Honestly, I think it’s hard to have good enough discernment to know who to trust with anything right now in the world in general, be it medical care or witchcraft. There are a lot of people who think they know what they are doing, a lot of people who have allowed the fact that technology can provide the answer be an excuse for not actually knowing the material and a lot of people have found you can pretend to be anything online.
I wrote a post about accepting free services from others here on balg a long time ago because it can be harmful in many cases and a lot of that applies to paid work too.
Beyond that you really have to do some research, pay attention and not get into anything that makes you feel uncomfortable. If it feels off, there could be something wrong with the scenario. Going forward in the United States after 2022, we are supposed to also have to report, collect and pay taxes on all money we collect.
This isn’t really that different, since we were always supposed to do that, but if you aren’t doing it most online payment processors are going to cut you off at $600. Like they might be able to scam around and get a zelle, an apple pay, a paypal, a etsy, and a single sale on a whole bunch of sites, but they won’t be to just have a website or ask for payments in the same ways as before.
So you could at least narrow your search down to individuals that not only are spiritual but that are legally following the processes to be selling services in their countries. There are a lot of hoops to jump through to have a federal ein, a state tax id, a sales and use tax license, set up a website and all of that.
I don’t think that should be your only criteria though, as said someone with book smarts can jump through the hoops then and be a business person, not a witch. So You need to get to know the people, ask questions, read about them- like on balg you can go back and read every reply someone ever made publicly.
If they are hiding their profile, there’s a reason. Be it they don’t want contacted, they are a private person or they don’t want the mods to easily sift through their posts to see they are a banned member, there’s a reason-so consider what it is.
I think I’m mostly repeating things I’ve said before at this point, so best of luck. Ultimately take time to listen to your gut, it will steer you fairly well in most cases if you stop long enough to ask it what it thinks 