Helpful is good, but the wording is crucial.

You're smart to be cautious.

That's happened to me as well, & probably to a lot of others also.  I will almost always respond, but except for strictly general stuff, will never elaborate on what's said in the review...bad idea IMO to say too much when you don't know who the hell you're talking to.

easy to do and can be quite revealing. Additionally, I am VERY tight with info. Unless I've known someone for a while, they don't get much.

Loose lips sink ships, and provider careers.....

BK

I would be uneasy as well Orth..
My take on it..
If (they) are VIP and can PM you then they are also able to read the juicy details.. why would any other info be necc?
For courtesy of the Provider and to seriously prevent any legal implications ( however small they may be ) I would think a person with no posts or reviews would really need to do some research and take some time to chat and get to know people.
Not to be standoffish to the newbies.. but theres a reason some of this stuff is kept private.

xo/mo

Like the others I concur that it is wise to be discreet and minimalize details. Explicit PM's could be misunderstood as actual details, unlike the fictional reviews

I am a VIP member and post to the message boards using an alias (actually I have two).  I don't have any reviews for a simple reason.  When I first joined TER last spring, I thought you could use an alias to write reviews.  I made a huge mistake by using one of my regular email usernames as the username on TER.  Only after I joined did I realize that I had made this mistake.  I can't post reviews because all providers I communicate with by email will recognize me.  I'm happy to give my true name and user name to select providers but not to all.

Let's face it.  Everyone makes up an "alias" when they first join.  I just made a mistake and used an existing email name. Because of my profession, I have to be discreet.

I have occasionally PM'd other VIPs sometimes receiving a response and other times not.

*clicks on ort's reviews* :P what can i say, the thread interested me, lol

in TER boards or a member with at least a few legitimate reviews, I won't pass any info at all.

In addition, unless the inquiring member is a good guy in my book, I would not pass any specific or juicy details.  (Most of the info I had about a lady was written into my reviews anyway.)

I once received a PM from a guy asking about one of my ATF's.  Some of the questions were of a type that were too personal for my taste to answer.  So I didn't.  I simply told him that my review stands by itself and I would hesitate to add anything beyond that.

I later found out that the very same PM was also sent to 6 or 8 other guys that had seen his lady.  

So I would say that unless the PMer was a TER Boards or Reviews regular, discretion is a must.

My .02

F.