You're right. At first you can never be sure.. and I would always be safe if I worked as a model. Most of my models, both tickling and photography models, bring escorts for the first shoot. After getting to know each other and developing a friendship, escorts are no longer necessary.
I'm glad she brought somebody with her, but she was still surprised and a bit freaked out. I just don't like the fact that a person would misrepresent themselves like that. This individual is constantly posting messages in the 'Personals' section here (and the chances of finding someone are close to zero), and he comes off as desperate. People like that scare me a little.. because of the desperation you never know what will happen.
The ad has been taken down.
Yes, unfortunately the tickling community undoubtedly has its share of dangerous people just like the world at large. Again, if I were a ticklish woman (there's a stretch, lol), I think I'd have a realy hard time being comfortable as a tickling model anyway. At the very least I'd ask for info about the company first and make sure it was legitimate and had done a lot of work (like MTP Jeff for example) before I showed up somewhere (even with an escort) to be restrained and tickled by someone I didn't even know! And I definitely think that this guy (especially if he's already using craigslist, the home of hookers!) should have just contacted an escort. Still, it doesn't sound like this guy actually did anything all that horrible either--misrepresented himself, yes, but that doesn't mean that he actually threatened anyone or anything like that.