Attention tutors! Please be aware of scams targeting tutors whose announcements appear on this website. Below are examples that tutors have told us about.

Since the BPN website is publicly available on the internet, we cannot prevent unscrupulous people from obtaining your email address from our website and mis-using it. If you'd like us to remove your posting from our website, please send us an email.

Several tutors have told us they had the following experience:

Someone who claims to be from overseas sends an email to the tutor, claiming he wants to line up a tutor for his son/daughter/nephew who will be visiting the US. He asks what the tutor's fee is, and sends several emails to build up trust. He may ask for the tutor's phone number, and there may be a phone conversation. Once a fee is agreed on, the scammer says that he wants to pay in advance for a block of tutoring time, such as an entire month, or every day during the summer. He then sends a cashiers check (or has someone else send it) for an amount that significantly exceeds the agreed-upon fee, by $3000 - $4000 for example. The scammer may explain that his company cannot authorize a check for a smaller amount. Or he may say that someone in the US owes him money, and they are going to repay him by sending it to the tutor. He asks the tutor to deposit the cashier's check, and once it clears the tutor's bank, to send a check for the excess back to him. The cashiers' check is counterfeit, but it has valid routing numbers, etc. and looks real enough to the tutor's bank that the bank does credit it to the tutor's account. Weeks later the check will be discovered to be fake, but by then, the tutor has already sent a large chunk of real money to the scammer.

In one case we heard about, a tutor was mailed a cashier's check for $4000 more than she had asked for. The check, drawn on a Florida bank, was counterfeit - (click here to see more information.) The tutor contacted the police, who told her to tear up the check and not communicate further with him.

Another tutor has told us that she deposited the check, her bank cleared it and credited her account with the funds, and then she wired the excess to the scammer, thinking that the funds were assured. Two weeks later, her bank contacted her with the news that the check was counterfeit, and she had to cover the $4,000 deficit herself.

• Check Overpayment Scams Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
• File a complaint with FTC
• Counterfeit Cashier's Check Scam Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
• File a complaint with IC3
• Avoiding scams and fraud craigslist.org

June 2008 example

from chris_williams121@yahoo.com 

On Jun 23, 2008, at 10:48 AM, chris williams wrote:
Hi,
 I am Mr.Chris i am located,in part of europe,I came across your ad on
the web, that you are a private Pre-algebra, Algebra I, Geometry,
Algebra II, Trigonometry, Math Analysis, Pre-calculus, Calculus, SATs
teacher. Can i know more infrmation about yourself and the amount you
charge for teaching lesson for 12 weeks or above programs,2 hours
teaching each day 5 times in a week, And i'll want you to let me know
if you do teach your lessons per hour? I will be happy if you could
email me a phone number i can reach you so that i'll be able to reach
you on phone. I'll want you to let me know if you can teach a kids
beginner, i have 2 kids Mabel & Scott of 15 &17 years of age, but as a
beginner they are also just interested in learning the basics and i
hope you can accept them as your student? Please let me hear from you
as soon as you receive this mail,so that we make an arrangent on when
to begin lessons.
 Regards,
Chris

February 2008 example

Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 08:48:10 -0800 (PST)
From: <goodentension2@yahoo.com>

Hi,
 
I am Larry Morgan by name i am located,in part of europe I came across
your ad on the web, that you are a private maths teacher. Can i know
more infrmation about yourself and the amount you charge for teaching
lesson for 12 weeks or above programs,2 hours teaching each day 5
times in a weeks,
 
And i'll want you to let me know if you do teach your lessons per
hour? I will be happy if you could email me a phone number i can reach
you so that i'll be able to reach you on phone. I'll want you to let
me know if you can teach a kids beginner, i have 2 kids Mabel & Scott
of 20 & 21 years of age, but as a beginner they are also just
interested in learning the basics and i hope you can accept them as
your student? Please let me hear from you as soon as you receive this
mail,so that we make an arrangent on when to begin lessons.
 
Regards,
Larry Morgan

April 2006 example

Hello,
    I got your email from tutoring services, I would want you to tutor
    my son in French, He is 15 year of age,he is coming to the state
    for summer hoilday, so i would not want him to stay without
    read. so i would want you to get back to me with detail about you
    and how much you charge for 22 days.This is my email address
    willison_ma@yahoo.com
       Mark 

Hello.
    I got your responds and My son is 15 yrs of age and his name is
  Richard wilson, he is in secondary school and in level 10 which is
  year 10, the name of his school is Abbeywood secondary school
  located in abbeywood london se2. He is coming to the States for his
  summer holiday, i wouldn't want him to have fun without studying for
  at lease 2 hours per day. Here is my son and i,when i was sendin
  this email to you.All arrangement of where he will stay is been
  taken care of in the same state with you.The payment will be made
  before my son leave for the state and payment will be for this
  particular period and will be in check. I would ask my company to
  issue the payment to you and When you receive the check,i would want
  you to give me a call (0044)793- 254-5137.tutorial should be monday
  to saturday and for 22 days, excluding sundays. You do the
  calculations and let me know the exact amount so that payment can be
  sent to you. If this is okay with you, i would want you to send me
  the following details Full Name, Mailing address, Phone number and
  Cell phone number that i can contact, i would be waiting to read
  from you asap.  Mark

Good to read from you,
     Not to make payment an issue since am currently not in state and
my son and my cousin also both in europe,i have contacted one of my
cohort who bought some farming equipment of $4,900 from me unpaid to
make the payment available to you on my behalf.
        
      Here are the details needed from you,name to be on check,address
to send the payment to and your phone number.
        
         Once you get the check,i will want you to take it out to cash
immediately or deposit it at your bank which am sure will not take
more than 2-3 days to clear and once it clears,i will provide you my
cousin information which you will transfer the rest money in order to
use that to come back to state and get prepared for the tutorial after
you deduct your tutorial fees.
        
       I will be glad to read from you soon so that i can forward your
name,your address and your phone in order to issue out the payment
soon and get everything done before the 3rd week of oct which is when
i want the tutorial to begin.Thanks and hoping to read from you soon.

Cheers,
James.