Au pair job

Hello,

I'm 19, I'm French and I search a family to be au pair this summer. I suscribe on many website and this morning I receive a mail from an "host" very interested by me:

'Dear Au pair,
My name is Cruise Alicant, we are a British family looking for aupair to join us in London. We found your profile and we are interested in you. Kindly reply to this email to see my family profile."

His profil seems very normal:
Au pair Job in London, United Kingdom for 1-6 Months provided by British American Family Cruise Alicant

Earliest Starting Date March 2016
Latest Starting Date September 2016
Needs Au Pair for 1-12 Months

2 children in age group of 1-7 Year

Last Action 12 March 2016
Profile added to 0 Hotlist in last 3 weeks
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Contact Information

City : London
State : London
Street Address : Essex Rd, London, UK
Postal Code E12
Primary Telephone Number +13158201203
Secondary Telephone Number +13158201203
Country United Kingdom


Family Information

Family Name Mr Cruise Alicant
Are you a single parent? No, our Family has both Mother and Father
Family Age Group 45-60
Family Nationality British American
What languages are spoken at home? English
Religion/Spiritual Practice Christian
Is Religion important to you? Not Important
Occupation Pastor
How Many People live in your household? 4
Describe your Children (include ages and gender) Our children are fun loving and energetic
Do you have any pets? No
Where do you live? City

Job Requirement

We are looking for Au Pair/Nanny
Earliest Starting Date 2016-03-01
Latest Starting Date 2016-09-01
Duration of Job 1-6 Months
Required Gender Male/Female/Couple
Preferred Nationality Any Nationality
Required Language Skill No Preference
Minimum Desired Experience? No Preference
Level of Education you Require No Preference
Children Age to look after 1-7 Year
Number of Children to take care of 2
Required working hours per week 35 - 40
Per Week Pocket Money 480 GBP
Willing to pay or share travel cost? Yes
Required Age Range No Preference
Smoking is Allowed Not in the house
Have to look after disabled No
Have to take care of Pets No
Required who can swim No
Required who can ride a bike No
Can Attend Language Courses? Yes
Required First Aid Training No
Required who can drive No

Family Description

Dear Au Pair/ Mothers Help,
My name is Cruise Alicant, i am American and my wife name is Marian a British citizen. We are a fun loving and energetic family currently living in New York city but we will be relocating to London soon and we need an aupair/nanny that can take good care of our children with little or no supervision.
We would love to welcome you to our family. Our family consists of myself, my wife, and our two children, Ana aged 7 and Ken aged 5. My wife and I are both Missionary worker. We live in a four bedroom house here in New York, which has a garden. We have a Labrador dog but does not live in the house, the dog lives outside the house so you don't have to worry in case you are not dog friendly or allergic and also we will not be going to UK with the dog.

We are looking for a responsible, kind, fun loving, reliable person with good common sense, who is able to show initiative, proactive, organised, energetic and who enjoys being with kids and is able to be both a friend and a big sister to the kids to join us and help us and be part of the family. We need you to be able to interact and play and chat with the kids and be a friend to them. We need someone who genuinely enjoys being with kids and is part of the family. We need you to be flexible. We have met some lovely ladies and made good friendships with some of our previous mothers helps/Au pair. We would like someone who treats this more than just a job. We look forward to you joining us.

We are a hard working, relaxed friendly family. The kids are used to having mothers help and will happily make friends with you and enjoy your company if you enjoy it as well. It is important for us that you do try to get on with the kids. It shouldn't just be a chore. We will live in Essex Rd on seaside which is a town and seaside resort in London, England which is about an hour by train from London central. We will live 5 minutes walk from local bus stop and it takes a 20 minutes walk to arrive at the local train station and the town center.

