Au Pair scam

Hi this is owners of Aupairsworld
This is a scam email, and first we knew of it is on here
We will be blocking the ip address of this scammer, it is however very dificult to keep on top of things like this as these individuals send private emails.
We do all we can to stop this, but its dificult
Some advice for those receiving these emails from sites

Let the site know by emailing them so they can block these people. Whilst its been published on here and website its from has not been told someone could be a victim. So what ever site it originates let them know.
I have no problem with additional information being put here or else where but it is very dissapointing that although someone managed to find where it originated they did not bother to inform us to help eliminate it.

We are a free site which helps aupairs find work and families find childcare. It is sad that some so called human beings like nothing but misery by scamming, but together we can fight these by informing others like on this site, but lets try nipping it in the bud by informing the site owners so they can close these people down. If we do not do that someone will end up being a victim and finding out on here after becoming a victim rather than it being stopped.
I have tried to refrain from swearing but these animals really do get under my skin, they are the lowest of the low preying on vunerable people. So i will stop writing any more before i put words in that we can all do without seeing.

INFORM THE WEBSITE OWNERS AS WELL AS PUBLISHING HERE, BE PROACTIVE RATHER THAN REACTIVE.

I understand what you are saying, and your desire to keep your website free from scammers.

The usual way for a scammer to operate, however, is to register at an au pair site (and if there is a subscription fee to be paid, he will often be willing to do this, usually using stolen credit card details), and then immediately collect as many au pair email addresses as he can. It doesn't then really matter to him if his profile gets closed down; he can still write to the au pairs and say 'I saw your profile on xxxxx website.'

If his profile is deleted, and he needs more au pairs to write to and attempt to steal money from, he will simply re-register with a new fake name and new false details, and collect more au pair email addresses.

It can therefore be more effective to make sure that all au pairs registered on a site are aware of the real way to become an au pair in the USA and UK, and the real way to obtain a visa. If you are uncertain of the current rules and regulations about this, please PM me and I can let you know.

Hello,

I am glad there is a site like this. I have learned so much on these info/tips. I hope you can have the time to reply.

My wife has been communicating with this person named Norman Banti. Below is a copy of one of their email exchanges:

----------
From: Norman Banti <[email protected]>
Subject: Contract Letter and Instructions for Travel Documents
To: xxx
Date: Monday, March 21, 2011, 9:13 AM

Dear Aupair,

I hope your week is moving well. After discussing your employment with my wife, we have decided that you match our requirements so please find the Contract Letter that is approved by the UK Home Office.

I received approval from the UK Home Office today to employ you, I have attached the approved contract letter issued me for your review. I need to apply now for Certificate of Eligibility (COE-UKIMG2009) as UK Home Office instructed me for our application to be quickly considered, as that is important to prove that I am sponsoring your travel down to the UK and to prove that you are elligible to take up job position in UK before they send your reference to the nearest British Consulate in your country. You need to sign the contract after going through it and send a scanned copy indicating your travel date (For Flight Booking which I shall pay for) , to the staff at UK Home Office in charge of my application for the Certificate of Elligiblity for their records and advice to us:

Home Office, UK Border Agency,
PO Box 3468, Sheffield,
S3 8WA,
United Kingdom
Applications Fax : + 44 844 774 1192
Applications E mail: [email protected]


On receipt of the Form COE-UKIMG2009 by me, I shall courier it to you with hard contract copies, prepaid flight tickets and any accompanying permit documents to enable you receive Visa from the nearest british consulate following instructions from the UK Home Office as they shall let you know date to visit British Consulate nearest to you, hence follow procedure.

I am in the Office right now and would try to contact you via phone or you can reach me on +4470318411932 you start doing the needful

We wait to recieve you when you arrive. God bless you as you come

Respectfully,
Mr Norman Woods
For the family.
----------------

I hope you guys can shed light if this is legit or another scam. It will really mean so much to me and I will have to warn my wife about this guy. I am a little hesitant to make a comment to her without more info about this guy. But reading from the thread this "Applications E mail: [email protected]" seem like a read flag.

