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Author Topic: New escort, needs advice and reassurance  (Read 10645 times)

_Dylan_

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New escort, needs advice and reassurance
« on: 05 July 2007, 12:42:01 pm »
Hello I'm Dylan, through reading this site it appears that it is mainly orientated towards the female escorts, but I hope it's ok to post this query here? as I don't know anyone in the business and I'm begining to worry.

Last week I signed up with an interent escort agency.  I didn't expect anyone to be interested in my services (infact friends & I were laughing about it to some extent), but much to my surprise I received an email request yesterday, to escort a nice lady to a work dinner and dance in a (presumably) up market restraunt in London. 

She made enquiries about my availability and rates.  I informed her that due to be being new to the business my rates would be ?100 an hour (as I gather most other male escorts from this site charge ?150+) but if it was only a two hour booking (as she requested) I would have to charge ?150 to cover my travel costs but I would keep it to ?100 an hour if she required me for more than 2 hours (due to my nerves being shot, I thought I should let her know that I was new to the business - peace of mind for myself if nothing else).

in a nutshell I'm a 24 year old male (although mature for my age, yet young at heart), not by any means un-attractive, I also have a good head on me and I think that I can do this, but I am very worried. 

Are there any real do's and don'ts that should be pointed out?  I have already read the pages on my internet escort site, which relay things that just are common sense, but I'm after information about things that might not be so obvious until you're in the occasion,

would I be correct in thinking many of you were very anxious the first time you went out?
if I did make any terrible mistakes, or the event goes sour, do I refund them?
as this is an event as opposed to a hotel visit, is there anything I should bear in mind?  as there will be colleagues of hers present

and she did make reference to her staying in a hotel in her email, but currently no reference that she requires other services (maybe she's going to see how it goes before suggesting anything else), but if it did come to me providing other services, is there a best way to approach it? as in asking for the money for my extended time up front, or waiting until they have finished with my services before asking for the extra money? 

please could someone provide a short lists of do's & dont's??  I would very much appreciate it

My apologies for the long rambling message, I'm just anxious and after some pointers!!!

Anika Mae

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Re: New escort, needs advice and reassurance
« Reply #1 on: 05 July 2007, 01:02:32 pm »
Firstly, I'd like to see if you've been scammed, since that's usually the case with straight men trying to get into escorting. Sorry.

Agencies should only take money from you as commission for finding you work (work that actually comes through and translates into money). If they want you to pay to be on their books, it's almost certainly a scam. Even if your first month is free, it's a scam. The first booking will be a no-show and the next one (or more) will be booked for a date after you've paid the agency.

http://sw5.info/straightmen.htm

This happens all the time. I even had to stop one of my housemates from giving one of these "agencies" money. If this is what you're experiencing, the only advice you need is about making sure they don't get your money.
« Last Edit: 05 July 2007, 01:19:06 pm by Anika Mae »

_Dylan_

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Re: New escort, needs advice and reassurance
« Reply #2 on: 05 July 2007, 02:27:49 pm »
Thank you Anika, no need to apologise, these are the kind of things that I'm trying to find out. 

You raise a very valid point, there was a charge, ?8.95 but it was only necessary to pay if you needed to reply to a prospective client (so if you want to operate really).  Nonetheless it was a charge that isn't commission orientated, which is very dubious, I have emailed them asking if there are any pointers or advice for first timers, but I only sent that a short while ago and they haven't had the chance to reply yet.   

So I shall see what they say, and what happens, but I won't be holding my breath for anything, (although it would be nice), confound my niavity for already handing them that money! Bbut at least it was a small loss, unlike many other unfortunate people out there (by the sounds of things). 

