New research reveals that parents across the UK are being targeted by increasingly sophisticated scams that intercept private school fee payments—costing families thousands and exposing major gaps in school payment security.

A recent study has found that every independent school surveyed had been targeted by scammers attempting to intercept fee payments within the past two years. The fraud typically involves criminals posing as school staff and sending convincing emails that request parents redirect payments to a different bank account.

When the scam works, the consequences are severe. Parents reported losing an average of £3,200 per incident, with some cases exceeding £10,000—money that is rarely recovered once transferred.

The addition of VAT at 20% to private school fees has made parents more eager to find sensible ways to minimise their financial exposure and this seems to be the driving element in the scams.  One common approach is to ask parents to pay a school year up-front to benefit from a discount on the fees.

Scammers also prey on the fragmented communication systems and traditional payment methods that schools use. Fee reminders sent by email, combined with manual bank transfers, create opportunities for fraudsters to imitate schools with alarming accuracy.  Many schools also acknowledged concerns about the security of their payment systems, suggesting that the sector has been slow to adapt to the growing sophistication of financial scams.

International parents, new to the UK, can be particularly susceptible to such scams as they have a more limited understanding of how the English private school system works.