Unfortunately, scammers occasionally target childcare providers, especially around enrollment. The good news: most scams follow a few recognizable patterns, and knowing what to look for makes them easy to avoid.

Red flags to watch for

An inquiry is worth a second look if a family:

• Wants to pay tuition in advance, in full, before touring or meeting you
• Pushes to communicate by personal text, email, or social media instead of through Wonderschool
• Offers to pay through Zelle, Venmo, Cash App, or a check rather than Wonderschool’s payment system
• Sends a payment for more than your tuition and asks you to refund the difference
• Is vague about their child’s age, schedule, or start date
• Refuses a phone call, video meeting, or in-person tour
• Uses urgency to push you into a fast decision (“we need to start immediately”)

One of these on its own isn’t proof of a scam — but if you see two or three together, treat the inquiry as suspect.

Common scam patterns

1. The advance-payment scam

A “family” reaches out and immediately offers to pay tuition upfront — sometimes weeks or months — without touring or meeting you. Often they want to move communication off Wonderschool to a personal text or email. They send a payment (usually a check that’s intentionally over the tuition amount) and ask you to refund the difference through a different channel. The original check bounces, and the refund you sent is gone.

How to protect yourself: Accept all payments through Wonderschool’s billing system. Wonderschool processes payments securely and clears them before money hits your account, so a bad check or fraudulent transfer never reaches you. If a family asks to pay you outside of Wonderschool, decline and direct them back to the platform.

2. The off-platform pivot

A family contacts you through Wonderschool but quickly tries to move communication to your personal phone, email, or a social app. Once off-platform, they pressure you to share banking information or accept an unusual payment. Because the conversation isn’t on Wonderschool, there’s no record we can use to help you if something goes wrong.

How to protect yourself: Keep all family communication on Wonderschool’s messaging system until you’ve met the family in person or completed a verified tour. A family insisting on moving off-platform immediately is itself a red flag.

3. The identity / information scam

The “family” doesn’t actually intend to enroll. They’re trying to extract personal or banking information from you, or to trick you into a money transfer. Their child’s information will often be vague or inconsistent, and they’ll avoid any kind of face-to-face contact.

How to protect yourself: Require an in-person or video tour before any financial conversation. Never share your bank account, routing number, or personal financial information directly with a family — all payment routing happens automatically through Wonderschool.

How Wonderschool helps protect you

When you keep enrollment conversations on Wonderschool, our systems can flag suspicious patterns automatically — the same person contacting multiple providers, unusual payment behavior, or accounts that match patterns from past scam reports. We can’t see what happens in personal texts or third-party apps, but on-platform we can act to protect you and other providers.

We also process every payment through secure banking partners, so bad checks, fraudulent cards, and chargeback attempts are caught before money leaves your business.

If you suspect a scam

1. Stop the conversation — don’t send any money, refund any “overpayment,” or share banking information.
2. Report it to Wonderschool Support at support@wonderschool.com with the family’s name, your program, and a brief description of what happened.
3. If money has already been lost, also report to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov.

We investigate every scam report and use the information to protect other providers in the network.