Do you know of any good ways for me to get in to escorting?   (should this experiment fail)

Thanks again for replying, it's allowing me to look at these things with more clarity and that is most apppreciated!!!
cheers,
Dylan

Anika Mae

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Re: New escort, needs advice and reassurance
« Reply #3 on: 05 July 2007, 06:17:50 pm »
Many years ago, a friend of mine set up a free profile on a site for people looking for someone to have sex with in their area. He received loads on responses! He wasn't able to view or respond to the messages without upgrading his membership, so he did. All the messages were bogus and he didn't receive any more after that.

So yeah, you've been had. At least it was a fairly trivial sum.

There's so little work for straight male escorts, and so many men who'd like to do it. You're unlikely get anywhere unless you're willing to put time and effort into marketing, and even then it's only a bit of extra cash. I don't know how to go about it since the market for female escorts is so different and I get the impression that this is more of a fun thing you'd like to try than something you want to put a lot of work into when it may never pay off.

xw5

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Re: New escort, needs advice and reassurance
« Reply #4 on: 06 July 2007, 11:14:29 am »
Which site was this?

What Anika says is, as ever, right.

There are issues with the main adult work site in the UK, but you can use it for free unless you want to sell things through it or be 'featured' on their listings etc. However as of this morning, there are 6,831 men already offering escorting services to women and the vast majority will never get a booking (from women, anyway..)

What makes me say this? Well, the lovely people at the Working Men Project (a specialist sexual health service in London for male escorts) have seen 823 men over the past few years.

When asked, 76% self-identified as gay, 18% as bisexual, and 5% as straight. (The proportion of the latter two increased over time, so there are indeed more 'straight' male escorts now than a decade ago.)

But 792 (96%) men reported male clients only, 11 (1%) both male and female clients, and just 3 (less than 1%) said they?d had only female clients.

If there were a market of women paying ?150 or even ?100 for social chitchat for an hour, you can bet that the existing escorts would jump at it - when selling to men, ?100 typically involves rather more than that...

Conclusion: the vast majority of clients for male escorts are men. Anyone telling you otherwise is trying to sell you something.



Having said that, there are some female clients out there.

It sounds as if you've only received the one email from the 'client'. Having a second would be a good sign (unless you get charged for that too!)

Yes, it's usual to be nervous. First dates can be anxious times anyway, and here you've got the added expectations that money brings.

Refunds are up to you, but think about what you're being paid for.

'Social' escorting makes up a tiny amount of most escorts' work. But when it happens, unless the client is wanting to show off their wealth rather than their pulling power, it's expected that you will be discreet about what the deal actually is. Most people agree a 'cover story' about how they met etc beforehand.

This is a cash up front game. Always, always, always. There are people who don't do this (male escorts in particular can hope for a tip if they wait for payment) but it only takes one client to do a runner or stop a cheque for the foolishness of this to strike home.
'The Ian formerly known as SW5'. What they said: "Indispensable", "You are our best resource", and (hours later!) "I'm afraid that you're being made redundant..."

Richard

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Re: New escort, needs advice and reassurance
« Reply #5 on: 06 July 2007, 12:01:58 pm »
You can check out the 'competition' by looking at the escort sections of Boyz and QX magazines (both available online in PDFs).

Only if you're secure about your looks, body and genitals, mind.

Fortunately, there are niches out there where you don't need to be a gorgeous young hunk with a 'how big?!?' penis, but most of them are getting paid less than ?150 an hour for sex with men.

_Dylan_

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Re: New escort, needs advice and reassurance
« Reply #6 on: 06 July 2007, 02:57:53 pm »
After following the link Anika Mae kindly posted on the first reply, I became so very skepticle, and I hold that perspective.

Indeed I was fortunate for it being a smaller amount of money lost, I'm reluctnat to give the name away of this site, as I'm fairly sure there was something in the Terms and Conditions which will make me liable for something! but I'll re-read it then publish it later if I can.

Many things didn't tally up about them, only 1 person had viewed my profile, coincidentally the same who requested the meeting (someone within my age range, and an attractive client, I'm guessing to sweeten the deal and encourage me to cough up some money), and that's strange how it was within 7 days of signing up, and again, coincidence that so far they haven't replied to my confirmation (within the time limit they said they would), and not one other person has viewed my profile in this time, and for a website that clearly states and emphasises there's such "a huge demand for male escorts", it seems to contradict this. 

