Agreed. My thoughts exactly.
For US sitters, there are 2 checks: ID and background. The ID check verifies to THS a new sitter applicant is a real person with a legitimate ID matching that person. So THS apparently knows the real name of the member but will not share that name with hosts without a court order. How a US court order is enforced in England is above my legal pay grade. What the ID check does not do is verify the member’s address. That probably does not matter because 1) the ID check is a one-time thing which 2) makes sense because many members have no fixed address anyway.
When a sitter sets up their account, they are only asked for their first name. Last name is optional and, from what I’ve seen of profiles, few (any?) members include last names. It’s not clear that the ID verification includes matching the ID to the profile name; there have been reports on this forum that they do not and sitters are free to use a pseudonym. But even if THS ID verifies the profile’s first name, a first name is not much to go on. Imagine the side eye from police or insurers if you report “Suzy … No other identifying details known.”
In the case of dual sitters, the primary member is ID checked. Whether the secondary member undergoes a similarly “rigorous” ID check is not clear. What is clear is that all the ID checks are very basic, not very thorough and held by THS like they’re state secrets.
Likewise, the Criminal Background check is basic, cursory and is not continuously monitored. It verifies the individual has no public criminal record in the US and is not on any s e x offender registry nor any terrorist watchlist. It does not verify the individual has never been arrested unless an arrest resulted in a conviction. Personally, I don’t much worry about criminals using THS as a platform to hunt for victims. Of more concern to me are con artists. The THS criminal check checks nothing related to civil disputes, financial or employment history. So fraudsters are welcomed with open arms. Accounts in this forum and in the news demonstrate that con artists and scammers have had long runs before THS catches up with them and kicks them off the platform.
THS requires just the most basic minimum (cheapest) ID and background checks. Hosts relying on those checks are turning their homes over to nameless strangers who passed a very cursory criminal check. I see very little to no value for me as a host in these theatrics.
And this all begs the question: why does THS require these checks on sitters but not homeowners and only on US sitters? Obviously checks cost money and good business requires spending the absolute minimum your lawyers (or insurance companies) require you to spend. It’s all part of protecting THS from legal liabilities and using their compliance in misleading THS marketing material. It totally makes sense from a business perspective. But members are being deluded if they think any part of it is intended for the protection of members. There might be some very minor member protections as side affects of THS’s legal CYA but they aren’t actually worth spit to members. IMHO.
Quite shocking really, but I suppose all house sitting groups are the same. You have to vet people for yourselves, and read reviews very thoroughly, although some members are convinced that THS vets every single member.
PP always ask me my last name which of course I happily give them. They have my phone number and they ask what area I live in which I also give them. I don’t think I would be hard to find. I give them the name of my very popular retirement community. Making a copy of my license that can be used for fraud does not sit well with me.
If someone were a scammer or such, why not just get a fake ID and give hosts who demand to see one that? Easy.
Identifying who is staying in your home isn’t limited to thwarting scammers.
I lost some valuable jewellery for 6 years-I upset our son by asking if maybe his friends might’ve taken the items at a house gathering one summer…how embarrassing it was for me to finally discover the items in the pocket of a skirt I was about to give to a thrift store- the items fell out of the pocket onto a tiled floor making a tinkling sound, I was folding the skirt up prior to popping into a black rubbish sack. I’d searched everywhere in the house completely forgetting that I’d gone away for 2 nights, the hotel room had no safe so I’d hidden the items in the pocket of a skirt….. that skirt ended up in a wardrobe unused for a few years then folded up in a storage box in the attic and finally moved again for giving away to a thrift store. A pair of diamond stud earrings and a tanzanite and diamond pendant!
Darren - sorry this happened to you. As a HO i would be so angry and feel violated and want SOME sort of response/support from THS. I have Premium, not sure if that will make a difference but I HOPE i never have to find out. If you are interested in tips on finding better sitters, you might check out this discussion topic. New Owner-1st time - terrible sitter
The point was, any host asking for ID from anyone who wants to do something questionable or hide their identity is just a false sense of security.
Once, I hid a work credit card before leaving for vacation. I just couldn’t remember where when I returned. Never found it and it was embarrassing to ask the finance folks for a replacement.
And my point was submitting a “Suzy last-name-unknown, address-unknown” to police, insurers, … strikes me as less than a good idea. You’re correct that a cunning scammer planning well for a mark would probably not be thwarted by my ID check. Having sat through criminal trials, I’m pretty sure it would thwart most criminals and sidestep spur of the moment opportunities. But risk can never be driven zero. Mitigate the risks you can and forget the rest.
SMH. So I trust a sitter with my home and pets but sitter doesn’t trust me not to defraud them using their DL or passport details. Huh?
If they want to give me a copy of their license, I will do the same. It has to go both ways. It’s a risk for a sitter as well as you really don’t know the homeowner. When I first started I encountered a PP that was bipolar and violent. I immediately left before the sit started. Husband had to hold her back. It looked like it was not his first rodeo with this. She was removed from THS.
So true! (10 characters)
WHAT went missing and in what circumstances?
I don’t see a problem asking a host to share their ID. I also don’t see the point. If a sitter has full run of my home, they have access to a lot more about me than an ID is going to give them.
The risks faced by sitters from homeowners are equally faced by homeowners from sitters. However, homeowners face many unshared additional risks from sitters. Whether by accident or intent, hosts cannot damage a sitter’s home. Hosts can’t steal anything from a sitter’s home. Hosts can’t burn down a sitter’s home. The additional risks assumed by homeowners are numerous and deep.
So interesting from our Sitter point of view! We always supply our full names, residential address in Australia, email contact plus photocopies of Driver’s Licences ONCE we have a Sit confirmed. To us it’s a courtesy and ‘business’ etiquette to our Hosts who have invited strangers into their home. We then receive the Host’s full names and Sit address in return, obviously having their contact number from our WhatsApp video interviews. A ‘missing’ item is a horrid situation so we make a point of actually discussing this on our arrival hand-over, emphasising that please contact us if you can’t find something as I/we may have put it somewhere else. 75+ Sits, never an issue.
Horrified and astounded you state this as what you do!
@Maggie8K and @BonnyinBrighton since I am a hider of my own valuables when I leave home and a great forgetter of my new genius hiding place, I’ve started making notes in my phone. I really hope the note section is unlimited 
My mother used to hide things in the hem of curtains. It works a treat, if you still have curtains 