CARELESS

Care.com Pulled Nearly 47,000 Listings Ahead of Probe: WSJ

The investigation alleged that the online marketplace failed to verify caregivers’ licensing claims.

Online childcare marketplace Care.com pulled 72 percent of its listings in the days before a Wall Street Journal report alleged that it had been failing to properly verify caregivers’ licensing claims, The Wall Street Journal reports Sunday. On March 7, a spokesperson for the company told the Journal, Care pulled nearly 47,000 listings from its site—although she claimed that the paper didn’t have a full accounting of the company’s listings, and that they actually only pulled 45 percent. On March 8, the Journal reported that the company hadn’t been properly verifying the licensing status of some caregivers, and that in about nine instances, caregivers who had police records who were listed on Care were later accused of committing crimes while caring for children or elders. Care claims that it warns customers in disclaimers that the company isn’t fully responsible for vetting the listings it posts—although it recently announced that it would conduct “preliminary screening[s]” on new caregivers.