Au pair scam - Mr John Powel

Hi all,
Below is another au pair scam e-mail that we have received at myaupairbook.com today. We urge all potential aupairs not to respond to such e-mails. They are not genuine host families, the are scam artists trying to get money from you!

Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2010 04:13:22 +0000 [08/29/2010 05:13:22 AM IST]
From: "john powel" <[email protected]>
To: xxxxxxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com e-dress obscured - Michelle
Subject: Au pair/Nanny is Needed for my son..

Hello Au pair,
How are u doing today?i think you are just the perfect Nanny am looking for to be taking care of our son.It my pleasure writing you about my family and i will be very glad if u can accept my offer..We are a family from UK,Am Mr John Powel am
42 years old,My contact address is 4 Luxborough St Paddington, Greater
London NW1 5, UK.Am a Widow,I lost my Lovely wife when she got an auto
accident on her way coming back from church last month.
I work as an accountant at HSBC Banks,We are having just 1 son Lucas,5years old,I
need a very good,honest,caring,understanding and God fearing Au pair/
Nanny for him.Am in need of a Nanny because our Nanny had to go back to
her country cos her mother was very sick and her attention was needed,I
close very late from work and ever since our Nanny left my son have
been staying with my mother so i will like to know if
you are interested in taking care of my son while i am off to work.
You will not be working too much at home in the house at all..you will be
taking the kid to school and bringing him back home, play with him, go
to museums, playground, watching movies, prepare/serving his snacks
and foods,you can use my car to do that if u don't have, u can quickly
get that over here if u can drive,U can attend a driving school over
here if u cant drive cos i need it.
You will be staying with us so you don't have to worry about where you will
be staying when you get here cos we leave in a big house that has lots
of rooms and i am sure you will like our place and also your room,You
will have your Private Room which will have Bathroom, Toilet,
Television, Air-Conditional. You will have access to the Internet and a
Telephone at home to get in touch with your friends and loved ones. You
will be having Fridays,Saturdays and Sundays as your off days,you will
be having all the privacy you want so you have nothing to worry about,so
to enable you have enough time for yourself.

Thank you for posting this--since these scammers like to send these out in mass quantities quickly, plus they often reuse names and/or scripts, having the information out here could save other potential victims a lot of heartache and money!

It would benefit everyone and your website as well if scammers could be deterred from using it.

A clear message about UK visa applications would help

http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/en/faqs/faqapplyforvisa/2969329

Visas for the UK can be issued only at British Missions overseas. If you need a visa, you must get it before you travel to the UK.

http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/en/howtoapply/biometricvisa/

You will have to go in person to your nearest visa application centre to provide your biometrics and your visa application will not be processed until this has been done.

http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/en/applyonline/

There is no method of obtaing a UK visa by sending e-mails to anyone. You can use the official online application but will still have to visit the local UK Embassy or their visa application office, and until that's been done the application won't even be looked at.

All UK Border Agency visa applicants are required to provide biometric information as part of the visa application process every time they apply for a visa

Anyone asking for a passport scan is a scammer. No visa will be issued against anything other than the original passport and it's where the visa is stamped/attached. You need to provide the Embassy/visa office with fingerprints which must be taken by you visiting them personally.