About Tutor Scams

Attention tutors! Please be aware of a scam that targets private tutors!

You may be contacted by a scammer who saw your announcement on BPN's website, or on another site such as Craigslist. The initial email from the scammer may look like an ordinary inquiry from a parent, but once you respond, you will begin to see some of these red flags:

Red Flags

  1. The tutoring will be short-term, such as one month, meeting 2-3 times a week.  They usually give a reason why it's short-term, such as vacation or work travel. The scammer's goal is to give you a plausible reason why they're paying you up front, which is unusual for tutor arrangements, and also create a situation where you need to act fast. Booking you several times a week creates a lump sum that is large enough to get your attention.

  2. They want to pay the entire fee in advance. They'll ask you to tell them what your total fee is, and they will not question the fees you propose - the more expensive you are, the better for the scammer. They will send you the money in advance, typically in the range of $500-$2000. 

  3. They can't meet with you in person.  These scams are typically run from overseas, so the scammer will usually give you a reason why they are setting up tutoring for their child but they can't personally meet with you. They may say they are traveling, or they live in a foreign country, or they are hearing impaired so all the arrangements must be made in email. They will often mention that tutoring should take place at a library, a cafe, a friend or relative's house, not the student's home. Since many tutors are offering online tutoring now, this makes it easier for an overseas scammer!

  4. They want to pay you with a cashier's check. Occasionally the scam involves payment with Zelle or other online payment methods, but usually they want to send you a paper check. They might say their attorney needs to cut the check, or that they are unfamiliar with online payment systems. They will send a cashier's check from a real bank, so your bank will quickly credit it to your account. However, it will take 2 weeks for the check to work its way through the financial system and eventually be identified as counterfeit. 

  5. The agreement must be made quickly. The scammer will often provide a reason why you need to act quickly. They might say their attorney, who is sending you the check, will be on vacation next week. Or they are leaving in a few days and will be out of contact for a while. They may pester you in a polite way for an immediate response. The scammer is in a hurry to get you to deposit his check before the check is discovered to be counterfeit. You are incentivized to act quickly because of the attractive lump sum.

  6. Poor grammar & punctuation. The scammers usually have Anglo-sounding names to give the impression they are American or British, but their email contains grammatical errors that a native English speaker would not make. For example, mixing up pronouns (using "he" to refer to "my daughter Julie"), random capitalization such as the word "Month" in the middle of a sentence, or odd phrasing such as telling you their daughter is "friendly and clean."

  7. Inconsistencies in names & facts. Scammers send out huge volumes of emails, using fill-in-the-blank boilerplate messages. Sometimes they mix up what they've already told and to whom. This is often the tip-off that makes a tutor suspicious enough to do a little research. Examples: The scammer may tell you the tutoring will commence in 3 weeks and then say in the same email that tutoring will begin "in March" which is 6 months away.  Their email address may not match their name, such as "bethann6b42 [at] gmail.com" but they sign as "James Bridham."  The scammer's name might be different on subsequent emails they send you.  Their student's name or gender might change, even within a single email.

How the Scam Works

  1. Once you and the scammer have agreed on the total amount, the scammer will send you a cashier's check for substantially more than the agreed-upon fee. For example: you told the scammer your total fee is $800 and he sends you a check for $1200. He will give you a reason for the excess, such as the check includes the child's expenses while in the US, or the attorney can't cut a check for a smaller amount.

  2. The scammer will tell you to deposit the cashier's check into your bank account, and once your bank has credited the deposit, he will "trust" you to send him the excess. Sometimes there is a third party you must send the excess to, such as an attorney or a nanny. You may be told to wire the money or send it in gift cards, or via Zelle. 

  3. After a day or two, your bank credits the cashier's check to your account and your balance reflects it. Thinking you have the cash in your account now, you withdraw the excess from your account and send it to the scammer as instructed.

  4. In a week or two, the scammer's check will be found to be counterfeit, and your bank will deduct the amount of the scammer's check from your account. You will be liable for the entire amount. There is no way to recover it.

This type of scam is called a Check Overpayment Scam or Fake Check Scam. See About Check Overpayment Scams for details.

What to do if you receive email from a scammer

  1. Do not respond! If you've already replied, ignore further emails.
  2. If they send you a check, tear it up.
  3. If they used a gmail address, report it to google using this page: https://support.google.com/mail/contact/abuse?hl=en
  4. If they tricked you into sending money, file a report with your local police department. This won't get your money back, but it creates a record so we all can know how often this happens.
  5. You can also report it to the Federal Trade Commission and other government offices on this page: https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-spot-avoid-report-fake-check-scams
  6. Don't take it personally. These scams are often run out of countries that have few economic opportunities. To the scammer, it's just a job that can be done from home on their phone, and the story the scammer tells has been carefully crafted over the years to gain the confidence of unsuspecting people.  This type of scam is very widespread and has been around for decades, targetting not only tutors but also childcare providers, job seekers, renters, and any other situation where someone is offering a service or a product online. See Craigslist's Avoiding Scams for more examples of this and other scams.

Example of a Tutor Scam Email

From: John Conroy johnconroy001 [at] gmail.com
Subject: Re: Math and Science tutoring from a Berkeley PhD (oakland lake merritt / grand)

 

Hi, Thanks for your reply regarding my inquiry.Am John Conroy from UK,my 15 year old Son (Mike) will be coming to U.S for his holiday,and he is interested in having Algebra Maths / English Composition lesson during the holiday.He is a middle school student,very brilliant , sharp and smart little boy.He will be meting you for 1 hour lesson per day(3 times per week) either at you house or any nearest library(Morning or Afternoon).I got a good and responsible nanny that will relocate to your area to take proper care of him and also to always drive him down to the location of the lesson.So please Kindly get back to me the following: 1.Your charges per hour. 2.Total charges for 1 month that he will be taught one hour per day in 3 times a week. Please i may not get back to you on time through mail,this is due to the nature of my job.So mobile contact will be preferable.Waiting to read or hear from you soon. Thanks. John. T:+44 702 405 4527