While the LE/CL agreement of a couple of months ago has made using CL even more of a danger in my opinion, providers still continue to advertise there. I'm not going to come out and encourage anyone to use CL because I have my suspicions that we have yet to see exactly what LE and CL agreed to behind closed doors. Still, many of us, myself included, continue to use CL as a resource when looking for the next provider. I've been screwed over more times than I can count but I've also met some gems in the process.

Those of us with the spirit and balls to TOFTT for the greater good, probably have learned a thing or two about how to sift through the BS and find real and honest providers. Anyway, I thought we could pool our knowledge to come up with a list of things to do and NOT to do when using CL:

1. The most important thing to remember is that if it looks too good to be true then it almost certainly is. When you see an ad with some stunning model type offering a PSE for a hundred bucks, steer clear or suffer the consequences.

2. Search the phone number - I've noticed that many of the scammers change their ads repeatedly and even change the photos to a completely different girl. I've also noticed that many try to make it difficult to search the phone number by placing symbols like "*****212*****" so that you can't just cut and paste the number and search for it in the CL search engine. To get around this, try just searching for the last four digits of the phone number and seeing what comes up. I try and stay away from people that try hiding their phone number as they often do it to specifically trick you although it can sometimes just be a genuine way for them to avoid being flagged for posting too many ads. One thing I still haven't figured out is how to search the phone number when it is written out (eg) two-one-two-four-seven-three...
If you don't get any hits when you search the phone number you can also try entering it into the NR search engine to see if anything comes up and use Google as well.

3. Checking photos - This is difficult to do but I've spent some time searching CL from other cities and made mental notes of which photos spring up in multiple cities...some of these photos come up all over the country. Another thing you can try which occasionally helps is to copy the text of the ad and paste it into Google to see if the same ad has been published elsewhere.

4. Picking up the phone - This doesn't only apply to CL ads but to any situation where you are calling someone without any reviews. I find you can tell a lot about their personality just be speaking with them. If they don't sound like the real deal on the phone forget about it.

Finally, those of you who don't want to be disappointed should visit girls that are reviewed. If you do decide to TOFTT make sure to write a review so that the rest of us can avoid the hassle and disappointment. Anyone else have some pointers?