Hi Guys, well old Sweetman has been hit up by some scammers lately. And I'm pissed!  I want to find out the true identity of one particularly nasty cash and dash artist so have been trying to use a Reverse Phone Service.  There are zillions of them!  Who knew?  Zlookup, spokeo, and info tracer are a few.  Either no results, or they could not process my cc numbers!  Have any of you used a Reverse Search service that actually works?

I don't know your details, but ... I do not know which services actually work or are reliable. I am thinking that deliberate scammers have probably taken even basic precautions to hide their numbers and other details no matter what. They are not using the family land line that they've subscribed to for 50 years. A google voice number? Probably linked to a "fake" gmail account. Number spoofing software? Registered using a "fake" name and email. And you might end up finding the real owner of the number, not the users who spoofed it. And so on.  
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If they are hard core hacker thug scammers, they have ways to get back at you worse than you can get back at them. Even an "anonymous" safe email contains hidden info that might provide a clue to an ISP or location or operating system, etc.. Me? I couldn't care less. Hackers? They know how to exploit the hidden info.
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On this holiday weekend, I remind you what they said in 1776: "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” You have lost a small portion of your Fortune to this scammer. Illegitimi non carborundum.  
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Happy Fourth!

but he does bring up a point, it's kind of unlikely that a scammer would be using a phone that could be traced back to her/him, not when they KNOW they are going to be making enemies who are going to want retribution and also since burners, GV numbers et al are so easy to get.

 
I am curious, you are hardly an "easy mark" and I you have stated more than once that you subscribe to the same one ironclad rule that I have mentioned several times here "Never "send" money to an unknown POT SB", so this begs the question, how did this "cash and dash artist" scam you? Was it an "in person" grab the money and run situation, or something online?

 
Ooops, I almost pulled an Imp and forgot to address your actual question, no I do not know which reverse lookup services are both legit and effective. If any one else can actually answer your question, it's a service I too would find helpful from time to time. Not to necessarily to vett POT SB's, but sometimes I would like to know who is on the other side of the line when replying to people in business who might call me out of the blue either wanting to buy or sell something from/to me.

So you skipped over my very first sentence, "I don't know your details, but ... I do not know which services actually work or are reliable." which addressed the actual question, just as you did (we both don't know)?  
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Details: I think sweetman had posted about a threatening email or text, "We know your real name. Send money or else." I think someone else posted about meeting someone he already knew at a restaurant where he paid her up front; upon leaving the restaurant, expecting to go to the hotel, she walked away from him with a "Thanks!" I don't know the details of the scam sweetman is asking for help with.
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But now I will add: contact a licensed professional. A private investigator or similar agent. THEY probably have their favorite reliable sources, even if just one of the many to choose from a google search. They will know from their experience which ones to use. Hence, you'll pay them $75-$100 for a 5-minute effort to find the linked name instead of $4.95 or so for a one-time search or 10x$5 to search using 10 different companies.  Even if they give you a name, it is probably a fake name used to create the phone number / account.  
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Good luck!

A landline is going to be traceable, cellular probably not.

I’ve used whitepages with good results. But obviously GV #s show up as anonymous. Cell phones are spotty. I checked my own cell number and it was inaccurate. I have however used successfully on others.

Your advice now is to spend $75-100 to get nothing in return as opposed to spending five bucks to get the same nothing in return??? No wonder you keep voting for the party of big government.

 
As you just said, "even if they give you a name, it's probably a fake name"  

 
Fuck calling a "licensed professional" as with most things tech related you are MUCH better off calling your local neighborhood 13 year old computer geek.

It is no longer the days of Peter Gunn, Mickey Spillane, or Jim Rockford. Personally, I wouldn't expect much from a licensed PI without knowing what that State requires to get a license ("Sign the form and pay $500." vs tests, training, criminal background check, ...).  A PI with an office and business cards and website PROBABLY subscribes to one or more full service, full info search services and gets more than the $5 one-time limited search result ("Now that we gave you a name for $5, if you would like the FULL report, send in another $50." The Pro PI is already getting all of that.).  
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For sweetman, it would be a matter of his peace of mind, IF his mind works that way. Pay $75-100 to a PRO and know that the answer is the best available answer and be over with it in one day.  Nickel and diming your way to the same non-answer could just drag out the disappointment which might not resolve at all if "I wonder if I did that search correclty? Maybe I'll try one more time.".
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The local 13 yo geek isn't a bad idea, but he'd still have to charge for all the fee based searches that he would make use of for sweetman and it would take a while.  I'd go with a reputable pro.