Also the way there is no forum for escorts on this site, I'm guessing this is because if there was a forum, it would be full of posts from unsuccesful victims of this scam.  But if this was legitimate, a forum would have been useful for my original enquire!  And another thing is that it stipulates that you're not supposed to contact the other escorts, indeed you cant even view their profiles (unless you think laterally and create yourself a 2nd fake account for perusing the escorts - which proved beneficial, as I checked out the other male escorts, to see what the competition is and how I should sell myself; many of these male escorts have not signed in for over 5 months, obviously fed up with even bothering, another clue!!!)

The clever swines set you up on a rolling subscription (auto renewal), so unless people are vigilant, they may still be paying for a scam they long since left, I have cancelled mine after only 3 days (although I still remain signed up for the rest of the month as I have paid).  I think my fears of what to expect from meeting a client have been superseded by the fact I fell in to a con!!  For me it was an attempt to bring in a bit (well hopefully considerable) amount of spare cash, as I will be moving overseas to live at the end of the year, but I will stick with the old fashioned approach to acquiring money, robbing post offices(joking!) working a rubbish office job for a bunch of cretins.  Next stop medical research, they pay well!!!

I am still curious about becoming a male escort, but I am hetrosexual, and I'm gonna keep it that way (don't get me wrong, I'm one of the most liberal people in the south west, just comfortbale with who I am) and I would happily go on non-sexual dates with men, but the stats already posteddon't realy count in my favour!!

Thank you all for your comments, you have saved me a lot of time, money and you have sparred me losing all of my dignity and feeling like a right pratt!!!

I sent a reply to my alleged booking today, see below:
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Hello edited name out of here!,

Having done some background research in to this site, I regret to say that I will not be able to attend tomorrow night, if you were one of the few legitimate clients then I do apologise, and if I was not in the position I am now, I would take the risk.

However, the costs of starting up (as I mentioned before I am new to this) are too much to cover if this if it is another illegitimate request. There are certain overheads I had to cover first, and I cannot take the further financial risk, as I need to be sure I can eat for the next month.

Also you did say you'd inform me by the end of yesterday, and I now have no time spare to check for requests after I sign off in a few minutes (yet another of the many suspicious factors surronding all of this - I did not lie in my profile, and that included the part about being intelligent).

I do hope I haven't offended you or let you down, if you are real, but I have serious suspicious you are a ficticious character created by certain individuals (Hello!), who I will be contacting trading standards and the other relevant governing bodies about, unless it's proven to me you are real within the next 5 working days.

Best of luck with your work function tomorrow night...(just in case)

Regards,
Dylan

If you are real, then I'm truly very sorry for the context of this message.  


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It may have been too much, but hey, I've already cancelled my subscrition, what more can they do, at worst I was rude (and paranoid!!)

Thanks again, it's good to know there are good people out there, I wish you all the very best with all you do.

Take care of yourselves and enjoy!

Dylan x

P.S. like said before, if I can name them I will!! I'll scope that out later on (pub becons me now!)

xw5

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Re: New escort, needs advice and reassurance
« Reply #7 on: 11 July 2007, 04:48:15 pm »
Hmm, if you don't tell us who it is, we can't warn others.

The amount is close to what Regal Escorts charge their victims - was it them or has someone else adopted the same basic scam?
'The Ian formerly known as SW5'. What they said: "Indispensable", "You are our best resource", and (hours later!) "I'm afraid that you're being made redundant..."

aging hooker

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Re: New escort, needs advice and reassurance
« Reply #8 on: 12 July 2007, 01:43:42 pm »
You can always contact myself or others here with details of the site and we can post with out naming you if you wish thus making sure at least some other do not get scammed by them.

Beth
xxx