The scams that target carers, and the clients who spot them first
James Bowdler
2 September, 2026
2 min read
Most people assume the fraud risk in home care points one way, at the family. In the calls our team takes, it mostly points the other way, at carers. Self-employed carers hold a full set of identity documents, they are used to being asked to prove themselves, and they want the work, which is exactly the combination a scammer is looking for.
Why carers are the target
A self-employed carer carries a passport or a right to work share code, an enhanced DBS certificate, a National Insurance number and bank details. They have handed versions of all of that over, legitimately, to several people already. Being asked again does not feel strange.
So a message saying a background check needs redoing before a job can be confirmed lands on someone who has genuinely done that before, who is keen for the work, and who does not want to look difficult.
One carer rang us because something small was off. The number contacting her had an international dialling code she did not recognise.
That number looked just strange to me. I said, I am not calling this number.
She was right, and she rang before she clicked anything. That habit, calling first, is the single most useful thing in this article.
The three patterns we hear most
The fake background check
Someone presenting as a client, or as a client’s relative, contacts a carer directly, usually on WhatsApp. They ask her to complete another background check through a link they send, and there is normally a small fee attached. The tone is friendly and administrative rather than threatening, which is what makes it work.
A carer who called to thank one of our team for warning him had already blocked the sender. He knew the request was wrong because he held a valid, in date enhanced certificate and understood that nobody needed him to buy a second one.
She was a fraud, you know? So thank you so much for informing.
This is not new. Our founder has described to clients an earlier round of scammers who came onto the site and took small verification fees from a handful of carers before the pattern was stopped. It is one reason phone numbers are not published on carer profiles.
Document harvesting
Not every version involves a link. One carer described an interview arranged through a private contact, away from any platform, where she was pressed to hand over her passport and her DBS certificate on the spot. She did. What followed was months of promises about a job that never appeared.
I would not do that anymore. Definitely not doing that again. Not giving anyone any document.
A passport image, a DBS certificate and a mobile number together are enough to open accounts in someone else’s name. It is worth knowing that clients browsing carer profiles see a bio and a work history, not identity documents. If a request for your documents arrives from someone you cannot match to an application, that mismatch is the signal, not the wording of the message.
The certificate that was never the right one
The third pattern is quieter, and in 2026 it is the one we see most. A carer registering for the first time pays a website she found through a search engine, roughly £40, believing she is buying the enhanced check that care work requires. She has almost certainly bought a basic check: a real product, legitimately sold, and no use at all for care.
Another carer had already paid about £84 before learning it was the wrong type, and then faced a further £71 to get the right one.
I did not realise the other one was not an enhanced one. I thought it was. I am a bit upset about that, because I cannot really afford it.
Care work needs an enhanced check with the adult barred list. A self-employed person cannot apply for their own enhanced check directly: it has to be countersigned by an organisation, which is why the legitimate routes are through a platform or through an employer who sponsors the application. The levels and who can apply for what are set out on the official DBS pages on gov.uk, and we explain how the levels and the update service fit together in our guide to enhanced DBS and the update service.
Read the product name before you pay, not after. Our list of self-employed carer documents sets out what you actually need, and the paperwork wall covers why the compliance bill lands on carers rather than on anybody else.
What it costs when it works
The money is the smallest part. A carer who pays for the wrong check loses a week’s profit. A carer who hands over her documents loses months, waiting for the job that was dangled and turning down other work meanwhile.
The lasting cost is caution pointed the wrong way. Carers who have been burned start treating ordinary requests as suspicious and go quiet for a while. Families never see that, but it is part of why a good carer can be registered for a long time and still be hard to reach.
The detection system is other people
Nothing automated catches most of this. What catches it is one side of the marketplace telling us about the other, almost always at some cost to the person telling us.
A client told our team, plainly and without being asked, that a carer he was considering had said she would rather be paid in cash than through the platform, to avoid the fees.
By the way, I prefer cash.
He reported it on principle, and it cost him a candidate he otherwise liked. Another client asked us not to name him as the source, but wanted a similar cash request escalated as far as it needed to go.
A third client withdrew from her search altogether after noticing that an applicant appeared under two different identities.
I do not like the fact that an applicant has two different identities. I have been advised that could be quite serious.
She thanked our team, asked for her account and her information to be deleted, and went to look elsewhere. That is what a well founded instinct costs the person who acts on it.
PrimeCarers checks carers’ identity, right to work and DBS documents, and carers complete our onboarding. What document checks cannot see is intent. Someone who plans to move an arrangement off the platform, or who is presenting one way to us and another way to a client, looks ordinary on paper.
PrimeCarers is an introductory platform and does not provide, manage, supervise or clinically assess care. Clients remain responsible for checking carer documentation, interviewing carers, checking suitability for their specific needs, and agreeing the scope of care directly with the carer.
You can report a concern without being identified as the person who raised it. Carers can too, and should: if a client asks you to run another background check, or to send documents, or to move payment off the platform, tell us straight away so the account can be looked at.
Why “let us do this privately” is a red flag, not a favour
Cash off the platform is usually framed as a saving for both sides. Sometimes that is all it is. But it removes every record that protects the carer: no agreed rate, no agreed hours, no written cancellation terms, no evidence of what was worked when a household later disputes it. One client, let down before, asked us to keep written proof of his new carer’s commitment to 48 hours’ notice. Off the platform there is no written anything.
There is an insurance point too. Work booked through PrimeCarers is covered by PrimeCarers’ insurance. Work arranged outside the platform is not, so a carer taking private cash work needs their own public liability cover for it. Driving is separate again: a carer using their own car for a client needs business use on their motor policy, and hire and reward cover only if they charge for mileage.
PrimeCarers is an introductory platform and does not provide, manage, supervise or clinically assess care. Clients remain responsible for checking carer documentation, interviewing carers, checking suitability for their specific needs, and agreeing the scope of care directly with the carer.
If you are weighing up whether you need your own cover, our guide on insurance for self-employed carers explains where the lines fall.
Six checks that catch nearly all of it
- No genuine client needs you to run a new background check. Clients ask to see the certificate you already hold. They do not commission one through a link.
- A fee is a stop sign. Any request that ends with you paying a small amount to an unfamiliar site deserves a phone call first.
- Match the person to an application. If you cannot find them in your applications or messages, treat the contact as unverified, however plausible the story.
- Keep documents where they belong. Never send an image of your passport, DBS certificate or share code to a private contact, in a chat, or at an interview.
- Bring the conversation back on-platform. A real client exists there too, and will not mind. A fake one will push back.
- Check what you already bought. If you are not certain your certificate is enhanced and covers the adult barred list, check before you pay for anything else.
Families have their own version of this list. If a carer asks to be paid in cash, or does not match the profile you were shown, or anything about their identity does not line up, say so. Our guides to background checks for private carers and what to do when problems arise cover how to raise it, and cameras, cash and trust goes further into the awkward conversations.
What to do next
- If a message feels wrong, do nothing and call. Not clicking is free. Every carer in this article who avoided a loss did so by pausing first.
- Check your certificate type today. Confirm it is enhanced, that it covers the adult barred list, and whether it is on the update service, before you spend money on a replacement.
- Decide now that documents never leave the platform. Make it a rule rather than a judgement call, so you do not have to argue it under pressure at an interview.
- Report the thing that costs you something. The carer you lose, or the booking you give up, is the price of the pattern being spotted. You can ask to stay anonymous.
- If you are a family, keep the arrangement on the record. Agreed rates, agreed notice and a written trail protect the carer as much as they protect you.
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James Bowdler
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