Thank you so much for your time,

for my wife,

Rennan Jose Cinches
xxx
xxx
Executive Affiliate
Fast-Track Affiliate
TC Booster Club Member
My SFI Gateway:
http://www.sfi4.com/11323894/FREE
My TripleClicks Gateway:
http://www.tripleclicks.com/11323894
LinkedIn
http://ph.linkedin.com/pub/rennan-jose-cinches/5/a5a/571
VA4U
http://www.va4u.com/rjvcinches/
IM's
Skype: xxx
Yahoo Messenger: xxx


-

I hope you guys can shed light if this is legit or another scam. It will really mean so much to me and I will have to warn my wife about this guy. I am a little hesitant to make a comment to her without more info about this guy. But reading from the thread this "Applications E mail: [email protected]" seem like a read flag.

Thank you so much for your time,

for my wife,

Yes, it is a scam. People in the UK cannot bring au-pairs over from the Philippines. The scammer will request funds for this or that document and nothing will actually come of the money you or your wife send. Please read this post for more comprehensive information. viewtopic.php?f=42&t=3019

We are glad that you found us and sorry to give you news like this. If you have further questions please post them.

Bonjour
je suis française et veux savoir si c'est une arnaque
Dearest xxxxx,

We wish you and your family members are having a wonderful day over there in France. I and my wife and my son Derick, we are doing fine here and are excitedly looking forward to your arrival soon.
we wish to inform you that you are certified eligible for the job offer after much review of introduction criteria(CV) and photos.

I would like to inform you that my family (attorney)lawyer who works for the UK Home Office has informed me that he would be giving me all the necessary information for your employment and travel procedures within 24hours. This would include an approved contract letter by the UK Home Office to show details of the job description, accommodation, salary, work hours and other benefits that we are offering you for you to sign with us. Detailed travel instructions for you to follow would also be include in the information my lawyer would be sending me and I shall forward every information to you as soon as i get it. Hence wait for my message soon so that you will not make any mistake okay.

We have to do everything rightly so wait for my message and adhere to every information I shall send.

My wife sends her warmest regards and Derick is looking forward to see his au pair too!

We love you and hope you to welcome you soonest.

Cheers
Lugar and Winfrey Edwards
For The Family.
ATTN: Applicant,

We have noted the content of your Application,Your employer Mr Lugar Edward contacted our office,concerning your intended job as Au pair to their Family in London and getting visa for your family,

In order to legally work in the United Kingdom without applying under the government’s tier based points system, International Au pairs need to apply for work identity card for foreign nationals/Certificate of Eligibility from the UK Border Agency, which will allow them to legally work as an Au pair for a sponsoring host family in the UK.

Click below for details for work identity card for foreign nationals.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... ummary.pdf ;

Find below the necessary steps you will take to enable you obtain your work identity card for foreign nationals/Certificate of Eligibility.


The UK Border Agency is responsible for securing the United Kingdom borders and controlling immigration in the United Kingdom. We manage
border control for the United Kingdom,enforcing immigration and customs regulations. We also consider applications for permission to enter or
stay in the United Kingdom,citizenship and asylum.

NOTE: You have to meet up with our requirements to enable us process your foreign national identity/certificate of eligibility so that you will be able to get all your documents before you arrive UK.

Dearest xxxxx,

I hope your week is moving well. After discussing your employment with my wife and my Lawyer, we have decided that you match our requirements as an AU PAIR so please find in the attachment a Contract Agreement Letter that is approved by the UK Home Office.

Important : You are to adhere to the following travel instructions as we would be responsible for your travel arrangements hence your strict compliance is required so that you do not make any mistakes or have any problems on arrival here in United Kingdom.

Information For Travel (READ CAREFULLY)

I received approval from the UK Home Office here in England to employ you, I have attached the approved contract letter issued me for your review. I need to apply now for your Work permit(WP-UKIMG2011) as UK Home Office instructed me for our application to be quickly considered, as that is important to prove that we are sponsoring your travel down to the UK and to also prove that apart from our sponsorship to you as your Employer that you are eligible to take up job position in United Kingdom before the UK Home Office would send your Work Registration Card, National Insurance Number, Reference Number, Interview Date to the nearest British consulate in your country.

SUMMARY OF TRAVEL INSTRUCTIONS

You need to sign the contract after going through it and send a scanned copy indicating your travel date (For Flight Booking which we shall pay for) , to the UK Home Office in charge of your application via their associate lawyer email address [email protected] for the work permit and the hard copies of your traveling documents and for their records and advice to you regarding the procurement of your traveling documents, Please find below the contact details of the UK Home Office and contact them immediately via their associate lawyer email address as soon as you sign the contract letter to enable them furnish you with the instructions on how you will obtain your traveling documents. See contact details below.

