More sophisticated Au Pair scam?

Hello. I usually have no trouble identifying scam e-mails. This one, however, made me pause for a minute. It's the first time I received a scam about an au pair job.

This email included some correct details (like the website he got my info or my country) that others usually lack.

From: Donald and Nancy Clayborn ([email protected])
Subject: AU Pair Needed (PORTUGAL)?

Greeetings!

You were recommended by newaupair.com to be our nanny after making searches for an Aupair nanny for our Kids on the website.
We are the Clayborns, I am Donald Married to Nancy and we have two wonderful boys Jeremy (3) and Philips (5 1/2). We are american Citizens living in the USA. I run a tourism Agency and my wife Nancy is a designer, we are planning to move to Portugal by February/March 2010 and we will be needing an aupair nanny which is why I am writing you, we have a weekly budget of 280 Euros for our nanny besides other benefits, we are paying this because our chilren are very precious to us and we want to give them the best care as we are moving to a new environment and we want them to adapt without a hitch. There are other questions for us to ask you but before then we need to know if you will be available by that time for this position. If you are interested in this position kindly provide us with the information below so we can get back to you.

FULL NAME:

CONTACT ADDRESS:

CITY:

STATE/REGION:

COUNTRY:

ZIP CODE:

PHONE NUMBER:

NATIONALTY:

AGE:



Regards
Don & Nancy Clayborn

I sent an e-mail to that aupair website where I AM registered, giving them the details of the e-mail and they said it was probably a scam. Though at some point the scammer MUST have registered the website, so he could get a hold of my personal information and e-mail. I looked his name up on Google and I saw his registration details on another Au Pair website, where they stated his IP address as: 69.209.40.173 -- which is located in Chiago, Illinois.

Today I received my second (and 3 hours later got another like it) au pair scam mail. This one being OBVIOUS:

From: MR.RAY BEN ([email protected])
Subject: I NEED AN AUPAIR?

Good day,

I am Mr.Ray Ben an engineer from the United State Of America (USA), i need a very honest person, who will take good care of my kids and take them to school and bring them back home stay with them till my i come back from work.I will appreciate that you notify me if your services will be readily available so that i can furnish you with more job details and expectations from you. Kindly reply to ([email protected]) and also provide me with your direct mobile number so that i can call you.

Warm regards,

Mr.Ray Ben

I would be hesitant to list all of my personal information in a reply to people I've just heard from, so with that, I would say it is likely to be a scam.

I am unaware of any legitimate group that would ask for your personal information in their first e-mail.

The second e-mail you quote is listed at ScamWarners HERE, again indicating it is infact a scam.

Hi ans welcome to Scamwarners.
The first doesn't resemble any scam format I'm familiar with. I'm sure it is a scam though.

Married to Nancy and we have two wonderful boys Jeremy (3) and Philips (5 1/2). We are american Citizens living in the USA. I run a tourism Agency

There's the erratic upper case and odd first name "Phillips" that you often see in scam emails.

Welcome to Scamwarners dawnrose. Thank you for posting this information.

It will alert and save others from being scammed. Well Done

I have investigated and discovered that this scammer was registered at "findaupair"

That is most likely how he knew some of your details when he mailed you.

See this screenshot of a cache of that site - early November;

The African scammers are getting much smarter and learning how to manipulate their IP, this is a trick the Russian scammers have known for some time and the Africans are now catching on.

You cant trust IPs any more, if there are other indicators that it is not right, then go by those.

In this case the format and timing of the information they ask for is all too common in scams.

You will see this exact format in many scams, any email that includes this should be regarded as a scam.

FULL NAME:

CONTACT ADDRESS:

CITY:

STATE/REGION:

COUNTRY:

ZIP CODE:

PHONE NUMBER:

NATIONALTY:

AGE:

Scammers are creatures of habit and like to use the same lines over and over, even when making a new format it will includes lots of older well used lines like this one " kindly provide us with the information below "

If you do an exact search on that phrase you will see thousands of other scams posted on the internet.

One of our support team members put together a very good piece on this kind of scam, you can see it by Clicking Here

I have seen that scam format a thousand times before.

It's no more than a variation of a Room for Rent Scam, in which the scammer will tell you that he will need to send you a cheque for some reason. When the cheque arrives it will be for far more than you were expecting. He will tell you to cash the check and send him the "extra money" by Western Union . This check or money order will be fake, even if your bank cashes the check or tells you that it "cleared"!!!! The bank will find out in a few days or weeks that the check is fake, and will make you pay all of the money back, even the money you sent to the scammer. The bank might even have you arrested for cashing a bad check.

It was the bit about the "employer" claiming to need an aupair because he and his family were emigrating that was new to me.

Just a couple of other points, besides the random capitalization, name, and general style of the email.

"tourism agency" is not the normal term in the US.
The job description for the "wife" is incomplete/incorrect. In the US, one would refer to what she designs as part of the title; for example, she may be a graphics designer or a fashion designer, but she would not just be a "designer".