I can't tell the entire story, but what I'm about to say is completely true, if slightly incomplete.  Yes, I had posted recently about a guy trying to extort money from me.  No big deal, I wasted some of his time just for fun and then ghosted.  The reason I was looking for a reverse phone service is as follows.  A week ago I had a BCD date scheduled with a PYT I met on SA.  Her profile said she was 19yo.  We exchanged messages on SA and then moved to text.  We agreed on a time, place and allowance.  She showed up, looking cute, very calm and collected, gave me a big hug and said "can I have my allowance first." She claimed to have been cheated in the past.  I figured what the hell, it's only $200.  I gave it to her, she sat on my lap, and within a few minutes there came a loud banging on the door!  I opened it to find myself confronted by a large AA woman screaming, "Where's my niece, she's only 14 fucking years old, I'm calling the police". She grabbed the girl and they split.  I split too, very shaken and scared!  I immediately sent SA a suspected underage report and within hours her profile was gone from the site. The girl sent me a text saying "I'm so sorry I didn't know my Aunty was following me."  Later at home I kept waiting for cops to come knocking on my door.  A week has passed and that never happened.  BUT:  my good buddy who is also a SD informed me that her profile is back up, identical in every way except with a slight change of screen name. I can't see it so she must have blocked me.  The only possibilities I can think of is that either she really is 14 and I have reason to be concerned, or she and the "Aunty" are just working a cash and dash scam, though she only got $200 from me.  Seems like slim pickings for a scammer.  I figured doing a reverse search on her phone number might give me actual info about the identity of the girl, or her "Aunty".  I have alerted SA once again that I think this person is either underage or a scammer.  They have not removed her new profile this time.  My buddy thinks I have no reason to be concerned, since she must have proven to SA that she is in fact 18+ to get reinstated.  I'm not so sure.  

Sorry to hear that sweetman. I guess the odds caught up with you. Just be thankful it wasn’t some 6’ 5” overgrown guerrilla looking to dismember you because she was his sister, daughter, or girlfriend. A that for $200 seems like a lot of work. You said it was incomplete, so did they get more than just the cash?

In this case, a reverse number program is going to net you zero. They most likely used a GV # or a burner phone.

Thankful your in one piece. Be a lover not a fighter! Lol

I agree with your sentiment, I'm mos def a lover, not a fighter!  They did not get more than the $200 cash which is a trivial amount, I could care less.  And I am grateful the situation wasn't worse.  Nor am I seeking to punish them or get retribution. What I am concerned about is trying to get some sort of proof that this girl was not underage.  She didn't look it, but we all know how unreliable looks can be.  What they took from me is my peace of mind.  There's a chance that the girl really is underage, the Aunty is in fact looking out for her safety, and they will actually report a suspected predator (me) to the cops. That's a sort of trouble I seriously don't want.  And if that's true, then they are not actually premeditated scammers, they are a family with an out of control unruly teenager. They would not be using any means to conceal their phone numbers.  That's why a reverse search could help me determine which scenario is more likely.  Are they scammers or was she really underage?  I gotta wonder if SA does anything at all to verify the age of a girl/woman who joins the site.  Do any of you know?

It's a variation of a scam that started way back in the streetwalker days and in more recent days was commonly used on BP. Sorry this happened to you, but these scammers are almost always lowlifes who really are only interested in the lousy couple of hundred bucks they get from each victim. The chances of her "Aunt" actually reporting you to LE or her even being her Aunt are remote.  

 
As for your recourse, I would most definitely notify SA Admin so they can red flag her account and her profile which will make it a bit tougher for her to create new accounts in the future. I don't honestly know if SA makes the younger SB's prove their age or not, but I do know that once a profile has been flagged SA does have at least some safeguards in effect, similar to the guys that get booted off the site, that make it MUCH harder for these scammers to create new profiles.

