This page is a working list, not an algorithm. None of the items below is, on its own, proof that something is wrong. People are odd in benign ways all the time. The point is to recognise patterns. Two or three of these together is when to slow the booking down or walk away; three or four is when the threshold for the reporting-routes page is met.
The structure mirrors the order you'll typically meet a tutor: profile, then messages, then payment, then lessons.
Red flags in a tutor's profile
Photos that look stock or AI-generated. A reverse image search, dragging the image into Google Images, takes ten seconds. Stock photos aren't always sinister, and some tutors use them out of privacy preference. But a stock photo paired with vague qualifications is a poor combination.
Vague claims about employment. "Worked at a top London school" is unverifiable. "Taught GCSE Maths at [named school] 2018 to 2022" is. The first is a soft signal; the second is a checkable claim. Lean on tutors who write the second.
Qualifications without specifics. "Cambridge graduate" with no subject, college, or year. "Music teacher" with no grade-awarding body. Real qualifications come with specifics; vague claims usually hide nothing in particular, but sometimes hide something material.
Listed everywhere, very recent. A profile that has appeared on five platforms in three months, same blurb but a different name on each, is unusual. Pasting the first sentence of the bio into Google in quotation marks sometimes turns up duplicates.
No reviews and no offer of references. Brand-new tutors exist, and the first family always takes the leap. But a brand-new tutor who can't supply parent references and pushes back on a trial session is a different proposition.
Reviews that all look the same. Five-star reviews posted close together, similar phrasing, similar grammar. Often a sign of asked-for reviews rather than fabricated ones, but worth a closer look.
Red flags in pre-booking communications
Pressure to pay before lessons begin. A trial session paid for in advance is normal. Six lessons paid up front before any lesson has happened is a different thing. Ask why, and listen to the answer.
Pressure to pay off-platform. "Pay me directly, I'll knock 10% off." Sometimes that's a real saving, but it's also the most common way a scam tutor takes a deposit and disappears, and it removes any consumer protection the booking platform offers. On Tutorperch, families pay a one-off £9.99 finder's fee that unlocks the thread so you can share contact details directly; after that, lesson payments happen between you and the tutor, by design. During the booking conversation, before contact is unlocked, keeping communications on-platform is the right call.
Refusing a video call. A ten-minute video call before the first lesson is the lowest-friction way to confirm identity. Refusal isn't proof of anything bad, but it removes the easiest reassurance step you have.
Evasiveness on DBS questions. A tutor with no DBS is fine; it isn't a legal requirement for private tutors. A tutor who claims to have one but won't show it, or who tells you "we don't really do those for private tutors any more", is misleading you. From 21 January 2026 self-employed tutors can apply for an Enhanced DBS through an umbrella body; before that, only Basic checks were available to the self-employed. See run your own DBS check.
Messages at odd hours. A few late-evening messages in a busy week is normal. A pattern of messages at 11pm and later, especially if directed at the child rather than the parent, isn't.
Trying to message the child directly. Before lessons begin, the right channel is parent-to-tutor. A tutor who insists on swapping numbers with a 13-year-old before the first lesson has the wrong instinct.
Red flags around fees
Cash-only with no receipt. Receipts are normal and expected. Cash-only is unusual, and often connected with not declaring income, which is the tutor's HMRC problem rather than yours but still a tone signal.
Demands for a personal account. A self-employed tutor's invoice should come with a UK bank account in their name. Money requested via PayPal Friends & Family, a wire transfer to a different country, gift cards, or any cryptocurrency is a hard stop.
Unusually low rates that come with conditions. "I'll teach for £15/hour but you have to commit to a 20-lesson block paid up front." The rate is the bait and the block is the loss. UK tutor rates start around £20 an hour and run well past £60 for specialist and entrance-exam work; see how much does a tutor cost for the breakdown by level.
Refunds policy missing or hostile. A tutor who can't or won't say what happens if a lesson is cancelled, postponed, or unsatisfactory isn't operating professionally.
Red flags in lesson conduct
Lessons running long without reason. A lesson that consistently runs 15 to 20 minutes over its booked length, especially if it's also drifting off the subject, is worth a check.
Conversation drifting off school. Some chat between adult and child is normal, since rapport is part of teaching. Conversations that shift onto the child's home life, friendships, romantic interests, or appearance, especially repeatedly, aren't.
Tutor wants to be alone with the child. Online, that means asking the parent to leave the room or close the laptop lid on the camera. In person, asking to take the child somewhere else for a "field trip" or "outing", or to meet at a café rather than at home. Either is a hard stop.
Gifts to the child. A small congratulatory gift after results is fine. Recurring gifts, money, or favours from the tutor are a recognised grooming pattern; see NSPCC's grooming guidance.
Secrecy. A tutor asking the child to keep things from a parent, whether a private chat thread or a special "deal" on lessons, is the single clearest grooming sign there is.
Withdrawal in your child. Children who are being made uncomfortable by an adult often go quiet about lessons rather than complaining about them. A child who used to talk about lessons and now doesn't, or who becomes anxious before them, is telling you something even without the words yet.
A note on what these signs are and aren't
Most adults showing one of these signs are not predators. People run late. People prefer cash. People have stock photos because they're privacy-conscious. The list above is a tool for parental judgement, not a checklist that triggers a report. Where it crosses over with the NSPCC's signs of grooming, meaning gifts, secrecy, isolating the child, drifting onto private subjects, and pushing for unsupervised contact, that's where the threshold for action is met, and the reporting-routes page tells you what those routes are.
If you're at the "two or three of these together" stage, stop the lessons. You can pick the conversation up later if it turns out to be nothing. You can't easily undo a lesson that shouldn't have happened.