So I’ve got an update for anyone who is interested:
Spoke to credit card company who cancelled the application and put a block on our address so no further applications can be made here. They are investigating.
Spoke to police who said not to make a report but let credit card company investigate.
Spoke to TH who have spoken to the sitters and given them a warning. It’s been recorded on the system and they will “take action” if anything further is reported by other owners.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t make me feel safe as an owner and I’ve decided to cancel my membership. Knowing that there could be other sitters who’ve done illegal things and got a warning because it was only once, doesn’t make me feel very trusting!
It’s a shame because we were consistently 5 star hosts but I won’t use this platform again due to this experience, it’s too risky for us.
Wishing everyone luck and thanks for your support.
Sorry you are now canceling your membership. I disagree with THS about only giving them a warning. They should have been removed. Don’t blame you for canceling. Thanks for the update.
I am shocked that TH only gave them a warning. They committed fraud using your address. That is crazy. And if you cancel your membership, will your neg review of them go away?
Excellent point. Maybe he can just let his profile remain up till his yearly membership ends and then just don’t renew. At least that way some who read her profile will see it.
That is truly disheartening. So now we know fraud is not enough to get someone booted, I wonder what’s next? We are going to have to be even more careful about screening, especially as our sits are usually 30 days or longer and in California we’ve already got “squatter’s’ rights” to contend with. From now on I think I’ll invite previous sitters before listing, which sucks for other sitters but makes me feel slightly less at risk.
This seriously sounds like fraud to me and I would report it to the police and THS admin (appropriate department). They could have been doing all sorts of things using your address and some might be criminal and come back on you. At worst you could find yourself liable to a ton of debts they have run up. There might have been other letters that arrived while they were there with credit cards, loan agreements etc. Call the police. BTW I a speaking from experience of being hacked on FB and someone using my name, dob, email address etc etc. to try to obtain foreign loans. Took me nearly 3 years to sort it all out.
Having read the final outcome I think it is a disgrace that THS didn’t take this further. It was their responsibilty to vet housesitters and check references etc. If we cant trust THS who can we trust. There should be a full investigation by THS into this sitter and lessons to be learnt about their due diligence in accepting people on the platform.
As far as I aware THS don’t check any references, they only verify a sitter’s identity. In the US they also do a police check but are unable to do it in other countries because of data protection legislation.
Have listened to an expert talk on preventing scams and they stated you should always have your credit on a freeze with all 4 places. You only need to lift it if you want to apply for a card or some other credit yourself, then put it back on the freeze.
Yeah. I thought about that when I joined, and when I asked for a couple of outside references. All they had to do was click the link I sent and fill in a box. Heck, you could write your own references, from your own multiple e-mails.
Yes. I have 2 reviews from no-longer-members.
Indeed. It wouldn’t even have stopped them from doing it during the sit – the letter would’ve just sat on hold till the HOs returned and collected the paused mail.
DISGRACE.
Exactly.
What the heck, TH??? @Jenny srsly, they’re not going to boot proven fraudsters??
It is usually illegal in western countries to open mail that is not to you. In the US I believe it is a federal offense. It can usually both be fined and lead to imprisonment.
As I mentioned it was actually the credit card company who told me to open it while I was on the phone to them, reporting that we’d received a letter from their bank addressed to someone who didn’t live here. I told the credit card company that I didn’t want to open it, but they advised that I had to open it to provide them with a reference number as they suspected it was fraudulent. It was only when I opened it that my fears were confirmed.
I wanted to pop back on and confirm that I asked the team to take another look at @Naomi56’s case after she shared feedback last week.
I can totally understand why some of you have raised concerns, as this isn’t a situation that we’d want for any of our members, and based on what I’ve seen I feel that the review will ensure that THS can take the right action. We’re grateful to @Naomi56 for sharing the necessary information to help with the investigation.
Technically true, Garfield, but the sitter committed a felony (wire fraud) by having financial mail / a credit card application sent to a false address in their name (assuming it even WAS their real name.)
Under normal circumstances I suppose the process would have been to simply mark the mail as “return to sender/no such person at this address,” or turn it over to the police, but I’m pretty sure that law enforcement would consider the HO to be “assisting in an investigation” under this situation, I expect they’d be fine to let it be. The HO is not the bad guy here.
The message from the sender, that the sender asked it to be opened, would be what would be freeing, I think.
I needed to say that opening mail would be illegal in most jurisdictions as it seemed to be sort of a general opinion that one can open the mail of others. The answer is no, and the consequences can be big. It is a big issue for the mail services as it is a vital part of the trust in their service.
