Guides · Safety
Screening clients: a practical checklist
Screening is the habit that keeps independents safe, and it is a habit, not a form. The checklist below is the one experienced providers in Canada and the US describe when asked what they actually do. Take what fits your work and make it routine; the routine is what protects you on the day you are tired or tempted to skip it.
Published November 5, 2026. Written by the Aurora team. General information, not legal advice.
The first message
What a good first message contains, and what to do when it doesn't.
Your ad told people what to send. A first message that follows it is already a good sign: a name, the duration they want, a day, and the screening information you asked for. A message that ignores all of that is not a client yet. Reply once with what you need, politely and in full. If the second message still avoids it, stop. You are not obliged to keep explaining.
- Asks about services in detail before anything else: decline. Serious clients ask about time, not acts.
- Negotiates the rate: decline. The rate is on the ad.
- Wants to meet in the next hour with no screening: decline. Urgency is the oldest pressure there is.
- Refuses any form of identification but offers a large deposit: decline. Money is not a reference.
- Mentions another provider by name, with a story: decline, and consider telling her.
Verification
Three ways to know who you are meeting. Use at least one.
01
A reference from a provider they have seen
The strongest check. Ask for the provider's name and contact and ask her yourself, briefly: did you see this person, was he as described, would you see him again. Most providers answer within a day and expect the same from you. Keep a list of who has vouched and who has asked.
02
A work identity
An email from a company domain that matches a name you can find, or a profile on a professional network. It ties the person to a life they would not want disturbed, which is the point. A short call from a number that matches, in work hours, settles most doubts.
03
Government ID, seen not kept
A photo of an ID with the number covered, matched against the face on a short video call. Look, confirm, then delete it. You want to know who they are; you do not want to hold a file of other people's documents.
Before and during
The small habits that matter on the day.
- A safety contact who knows where you are, who you are seeing, and when to expect a message. Agree a word that means 'call me now'.
- Incall: meet them at the door, not in the room. Watch how they arrive and whether they came alone. A full name and a sentence about where they came from in the first minute tells you a lot.
- Outcall: the hotel's main number, not the one they gave you, to confirm a guest by that name is in that room. Send the address to your safety contact before you go in.
- Payment first, counted, put away. It is not awkward; it is the custom, and clients who have done this before expect it.
- Your phone charged, unlocked for you, and never in another room. If something is wrong, you leave. The room is replaceable.
Afterwards
Keep the record you would want from someone else.
A short private note after each new client: the name they used, how you verified them, the number they wrote from, and one line on how it went. Repeat clients then take seconds to recognise. When someone behaves badly, the note is what lets you warn another provider precisely, and many cities have a provider-run list for exactly that. Ask the independents you trust in your city where theirs lives.
Store the notes somewhere with a passcode that nobody else uses, and delete entries you no longer need. The people in your notes trusted you with their names, and keeping that trust is part of the work.
Questions
Asked by people new to screening.
- Does Aurora screen clients for me?
- No. Aurora verifies advertisers, not visitors, and it has no messaging in between, so screening stays yours. What Aurora does is keep your contact details under your control and keep public reviews off your name, which removes two of the ways a bad client finds leverage.
- Is it rude to ask a new client for a reference or a work email?
- No. Established clients expect it and are reassured by it; it tells them you are careful with everyone, including about them. The ones who argue with the question are telling you something useful.
- What do I do with the information afterwards?
- Keep what you need to recognise a repeat client and nothing more, somewhere only you can open. Delete what you no longer need. A screening record that leaks is a harm to the client too.
- Should I take a deposit?
- Many independents do, especially for longer bookings and for outcalls, because a deposit is the strongest filter against no-shows. How you take it is up to you; Aurora does not handle deposits or any payment between you and a client, by design.
Next
Advertise with your own contact details on the ad.
Aurora is an ad board for independent companions, operated from Canada. Every advertiser verifies with a government ID, a person reviews every ad, and the people who read it contact you directly. Aurora charges for the ad and nothing else.
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How to write a companion ad that attracts the clients you want and screens out the ones you don't: the first line, what to include, photos that pass verification, and the contact lines that work.
Moving your ad from a classifieds board to Aurora
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