Re: "Net Tuteur" asking for ID card/passport, postal address, etc.

Hi, posted a copy of an e-mail from Net Tuteur back in January. Last week, I received the following e-mails from them and I'm still not convinced there isn't something odd here. See copies of e-mails below. I'm a little surprised about being asked by them to remove my post from Scam alerts and assume that the other people who posted have been asked to do this too? Has anyone spoken to this company yet? I spoke to a friend who has been tutoring online for years and she said that she too would be concerned about a company wanting so much information for online tutoring. I thought that I should send this message so that people can make up their own minds.

---

Dear Daveena

In reply to your message posted on http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/scamalerts/index.pl?read=2480, we would like to remind you about what we have written on our mail we sent you on the 29th January:
"pls let us know so that we can contact you when we will launch our company (we are doing our best to launch ASAP but we can't give you an accurate date for the moment) and we will ask you at this moment for all the required information and documents."
We have never asked you to send us any information and documents before our launch. Only once launched, we fix a date for interview and documents and information are required prior to the interview as we want to know who we are interviewing. Indeed, we need to be sure of the profiles we will post on our website. Then, the address is required as we will need to invoice the students on your behalf and as you may know to make an invoice you need an address.

Moreover, you didn't find our trace as our website is under construction which is normal as we have not launched yet so our website can only be under construction.

As you may understand, your message appears on google and will create a bad and wrong reputation to our company and we have been working and are still working hard to launch our activity ASAP. We would really appreciate if you could ask the moderator of the esl website to delete your message so that we can start our business properly.

Thank you in advance for your comprehension.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best regards

Ingrid
Managing Director
Net Tuteur

---

From: daveena@
2013/1/29

Dear Ingrid

Thank-you very much for contacting me. Yes, I am potentially interested in registering with your company. Please can you let me know more about your registration process and when you expect to be up and running?

I currently teach privately and for an online college and most of my students are from Russia. However, I have experience of teaching students from all over the world. I have been teaching for around twelve years and have taught ESL exclusively since 2005. I mainly teach my Russian students in the evenings and do have some daytime schedule slots available. My availability in the evenings could easily change as and when my students finish their studies.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Yours sincerely

Daveena

---

From: "contact@nettuteur.com" <contact@nettuteur.com>
To: daveena@
Sent: Tuesday, 29 January 2013, 12:18
Subject: one-to-one online tutoring sessions

Dear Daveena

We are very interested in your profile seen on eslteachersboard.

We will launch our business in France in a few months. Our company is a website that allows students to take online private tutoring sessions via videoconference (academic support and adults courses) with freelance experienced tutors registered on our website, through our e-learning platform. Once registered, tutors indicate their hourly rate expectation and their schedule as well.

If you are interested in teaching English to French and/or Spanish students, do not hesitate to contact us, we will be delighted to give your more information about our registration process.

We hope to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincerely

Ingrid
MD
Net Tuteur

---

Dear Daveena

We have never said that we will send the invoice by post, the invoice will be made online, there's nothing by post but legally to make an invoice you need an address because as your activity will be declared as a freelance you will need an invoice.

And as I said, we don't require any documents and information before our launch. Once launched, our company will check some information and documents just before the interview and then will post the profiles on our website.

So if you have questions or doubts, you can ask us as directly and we will reply to all your messages.

Best regards

Ingrid
Managing Director
Net Tuteur

---

From: daveena@
2013/8/24

I've been teaching online for several years now both privately and for online language schools and have never had to supply so much personal documentation. It would be understandable if tutors were to be working in person in a country but not online. Also, I find it strange that you are using invoicing by post - again, not usual in online teaching. I put the message on Esl Teachers' Board as your e-mail to me was worrying. I will forward a copy of your e-mail to the site - people can make up their own minds.

Daveena

Re: "Net Tuteur" asking for ID card/passport, postal address, etc.

I have had this email, and been asked for the same info. I was also concerned it's fraud/something similar. I've asked them to give me a call. I'll let you know if they come back to me. How can I verify they are legit do you think? is there any info i could ask for?

Thanks,

Re: "Net Tuteur" asking for ID card/passport, postal address, etc.

Please can you tell us: What is the name of the Russian company?

"Net Tuteur" asking for ID card/passport, postal address, etc.

Hi, I received an e-mail from the above company saying that they'd seen my details on this website and were interested in me applying to become a tutor with them. The e-mail went on to say that their company was not yet ready to begin online tutoring. However, they stated that I would need to provide the following prior to an interview:

I will give you some information regarding our company. To collaborate with us, you will need:
- to be a freelance (or have another legal status) so you can give us your invoicing details and we can invoice French and/or Spanish students on your behalf.
- to upload in your personal account: your criminal records, your diplomas, your CV and ID card/passport and fill in some information such as your personal data: address, ZIP code, country/ levels you'd like to teach/ your schedule, etc.

Please bear in mind that this is prior to having an interview and it seemed to me to be an awful lot of personal information. Probably enough to commit id fraud? Maybe I'm just being overly suspicious. However, I've been teaching online for some years now and I've never been asked for a copy of my id card or passport before. Why is this necessary? Also, I've never been asked to supply this type of information before even being interviewed. I also wondered why they wanted my postal address as this would not be necessary for payment via PayPal.

I did a Google search for the company and couldn't find any trace of them. Has anyone else been approached by them and if so perhaps taken it further? I would be very interested to hear about other people's experiences.