louise hacke-woods.... IS THIS A SCAM

This is Steve & Johanna Bonner, Mia our 14 month old, super baby girl writing to you from s sunny California. In August 2011 we will have to say goodbye to our awesome Aupair who stayed with us for 6 months and are now looking for another. We live in sunny California and are the proud parents of an 14 month old, super baby girl named Mia! She is amazing, fast on her feet or knees and very smart so we are seeking someone who loves to play all day, challenge her mentally and help her grow to her fullest potential. Most important is that this Aupair enjoy life with our baby when we are not around, care for her, walks, trips to the park and blend well with our silly sense of humor family. If you do not have a good sense of humor you might not enjoy our family as much

I am Californian business man and work a lot while my wife Johanna is from Germany and working on her board exams to complete her American MD. So we are pretty busy in addition to living a very spontaneous life. Having someone to assist us in all of this is the goal.

We live in a reasonably large home with just us so our Aupair gets a master bedroom to herself on the bottom floor. We are on the second floor in a 5 bedroom home. Pool, Deck, Jacuzzi, Theater Room, tons of music and movies...we are very much movie buffs with a collection over 3000. Music is another passion of mine with a collection over 30,000 cd's. If you are music lover...you will be in heaven.

What do you expect from your au pair?

Mia is just starting to talk. We want her to learn German as well as English so we are looking for an au pair who can speak both languages reasonably well. English is a must our you will never get my jokes!

Basic household chores as one would have at home, cooking is a big bonus that I love but not a must. Many candidates have cooking backgrounds which is a big plus for me!

Flexibility and fun in addition to an assumed love for children and watching them blossom are really the two most important attributes our Aupair must possess. This is not a rock science deal. You are playing with a baby, changing diapers, bathing, etc. Personality means a lot to us because that is what also is passed onto our baby. I can get over a bad sense of humor from a boring person but my baby does not know better!

Our lives are also full of fun activities and we are on the go quite a bit so an adventurous, outdoors type person, enjoys sports, concerts, etc. is a good fit for us. We tend to drag our Aupair around with us, spoil her a bit and show her a good time. Life is about having fun for us and doing it all so if your coming this way...be ready for anything from the sunny beach to the snowy mountains to sailing on the windy bay and everything in between. So if that sounds interesting to you, just drop us an email ([email protected]) and feel free to ask us anything you would like to know

You can see that scammer's second email in this thread here:
http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&p=62346

Please be advised that this is a scam. NOT BY Steve & Johanna Bonner (as they are good people) but by someone who stole their story off of www.Aupair-world.net, then added their few personal touches and a unique email address that has nothing to do with us. We do exist, we do have an amazing little girl but these scam adds are just that.

Scam Warners...I ask that you research this and get back to me. I would like my name, my wifes name and my daughters name removed from these scam attempts immediately. I have logged on to the scam warners system and filled out my information for further contact and proof.

Thank you for your assistance.

The Real Steve & Johanna Bonner

Hi srim. The writing style is wrong too but I won't go into specifics here. The email header from the above correspondence, what does it say? Do you see an ip number beginning with 41? The origin of the email will be seen from the bottom ip number at the base of the header. It's usually accurate if the header hasn't been tampered with by the sender.

Hello Steve&Johanna,

It is quite usual for au pair scammers to use information, profiles, and copies of letters to au pairs which were written by genuine people. This is undoubtedly distressing to the genuine advertisers to see their family's names (and sometimes photographs) used in fraudulent mails.

The sender of the fake family emails has been researched, and I can tell you that these emails are sent by a known scammer who lives in Nigeria. These emails are sent from the following email addresses:

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

and the scammer uses this telephone number:

+1 922 349 8687

Unfortunately, the one thing that we can't do is stop the scammer using your family's names. Although a known scammer, he hides behind fake information and possibly the use of an anonymous internet café.

It is helpful for au pairs targeted by this scam to see the texts of the emails which are sent by this scammer, but if you would like anything obscured in the above example of one of the scam mails, please PM me, and I will be happy to oblige.

I'm sorry that your personal information has been abused by the scammer in this way.