Your unlock payment covers the introduction: it connects you with a tutor and opens your conversation. Lessons and lesson payments are arranged directly between you, so they aren't covered by Tutorperch. This page covers the scam shapes worth knowing about and what to do if something goes wrong.
Why it's worth staying in the thread at first
Messages in your Tutorperch conversation run through our safety checks, and every thread has a Report button at the top. Once you know each other, arranging things elsewhere is normal and expected.
What should give you pause is someone pushing to leave the conversation in the first few messages, before you've had any reason to trust them. Rushing is how scams work: the less time you have to think, the better their odds.
What we will never do
Some scammers pose as Tutorperch itself. We've seen fake messages along the lines of "Your account is limited. Verify here to keep messaging." Every message like that is fake. The real rules are short:
We never message you inside a conversation thread. Anything in a thread comes from the other person, not from us.
We never send links asking you to verify your account or keep it active.
We never ask for card details or security codes.
Our emails only come from tutorperch.com addresses.
There's a reliable way to check: anything genuine from us also shows in your Tutorperch inbox when you sign in at tutorperch.com. If it isn't there, it isn't from us.
A polished message with our logo isn't proof of anything either. Scammers copy branding easily.
For parents: paying a tutor
Most tutors take payment per lesson or in blocks, and block bookings with a discount are a normal part of tutoring. How you pay is between you and your tutor.
The scam shape to watch for is timing plus pressure: a push for a large payment before any lesson has taken place, or invented extras like a registration fee or materials fee for lessons that never happen. Action Fraud calls this advance fee fraud.
A few habits that keep you covered:
If you pay a deposit, get what it covers and whether it's refundable in writing first.
Paying by credit card gives you extra legal protection on amounts over £100 (Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act).
Bank transfers are very hard to reverse, so save them for people you've already established are real.
Nobody legitimate asks to be paid in gift cards or cryptocurrency. Treat either request as the end of the conversation.
For tutors: watch which way the money flows
In normal tutoring, money moves one way: from the client to you. Treat any arrangement where money moves from you, whether to a client or to someone else on their behalf, as a scam until proven otherwise.
The most common version is the overpayment scam. A new client, often claiming to be abroad and arranging lessons for a relative, pays more than the agreed amount, then asks you to send the difference back or pass it on to a third party. Days or weeks later the original payment bounces, your bank reclaims the full amount, and the money you sent is gone.
The rules that defeat it:
Never refund an overpayment. A genuine client fixes mistakes through their own bank.
Never accept more than the agreed price.
Treat money as yours only once your bank confirms it has cleared. A cheque can bounce weeks after it appears in your balance.
If you owe a genuine refund, return it the same way the payment arrived, after it has cleared.
Other tells from real cases: your fee is accepted without any discussion, a block of lessons is insisted on before the first one happens, the story involves relocating or a travelling relative, or details change between messages (the child's name, sometimes even the sender's own).
One more: any request to pay a registration fee or a DBS fee to an account sent to you in a message is a scam. Your Tutorperch verification fee is only ever paid inside the site, never by transfer.
If someone claims to be Tutorperch support
Don't follow the link. Open a new tab, type tutorperch.com yourself and sign in. A genuine message from us shows in your Tutorperch inbox; if it isn't there, it isn't from us.
And nobody legitimate, us or your bank, will ever tell you what to say to your bank or press you to move money somewhere "safe".
If you think you've been scammed
Speed matters more than anything else here.
Call your bank straight away by dialling 159. It's the secure short number that connects you to your own bank's fraud team, and it works for nearly every UK current account.
Report it to Action Fraud at actionfraud.police.uk or on 0300 123 2040. In Scotland, report to Police Scotland on 101.
Keep the messages. Don't delete the conversation; it's evidence.
Report the conversation to us with the Report button at the top of the thread, so we can act on the account.
Being caught out is nothing to be embarrassed about. These operations are professional and well-rehearsed. Reporting quickly improves the odds of getting money back, and it protects the next person.
What the identity badge means
Tutors with the identity badge passed an identity check before their profile went live, so the name on the profile matches a real identity document. It confirms who someone is. It doesn't guarantee how a payment arrangement works out, which is why the habits above apply with every tutor, badge or not.