Safety
How to hire safely, and what we do not do
We connect families and caregivers. We do not screen, vet, verify or vouch for anyone — not caregivers, and not the families who post work. That is not a technicality buried in our terms; it is the most important thing on this page, and everything below follows from it.
What we do
Confirm every account’s email
Nobody can publish a profile, post a job, apply or send a message until they have confirmed their email address. It is not identity verification and we will never call it that — it is the check that costs a throwaway account real effort.
Keep conversations on the site
Messages between a family and a caregiver stay here, and neither side has to hand over a personal email or phone number to talk. Messages cannot be edited or deleted by either party, so what was said stays said.
Blocking that actually blocks
Block someone and they cannot message you again, cannot start a new conversation with you, and are not told. It is enforced in our database rather than hidden in the interface, so it holds against someone deliberately working around the site.
Read every report
Reports come to us and to nobody else. The person you report is never told and cannot see what you wrote. A person reads each one — not an automated system.
Reviews that require real work
A review can only be written by someone who booked, completed and paid for a shift through the site — one review per shift. There is no way to leave one otherwise, in either direction. Caregivers review families too.
Publish registry numbers as claims
If a caregiver gives a registry number we publish it so you can look it up with the registry. We do not check it and we never present it as checked.
What we do not do
- We do not run background checks and we do not sell them. Some sites charge families a monthly fee and sell screening in tiers; we do neither.
- We do not verify certificates, registry numbers or references. Anything on a profile is that person’s own statement about themselves.
- We do not choose, match or recommend anybody. Search results are not an endorsement and the order they appear in is not a judgement about quality.
- We are not the employer and we are not a party to what you agree. You hire each other directly and pay each other directly.
- We do not hold your money and we take no percentage of what a caregiver is paid.
Before you let anyone into your home
These are the checks we cannot do for you, in the order worth doing them.
- Meet first, and not at your home. A coffee shop is fine. Use the “meet first” option when you arrange it, so the meeting is unpaid and neither of you has committed to anything.
- Meet again with the person who needs care. How someone is with your mother tells you more than any document.
- Ask to see the certificates themselves — the card, not a claim on a profile. Check the name matches and the date has not passed.
- Look up any registry number with the registry. California’s TrustLine and other state registries will confirm a registration directly. That is the authority; we are not.
- Ask for two references you can telephone, and telephone them. Ask what went wrong once, not just what went well.
- Run your own background check if you want one. You arrange it with a screening company, you pay for it, and the report belongs to you. Ask the caregiver first — consent is required by law, and a reasonable caregiver will expect it.
- Agree the hours and the rate in writing before the first shift. Proposing hours on this site does that for you and locks the rate once accepted.
- Start with a short shift. Four hours tells you a great deal.
If you are the caregiver
You are walking into a stranger’s home. Your safety matters as much as theirs, and far fewer sites say so.
- Meet in public first and tell someone where you are going and when you expect to be back.
- Read the family’s reviews from other caregivers before you apply. If nobody has reviewed them, treat the first shift as an introduction.
- Agree the hours, the rate and the tasks before you start. Once a shift is accepted the rate is locked, so it cannot be cut after the work is done.
- Clock in and out on the site. A timestamp settles a pay dispute; memory does not. Only you can write your hours — the family cannot add them or erase them.
- Never pay a fee to be considered for a job. This site is free for caregivers and always will be. Anybody asking you for money is running a scam.
- Leave if you feel unsafe. No shift is worth it. Then report it.
Scams to walk away from
- Anyone who asks you to move the conversation to another app before you have met.
- Anyone who sends you a cheque for more than the agreed amount and asks you to return the difference. The cheque will bounce after you have sent the money.
- Anyone asking for a deposit, a fee, a gift card or a wire transfer for any reason.
- Anyone who will not meet in person or speak on the telephone before care starts.
- Anyone claiming we have vetted them, cleared them or guaranteed them. We never do, so anyone saying so is lying to you.
If money has already changed hands, report it to your bank and to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov as well as to us. We can remove an account; only they can chase the money.
Reporting something, and emergencies
If anyone is in immediate danger, call 911 first. We are not an emergency service and we cannot reach anybody faster than they can.
For abuse of an older or dependent adult, your state’s Adult Protective Services takes reports directly. For a child, call your state’s child protection line. Those agencies can act in ways we cannot.
To report someone on this site: open the conversation and use Report, or use the support form. Reports go to us alone, the person is never told, and a person reads every one.