We are a hard working, friendly, relaxed family as said earlier. We like spending our time together as a family and you are always welcome to join us. The kids love swimming and going cycling but it's not compulsory you know how to swim. We also have a friendly labrador dog but you don't have to care for the dog because we are living our dog behind here in New York.
As we both work the normal working hours. We do need someone who is flexible.
Usually you will have an early start about 6:30 am. You would be working approximately 40 hours a week from Monday to Friday with weekends off and we hope to pay £12 hourly plus bus ticket worth £67 weekly and we will also provide you with a mobile phone with some inclusive minutes each month and the rest would be your responsibility. We also hope to provide you access to our cars if you have driving experience but not all the time.
The kids will be in school from 9am till 1pm so you will be free during this period and you can attend classes or any other activity of your choice during this period. So, mainly you will be required to start from 6:30 am to 8:30 am and from 1:00 pm to 7:00 pm, we will be home before or by 7am daily so you are off duty the moment we get home.

You will be required to
-get the kids up from bed,
-prepare them for school. The kids must be ready before 8:30am because the school bus will pick them any moment within this time.
-prepare breakfast and help the kids feed themselves if they need help.
-get the children to school on school days, we already have then register in a school not far from our home and it's just 5 minutes from home.
-be able to complete household tasks which mainly involves a general tidy up of the kids room, hoovering, some ironing but just once a while, dishes, prepare
Food but also once a while because my wife do the cooking in the house mainly. We already have a person who irons three times a week and someone to help with cleaning once a week.
-pick up children at 1 pm, welcome kids home in warm manner and discuss about their day
-To give refreshments, food to children, get kids changed, play with kids,
-Help with Homework and get children bathed.
-To prepare and give kids evening meal. You are generally off once parents are home.
On school holidays or when children are at home to be able to spend time with the children, keep them happy and occupied and looked after.
We look forward to welcoming you to our house and hope to hear from you soon.

Do inform us in case you have any objections to this duties and suggesting what we can do about it.
I have not scan my family pictures but i will try to do that soon and send them to you and i will like to know your exact arrival date.
Before we proceed further we will still like you to answer these few questions.
1) What is your Full name ?
2) What is your nationality?
3) How old are you?
4) Have you ever traveled outside your home country before?
5) Have you much experience working with kid’s?
6) Do you smoke?
7) Do you drink?
Do you have brothers and sisters?
9) Do you Drive
10) Do you mind doing light cooking?
11) Can you help with shopping?
12) Can you help with housework
13) Provide us with your mobile phone number
Hope to hear from you soon..

I began to worrying after my aggrement:

We are satisfied with your response and i definitely believe you will be a good companion for our kids. Our main priority is for you to be a friendly and kid loving person and with all i have read of you so far i believe you are.
I will like you to confirm the arrival date better and let me know of that in due time so that i can also plan our schedule ahead to pick you up at the airport when you arrived. Mind you try and choose a weekend arrival so that i can be well available to give you every support necessary.
Once again we hope to pay £12 hourly and for 40 hours weekly will be 480 pounds weekly plus bus ticket worth £67 weekly.
I have decided to offer you a very high salary to enable you pay rent and municipal charges and also have some saving while you work with us because we are offering a live out aupair job as we don't have provision for a live-in accommodation. We can also help you search a shared accommodation through the same estate caretaker that secured our new home and get back to you. So do confirm if a shared flat will be fine for you so that we can ask for its availability from the estate caretaker immediately.
As for your stay duration we hope to sign a 3 months contract with you for a start and extend the contract if we are satisfied with your services and if you are also willing to continue working with our family but it is okay if you wish to sign less duration agreement.
Waiting to read from you.

<removed information that could educate a scammer Tim >... And my responses was very short, he wants I come before watch me on Skype and that in 3 hours... Honestly I thought it was a perverse
But, little by little, he insists a lot on the flat...