Home Office, UK Border Agency,
PO Box 3468, Sheffield,
S3 8WA,
United Kingdom
Fax : +44 2071 17 4321
Associate lawyer E mail: [email protected]

On fulfillment of the form WP-UKIMG2011 by the UK Home Office, They shall courier it to you with hard contract copies, prepaid flight tickets and any accompanying permit documents to enable you receive required documentation from the nearest British consulate in Italy following instructions from the UK Home Office as they shall let you know the date to visit British Consulate in Philippines,hence follow procedure.
We would wait to receive you when you arrive, have a blissful week ahead and God bless you as you come.

Yours Faithfully
Lugar and Winfrey Edwards
for the family
Dear Applicant,

We have noted the content of your email.
The fund(proof of sufficient fund) is to certify that you as an applicant for aupair job is eligible to live and work in the United Kingdom.

This is to show that you can support yourself while living and working in the UK before you receive you first salary from your employer.

With reference to the bank statement mentioned in your email to us,the UK immigration no longer accept bank statement of account due to recent development such as falsification of document,due to these fact the new point base system(PBS) demands that applicant must make a western union/money gram deposit to the address of their employer to show that the fund is secured in the United Kingdom before the UK Home office would issue you a certificate of eligibility to enable you work as an aupair in UK without any immigration misconduct.scan and send the receipt of the deposit for verification and confirmation of the deposit.

Meet up your requirement as we work to serve you better.

UK BOARDER AGENCY(immigration)
Sheffield,United Kingdom
Dearest xxxxxx,

Hope you are doing good today? glad to hear from you that shows you are in a good health.
You do not need to pay for any visa or work permit as that would be taken care of , by us, however you would need to enter the UK with some money for your personal support.
I told you that the money is to proof that you you are capable of taken care of your self before your first salary from us.
they require you make the deposit and not to present a bank statement because is not proof enough,you will withdraw your deposit once you arrive the UK,its you money they just need to proof and confirm that you are capable of sustaining your self.
go and make the deposit,scan and send a copy of the deposit slip to me and the UK Home office.
hoping to hear from you.

cheers

Lugar Edwards

--- On Tue, 2/8/11, <xxxxx@xxxxx> wrote:


From: <xxxxx@xxxxx>
Subject: Re: Hello xxxxx,write us soon
To: "Lugar Edward" <[email protected]>
Date: Tuesday, 2 August, 2011, 10:20

Dear Family

i don't understand the request of uk.home office, because i don't need any
work permit,since i belong to European Union.
What proof of my bank do they need as proof of sufficient fund?
I required from my bank a certificate of sufficient fund.
I called the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in France to explain to me.

I hope you a have a lovely week
I'll send you the certificate this afternoon

Cheers

Removed recipient's details for privacy - CF

Welcome to Scamwarners Nataly. And thanks for posting that scam here. As you say, you don't need any permission to work in the UK.
I doubt that he will contact you again after your last email.

Hello NATALY, and welcome to ScamWarners. As Arnold says, yes this is a scam. The scammer pretending to be Lugar and Winfrey Edwards also pretends to be other host families too. You can see some of these other scams, using his other false names, here:

Maxwell Johnson
Janson Moore
Scott Caspar

You will notice that in each of the above, he uses the same phone number for his fake UK Border Agency.

The Confirmation/Proof of Sufficient Funds is bogus - a European au pair does not need to prove their financial stability; and the genuine UK Home Office never requests a visa applicant to make a proof of sufficient funds in this way.

You can see the genuine UK Border Agency email addresses and telephone numbers here:

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/conta ... ctcentres/

Please notice that the genuine UK Border Agency email addresses end with @ukba.gsi.gov.uk - and with no words or abbreviations after that. They do not ask you to communicate through a lawyer.

Barrister Paul Higgins is fake, and is part of the scam.

Please stop all communication with both the fake host family and the fake UK Border Agency/Barrister Higgins. There is no real au pair position on offer, and the only intention of this scammer is to steal money from you.

Thanks
I was sure it was a scam after reading informations here.
They even sent a picture of the family

encore merci à ce site!!!

I also got contacted by a family. Their names were Gerald and Sophie Phillips, pretending to be from Manchester.
After they sent me the contract I got into contact with their "lawyer" who also was called Barrister Paul Higgins!!
When they asked me to transfer money via western union I figured out it is a scam.
sadly I sent them many pictures of me. I am afraid they'll use them to scam hostfamilies.