A homeowner could have a lengthy and quite sordid criminal history and a sitter would never know it. Really easy to hide said fact when you’re not even asked to prove otherwise. Honestly, when it comes to security, you really do have the advantage here. Sitters have zero knowledge of what we’re walking into unless we do an investigation ourselves.
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Hi @LIQ all sitters are required to complete an ID check, however currently the mandatory criminal background checks affect only those registered in the USA
I know all that already, it’s what I was addressing. The point is that all HOs and non-American sitters are considered inherently trustworthy by THS. And that is a double standard. Either everyone should have to undergo these (rather intrusive) background checks or no one should. Because as it stands, American sitters are being treated very differently from everyone else paying the same membership fee. Why? I mean, I know our country is utterly bonkers, but it’s still a questionable policy.
@LIQ The criminal check for US sitters came into effect when there was US investment in THS. Lots of speculation if you read back on some of the Forum threads. And lots of disdain for the concept by many long time members and new as a Social Security number has to be provided.
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I joined at exactly that time! It’s really not cool, to make us feel like we’re not to be trusted until a third party investigates us first… but everyone else is trusted without question. I can’t believe such a policy still exists, to be honest. Definitely a tiered system of “trust” here.
Fortunately, it would be almost impossible in the EU (GDPR and other privacy laws).
To be honest I don’t know about this. From a HO’s perspective, I do view all sitters equally and I do believe that 99% of sitters here are genuine and trustworthy people. From how I see it, Americans have the added advantage of weeding out the 1% by having the ability to add a background check marking in their profile, making it a lot stronger than non-US sitters who can’t add that mark on their profile.
In an ideal world, I wish everyone, HOs and sitters alike, should have the ability to add the background check marking to boost their profile. Obviously that is unrealistic due to how different the vetting process it is for each country, so as it is now US sitters have an inherent advantage over non-US sitters.
Of course, my perspective might be the minority here because I live in a city where I get sitters from all over the world but zero local sitters. And despite the questionable effectiveness of the background check, as some of you her may have pointed out, I’ve still found myself drawn towards US sitters more just for a fact that the extra marking on their profile gives that extra sense of reassurance.
@Xycergy as I was reading through this topic, I couldn’t help but wonder about US sitters having a clean record for US checks, but perhaps a tainted record overseas that can’t be traced. I’m saying this tongue in cheek, of course, as I have no idea if/how overseas transgressions are reported for US check purposes.
We see numerous netflix series and movies where perpetrators keep doing the same naughties in different countries and getting away with it until Interpol puts a whole team of investigators on them for years on end 
I have a sit coming up and the HO asked me if I was available for additional dates, which I am not. She only had one applicant and when she checked his name, a mugshot came up. Also, there was something fishy about his application. The way she described it, I wonder if unsavory types are using THS to get addresses and have time at an address. Remember there was that one HO who reported some sitters applied for a credit card using her address?