Most of us have been here for years, but someone messaged me — a very kind, sweet, respectful, and promising person — and asked what some rookie mistakes people make are.

asking a provider about specific sex acts that may or may not be included or available.  They can avoid this by simply asking the provider if their TER profile is up to date with respect to the services offered.   If they ask directly about sex acts, they will most likely be ghosted by the provider, or at the very least, get off to a rough start.

Very few guys when they first look into escorts understand how to insure a provider is legit. They are unaware of TER. They are unaware of the number of scammers that exist. Their little head is doing almost all of the thinking. New Guy (we will call him) sees that ad for a smoking hot vixen and she is, of course, one of the cheaper providers. He reaches out and all seems to go smooth. No screening is even asked, not that he would even know that it's a thing. And yes, of course, she wants a deposit to secure the date. And, many suckers send that cash over because little head has been hard ever since he thought he was going to bang this hottie. And, then, crickets. He never hears from her again.

I was visiting someone I've seen on a few occasions, so I knew the drill.
I was walking down the hallway to her apt. I was feeling high as a kite, totally invincible kinda like they don't make bullets fast enough. I had that hop to my walk.I think I might have been whistling some tune,,, I was just in a good mood.
As always she asked that you don't knock on the door. It'll be slightly open when you get there.
Well, I got to the door and...I KNOCKED. Did the Da da da da da....da da iconic knock
When she opened the door, she looked at me, eyes telling me, "Happy...you know better"....oops

I can't, because of the word, "lately."  Lol

I was with a great gal I'd seen a couple of times before. I never thought to review what her rules were. I was having a great time. She really was a terrific fuck. I went for an oral finish and blew a huge load in her mouth. She immediately started yelling about how I'd forgotten she didn't do CIM and why didn't I let her know?
I apologized  profusely. She gargled.

Agreed to an outcall without a deposit. Paid for parking. Showed up at the hotel. No one there. Left after ten minutes. Five minutes later he called and tried to claim he had been there. He was not.

That truly sucks! You deserve better! I'm sorry that happened to you.

Well, my rookie mistake happened YESTERDAY. And it's a spin-off of this.  

Stay away.  He is wasting your time.  

Having both emails on my regular phone and leaving it open.  No timeout in like 10 seconds of inactivity.🤦🏻‍♂️

before I could see a hooker.

Were you wearing a wool pork pie hat and a plaid sport coat? Yes, yes you were quite the dapper gentleman, I remember it well. And very polite.  

Pre internet we had a trusted lady we would call to see who she had available. It worked well maybe it should return ? Seeing girls back then was getting harder and harder to do to so I bit the bullet and contacted P-411 to " get verified ".  Gina and her crew extracted several pounds of flesh from me to get this done as I have always run my own business ( self employed people always get a harsh lookover ) . As a fresh new p-411 guy with 0 oks I started my search. I found some girl who had more red flags than you can imagine, but I didn't know it. She did have a reference sheet no longer used ( many years ago ) that stated she offered a BBBJ. Her fake pictures looked good and I was hooked. I stupidly set up an meeting at my home residence. She showed up and quickly asked for the cash which I stupidly gave her. Immediately after she received the cash she starting acting weird and and said she didn't feel comfortable. As you can guess she looked nothing like her pictures. End of the day I got 1/3 of my money back and she hit the road happy as hell ! She did log a complaint on me with P-411, thankfully I just told the truth to the p-411 crew and that ended my first real experience in the internet stage of seeing providers.          

Either you have your years mixed up or your internet mixed up. Been getting escorts off the internet since the late 90s. It wasn’t quite prevalent that far back. But it certainly started taking off more by the early 2000s.

Before the internet, it was mainly ads in the free weeklies on the street and the free monthlies inside the strip clubs.

Usenet lists included topics such as alt.sex.prostitution and there non-usenet forums where people could exchange information about opportunities and their reliability, authenticity, safety, etc.. I do not specifically remember anything that could be regarded as "ads" but the information was getting out there.  
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Usenet was just a dent. The print media, mentioned by ed, still dominated (not to be confused with alt.sex.bdsm dominated).

I agree , around 2000 I first started using the internet to look for girls. I also still used phone calling to a special lady for a long time as it worked well for me. I also resisted giving up my info online .  My years might be off but not much for me.

I’ve used a particular agency for years with never a disappointment. Hadn’t been to them (or anyone) for almost two years. I got the itch, went to the site and decided to see the new girl with no reviews. Oops. Not a new girl. Just a new profile. With reason. What a waste of time and money. I might wait another two years for the next one. But I’ll never again Toftt.  
—-later

I love this thread! KK 💥

....in the initial contact information including personal information about my appareance and age etc. Was ghosted twice. I even posted about it here. It was almost exactly a year ago actually. lol