Safety centre
Look after
each other
Sex work is legal in New Zealand and has been since 2003. That means you can screen openly, you can say no, and you can call the police without being arrested yourself. Most of this page is just making use of that.
Nothing here is legal advice and none of it is a rulebook. It's what experienced workers and decent clients already do. Take what's useful.
In danger right now? Call 111.
Police, ambulance, fire. Sex work is legal here - reporting a violent client, a robbery, a stalker or a rape does not put you at risk of prosecution for your work. If you'd rather not speak, ring 111, ask for Police, then press 55 when prompted: it flags a silent emergency to the operator.
Not an emergency but something happened? Police non-emergency is 105. NZPC will support you through a report, or take the information without one.
Safer sex, every time
Condom use is the norm in New Zealand sex work, and it's the law. Under the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 both the worker and the client must take reasonable steps to use a condom or other barrier for oral, vaginal or anal sex - a client who pressures someone to go without, or removes one without consent, is committing an offence.
Listings here may not advertise or imply service without a condom, and we remove ones that do. NZPC provides free condoms, free sexual-health clinics and confidential advice, for workers and clients alike.
NZPC exists, it's free, and it's actually good
The New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective is run by sex workers, for sex workers. Free condoms and lube, free sexual health clinics, legal information, help with a police report or a bad client, and someone to talk to who won't tell you to get a different job. They're confidential and they're not going to lecture you. Offices in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, plus phone and email everywhere else.
They also keep an "ugly mugs" list - reports of dangerous clients, shared between workers. If something happens to you, telling them protects the next person even if you never go to the police.
nzpc.org.nzScreening isn't rude
A client who's genuinely booking will not mind answering a question. A client who kicks up a fuss about screening has told you everything you need to know, for free, before you were in a room with him. That's the whole point.
Screen before you book
- Ring them. Two minutes on a call tells you more than an hour of texting - tone, sobriety, whether they can hold a normal conversation.
- Ask for a name and a workplace, or a reference from another worker they've seen. You're not doing a background check; you're seeing whether they'll give you something real.
- Google the number. Take the number, put it in a search box. Bad clients leave trails on forums and worker boards.
- Deposits filter. Someone who won't send $50 to hold a booking was probably never going to turn up.
- A first booking is not the time for outcall to an unfamiliar address, or a hotel you don't know, or a late night with no one expecting you back.
Have a check-in, every time
A buddy system is one person who knows where you are and when you're due out. It costs you two texts.
- Before: send your buddy the address, the client's name and number, the start and finish time.
- After: text "out" when you leave. Agree what happens if you don't - a call, then a knock, then 111. Say it out loud beforehand so nobody hesitates.
- A missed check-in should be treated as real, not as "she probably just forgot". Ten minutes late, ring.
- No buddy free? Set an alarm on your phone for your finish time. It won't call for help, but it will stop you losing track.
- Working from home or a hotel, keep the exit behind you and your bag, phone and keys between you and the door.
Deposits, money, and getting paid
- Money up front, at the start, before anything. Every experienced worker will tell you the same thing.
- Count it. It's not awkward. It's ten seconds and it's your income.
- Don't leave cash where you can't see it and don't leave it in a bag by the door.
- Deposits: a small one is a filter, a large one is a target for scammers pretending to be you. Keep them modest and keep the method boring.
- Nobody legitimate needs your bank login, your ID, or a "verification fee" to book you.
Your rights, briefly
Under the Prostitution Reform Act 2003, you can refuse any client, any act, at any point - including after money has changed hands and including halfway through. Consent given earlier is not consent now. Nobody can contract you out of that: not a manager, not a brothel, not a booking. Safer sex isn't a preference either, it's the law, and a client who "forgets" a condom is committing an offence.
The law, in plain EnglishYour listing gives things away. Check it.
Photos: strip the metadata (we do this for you on upload, but do it anywhere else you post). Watch for a house number, a street sign, a letterbox, a school uniform in a wardrobe mirror, a reflection in a window at night.
Never use a photo that's also on a Facebook or Instagram account in your legal name. Reverse image search is one click and takes no skill.
