Parenting: Beware! (New) Parent Scam Alert!

Some of the scams that new parents fall into are:

Photo scams — starting IN the hospital. Many hospitals have photographers who take first photos of new babies and then offer to sell them to the parents. Parents find it hard to turn down baby’s first photo. Photographers know it and capitalize on that.

Nanny scams — nannies and nanny agencies can be life savers. They can also be predators of desperate, new parents. Many nanny agencies charge a fee — usually ten to fifteen percent of a nanny’s yearly salary, whether or not the nanny works out with the family. The guarantee that they offer is if the nanny doesn’t work out, the family may not get a refund of the fee, but may hire another nanny from the same agency. However, at that point, the agency does not have motivation to get the family a new nanny since the fee has already been captured.

While not necessarily “new”, many parents who’s children are labeled “gifted” by outside organizations, fall prey to courses, tests and tutors that are offered at a fee for these students that have been deemed to be brighter than their peers. Gifted student programs have become an industry, and parents are their market.