Prohibited Services Guidelines

To maintain a safe and trustworthy marketplace, we do not allow listings for certain kinds of services. We encourage you to review our guidelines to ensure your service offerings align with our platform's focus on legitimate business-to-consumer transactions.

Note

OfferUp may remove content that violates any of our guidelines, policies, or terms at any time. For more information, please see our Terms of Service.


The following are examples of prohibited services and listing practices that are not allowed on our platform. This list is subject to change at any time. 

Adult services

  • Dating and escort services
  • Massage
  • Sexually-oriented entertainment (dancers, gentlemen's clubs, etc.)

Animal and pet services

  • Veterinary services
  • Pet adoption services
  • Breeding services
  • Pet boarding or daycare
  • Pet sitting
  • Pet walking

Automotive services

  • Vehicle sales and leasing

Business services

  • Affiliate or referral services

Commerce services

  • Payday loans
  • Wire transfers
  • Pawn shops

Employment services

  • Job seeker services (resume preparation, recruiting, etc.)
  • Professional coaching

Family services

  • Childcare and daycare
  • Babysitting
  • Home health care
  • Elder care
  • Retirement and nursing homes
  • Family planning services
  • Counseling services
  • Family law
  • Tax preparation

Food services

  • Meal delivery
  • Homemade food preparation
  • Dietitian services
  • Restaurants
  • Specialty food stores (bakeries, butcher shops, etc.)

General 

  • Any service involving any of the current OfferUp Prohibited Items
  • Non-service or misclassified listings
  • Service listings that are not for service offerings, such as personal manifestos, jobs, items for sale, or general announcements
  • Service listings that are seeking services rather than offering them (e.g., "I’m looking for a plumber" instead of "plumbing services offered")
  • Services offered outside of the United States of America
  • Service listings that use photos or images that are not directly representative of the service being offered or that violate OfferUp policies
  • Service listings that include spam content
  • Service listings containing random characters, repetitive text, or excessive use of symbols (e.g., "$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$")
  • Service listings that have misleading titles or descriptions

Illegal or dangerous services

  • Services that directly or indirectly promote, facilitate, or engage in illegal or harmful activity
  • Services that are identified as scams or fraudulent activities by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or other regulatory bodies
  • Service listings that contain offensive, discriminatory, or hateful content, including hate speech, racial slurs, or religious slurs
  • Services that explicitly or implicitly discriminate against individuals based on race, gender, age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disability, or any other protected characteristic
  • Services that impose discriminatory requirements or preferences based on protected characteristics
  • Service listings that imply or state that they only serve a specific protected group

Personal services

  • Wellness
  • Medical and health
  • Rehab and physical therapy
  • Addiction treatment
  • Psychiatric and counseling

Politics or activism 

  • Lobbying

Privacy 

  • Service listings that display personal contact information (phone numbers, email addresses, or physical addresses), including in the photos, title, or description

Real estate services

  • Real estate agents and agencies
  • Brokerage services
  • Financing and mortgage services
  • Appraisals

School and education services

  • Technical or trade schools and apprenticeships
  • Online learning courses
  • Workshops and classes
  • Training, licensing, and certification programs

Sports and fitness services

  • Agents and agency services

Maintaining a safe marketplace

Our team works hard to ensure a safe marketplace by:

  • Removing listings and taking action on accounts that violate our policies
  • Cooperating with law enforcement investigations
  • Continuously updating our platform to enhance trust and safety

Non-compliance

We may remove listings that violate our guidelines, policies, or terms at any time. We also reserve the right to block or terminate user accounts at our discretion.

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