A work phone that isn't your personal number, and isn't linked to your real accounts, is the single best fifty dollars you'll spend.
Suburb, not address. Always. The address goes out when the booking is confirmed, not before.
Be the easy booking
The good ones are busy and they choose. Being straightforward isn't just polite - it's what gets you seen, and seen again.
How to book without being a headache
- Answer the screening questions. She isn't being suspicious of you specifically. She's doing the thing that keeps her alive, and it takes you ninety seconds.
- Text like a person. Name, when, how long, which service. Not "hey" at 2am, not twenty messages, not a haggle.
- The rate is the rate. Asking for a discount is asking her to value herself less, and it marks you as the sort who'll push at other things too.
- Turn up on time, clean, and sober enough to consent. Shower before, not on arrival.
- Cash up front, correct, in an envelope or on the table. Don't make her ask.
Lines that aren't negotiable
- Condoms. Not optional, not "just the tip", not for extra money. It is a criminal offence in New Zealand to fail to take reasonable steps for safer sex - for you as well as her. Removing one during is a serious sexual offence.
- The menu is the menu. Anything not agreed beforehand is a no, and a no during is a full stop, not an opening bid.
- She can stop at any time, including after you've paid. That's the law, and it's also just how consent works.
- Don't photograph or record anything. Not her, not the room, not the street. Ever.
- Don't turn up early, don't linger, don't come back unannounced, don't look for her real name.
If something feels off, you're allowed to leave
If a worker seems frightened, seems younger than her listing says, seems drugged, or someone else is answering for her and holding the money - leave. Don't try to rescue anyone, don't confront the third party, and don't pay for a story. Get out, then tell us or call 111. You will not be in trouble for reporting. You will be the reason it stopped.
Scams and time-wasters
Every directory has them, including this one - we catch what we can before it's live, and we won't pretend we catch all of it. Here's what to look for.
Photos that are too good
Model-perfect, studio-lit, no consistency between shots, no face or the same face at three different ages. Right-click, search the image. If it's on a stock site or an OnlyFans in another country, it's stolen.
Deposit-first, always
A real worker might ask for a modest deposit. A scammer needs it, insists on it, and the amount climbs. Gift cards, Steam codes, "send it as a friend" - that's not a deposit, that's the whole plan.
The address that never arrives
Deposit paid, then a delay, then a reason, then a second payment to "confirm". There is no booking. Stop at the second ask, every time.
Rate haggling and the endless chat
Forty messages, no booking, questions getting more specific and less relevant. He's not a client. Charge for your time or stop replying - you owe a stranger nothing.
Overpayment "by mistake"
He sends too much, then needs the difference back urgently. The original payment reverses days later and you're out both. Never refund an overpayment until the first one has properly cleared.
The fake booking agent
"I represent a client, I need your ID / bank details / a fee to verify you." No such job exists. Nobody needs your documents to book you, and Private Encounters will never ask for a payment to unlock, verify, or boost anything by email or DM.
What our badge does and doesn't prove
Being straight about the limits of our own product is worth more to you than a bigger claim would be.
It does prove
- A real person sent us a real government ID.
- That person is 18 or over. We check the date of birth on the document, every time.
- The person in the photos is the person on the ID - we match a selfie against it.
- The listing has been read and the photos looked at by a human before going live.
It does not prove
- That she is safe to be alone with, or that he is. An ID is not a character reference.
- That the photos are current. Verified at signup isn't verified this morning.
- That the account is still being used by the same person today. Accounts get sold, shared and taken over.
- That the service, the rate, or the availability described is accurate.
- That nobody else is standing behind her taking the money. Coercion doesn't show up on a driver licence.
So: a verified badge is a reason to worry less, not a reason to stop screening. Keep doing the things on this page either way.
Seen something wrong here?
Stolen photos, a scam, a listing that doesn't smell right - tell us and a human reads it. Anything involving someone under 18 or anyone who isn't there by choice goes to the top of the queue immediately, day or night. You don't need an account and you don't have to leave your name.