I just look on the estate caretaker website and i found a nice cheap apartment listed on the site for rent. The apartment is located very close to our home.
I contacted the estate caretaker and we did make few contacts on the apartment and with the list of prizes given i think one of the cheapest of all we got cost about £93 weekly and that is 372 pounds monthly with all bills inclusive. Rent are expected to be paid in advance. According to the estate caretaker, the apartment he found you is just almost next door to us and i think that is a very good apartment for you. With the description given we understood it's comfortable because we were told it has a bed, Blanket, towels, a wi-fi internet, tv, refrigerator, gas cooker, security lights, security alarms, heater, washing machine and a bathroom.
The fact is that at the moment i can't negotiate any apartment further in advance per se, since we are yet to affirm your consent on it and more so because we understood the issue of accommodation is a first come first serve thing and their is no way we can secure one for you without your full readiness
So do let me know if the prize is okay with you and in case you need any further information on the flat let me know as well so that i can verify more and also connect you with the estate caretaker in charge.
Waiting your immediate reply.

There I asked photos of the family and Skype interview. He send me photos but he absolutely wants I reserve a flat.

Attached are some recent pictures of my family. I will be very happy to do skype with you also but my skype as not been opening since yesterday though i am trying to fix it already and we can have a skype session as soon as it is fixed before your arrival.
We communicated further with the estates caretaker and according to his explanation we understood the flat he discussed of is about few houses away from our home. We were also told that the £93 already includes water, electricity, internet and other minor bills.
Maybe you should contact the letting caretaker yourself for more reliable description of the flat, address, photo and other facilities if you are truly interested in it because according to him he said there are so much demand on the few accommodation available and it could be given out in no time.
The estate caretaker told me that you have to pay the rent deposit in order to secure the apartment and he also told me that there are other tenants interested in renting the room and it is a first come first serve basis and it is the first person to pay the rent become the bonafied tenant of the apartment. So, you have to send the rent deposit to the estate caretaker immediately so that he can secure the apartment for you before someone else pay for it. Inform me as soon as you have secured the apartment so that i can start preparing for your arrival.
Hence, you should contact the estate caretaker immediately for details on the apartment and how to book the apartment before it is let out to another tenant. You can contact the estate caretaker via email [email protected] or ICQ account: 658720315 and here is also a link to view the apartment and it's details online http://cambridge.craigslist.co.uk/apa/5 ... g=en&cc=us
You can also contact the estate caretaker customer service team via the link http://www.craigcheaprentschat.tk
Inform me as soon as you have secured the apartment so that i can start making arrangement on our trip to the UK.
Waiting for your immediate reply.

The story with Skype is very strange and I searched cambridge craiglist on google, and there is only testimony about scams.
This message made me forget my doubts:

Thanks for the response, i could pay for your advance rent deposit in other to secure the room but unfortunately that will not be possible because your rent allowance as been included in your salary as explained in my previous email and the salary will be paid directly into your bank account at the end of every month. Hence, you have to pay the rent deposit to secure the room and this will also prove your commitment and seriousness to work with my family.
So, let me know your decision soon cause the estate caretaker told me that there are other tenants interested in renting the room and it is a first come first serve basis and it is the first person to pay the rent become the bonafied tenant of the apartment.
Hope to hear from you soonest possible.

Who knows this Cruise Alicant?

Hello,
This is a scam where he is trying to steal money from you by playing the role of letting agent. He wants you to send money to him for a flat that does not exist.

The contact telephone number (315) 820-1203 is a computer based VoIP number in the US that can make and receive calls from any location in the world.

Please post the email address that he use to contact you.


The best thing to do now is to stop all contact with this thief by ignoring all telephone calls and emails. Do not tell him that you know it is a scam, just go silent and let him wonder what happened.

If you have any additional questions please ask.

L'hôte n'est ni américain ni anglais, il est africain. C'est une arnaque.

The host is neither American nor English, he's African. It's a scam.

Hello, I nearly fell prey to this as well, just yesterday. I got to the portion where he asked about when I'd be able to come, and securing the flat.

My sister informed me that au pair scams are quite common, and this might have been more sinister than simply stealing a rent deposit. I must admit it makes me uneasy that the individual has learnt about me.

I advise all young women aspiring to be au pairs to be cautious, and use an agency if possible.