 
I know it's tough to understand why someone would go through so much work for a lousy two hundred bucks, especially when a cute girl can make so much more by actually getting a bunch of SD's who see her on a regular basis, but I guess in her mind she'd rather be a thief than a ho. Go figure. There used to be hundreds and hundreds of these kind of ROB reviews on TER before FOSTA/SESTA. I know you can't review her, but you can do the next best thing and make SA aware of her scam. SA will do everything in their power to keep rip offs like her off the site as it's THEIR reputation that takes a hit every time something like this happens.

 
One question for you. WHY in the fuck did you answer the door without preparing yourself for this. I am sorry, maybe it's from growing up on the wrong side of the tracks, but I would NEVER just open the door in the situation you found yourself in. I grew up with pimps, hookers, junkies and dealers being a part of my life, I don't need to pre plan a game plan for this type of situation, it's just natural for me after all these decades, but for the rest of you, you really should plan ahead for these types of eventualities so you don't get caught flat footed when the time comes. I think everyone here should have an idea of what to do if faced with the situation you found yourself in. Your response of course should be consistent with your personality of course. I am much more the type to be confrontational, and to answer the door with gun in hand. (It also helps to live in Texas where I am within my legal rights to do so), your personality might not be the type to confront a would be robber, so keep that in mind too. In hindsight you might even conclude that there is nothing you would have done differently, but it is something that EVERYONE who does this needs to at least think about BEFORE it happens to you.

 
I know your biggest question is if you have anything to worry about going forward, and I can assure you that It's VERY unlikely that anything she told you is the truth and your chances of ever hearing from either of them are extremely remote. BTW were you in your RV at the time?

 

It's always a lot easier to think things through before or after the fact but human brains often go a little bit haywire in the heat of the moment.  Athletes, pilots, and others whose actual work on-the-clock is high stress and high pressure train all the time to make sure that their brain doesn't short circuit what should be the correct reaction to a new situation. A lot of quick response to sudden stress is reflex and those reflexes can be trained.  Growing up in a situation like GaG describes can  help to train those reflexes from an early age.  I guess if you increase your hobbying, that will be good preparation for the occasional date that goes wrong.
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"The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley." - Robert Burns (a notorious womanizer of his day, before it was necessary to be a hobbyist)

Yes, I was in my RV at the time. Even though my own upbringing was very sheltered, and I abhor confrontation and violence, I believe fervently that every man has a right to defend himself and the people under his protection, in his his home or his vehicle.  I own firearms and am quite competent with them.  I have a concealed carry permit.  

I did not have a firearm in the RV with me at the time.  Thinking back, I'm just as glad that I did not.  I suppose if the intruder had been intent on harming me rather than just taking the girl away I might wish I'd been armed.  I am always armed at home.  Now I need to reexamine my decision about whether to also be armed when I go out dating.  

Also, while I'd like to believe that SA has a vested interest in keeping underage girls off the site, I'm not at all sure they make any real attempt to keep them off.  I have reported nearly every aspect of this encounter to SA admin and been assured their fraud team is investigating.  but a few days after the incident, she popped right back up with the same damn profile, just a different screen name.  Did she convince them she is 18+?  I'd love to know that!  Did SA perform any due diligence whatsoever before allowing this girl back on their site?  Their credibility with me sure has suffered a big hit, at least for now!

Best remedy for this is to find some nice young thing and have a good time! If that doesn’t get your mind trending back to the good old days, do it again and again until it does. 😝

In fact, I've already done as you suggest 4 times with 4 very sweet very young honeys.  It has eased my mind considerably!  

I have had a fake, unpaid SB profile on SA for about two years. I leave it deactivated most of the time, but every 4 to 6 weeks I  turn it back on and use it for research on local SD profiles and their offers. I have been messaged by dozens of SD's and have replied to a few, even granted access to "my" private pics. The profile says I'm 19 (now 20), blond, slim, and a virgin.  (The type of messages I get about THAT are a post for another time).  
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In all that time I've had this profile, I've never been asked to verify "my" age. The only verification was to respond to the email verify request.  
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I expect that age verification only happens on premium accounts, that use one or more of the trusted verification options (facebook, LinkedIn, etc.).  
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Life is good.
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The Cat

of continuing research on what the competition is doing.  I would not have thought of that.  I'm not suggesting anything here, but another bonus is if you ever do decide to "switch sides", you have everything you need to get started already in place, even phony pics like a lot of the girls have.  LOL