AuPairInc (John Wilson) scam?!

hello,

My daughter got via a friend connected to host family 'Moore' and 'is' going aupair via AuPairInc -> see mail1.
- she filled in all requested forms
- she paid for the tickets+visa (via moneygram to Paul Sims (Paul E Sims) in Grand Junction Colorado)
- She has (skype/facebook/mail) contact with the host family 'Moore' (this family further unknow to us&her friend, but the name Moore is used in several topics on this site).
- recently AuPairInc (John L. Wilson) said an extra (refundable) payment $1.020 must been done by US law -> see MAIL2

Is this scam (i guess it is) and if so what is your advise (can she get back any money and/or what can she do by law as non-us citizen).

Regards,
Boos

Underneath mailtext mail1 and mail2 (from AuPairInc) copied

MAIL1
Management wishes to thank you for contacting us regarding the arrangement of your Traveling Documents to the United States of America. We promise to offer you the best which you will be glad you did. The Agency is a U.S. State Department-designated sponsor for an Au pair cultural exchange program. They bring to their program more than 20 years of experience in cultural exchange and hosting Au pairs with carefully screened American families. Our experience in the travel industry has served our clients well over several years. And we are fully ASTA and ATOL protected travel agent which means your money is fully guaranteed.


ATOL – which is short for “Air Travel Organizers' licensing” – exists to protect the public from losing money or being stranded abroad because of the failure of air travel firms. It was first introduced in 1972 and it gives comprehensive consumer protection to 28 million people in the UK and USA who buy flights or air holidays each year.

It was indicated in your E-mail that you have been told by one of our Host Families (Moore Family with family IDxxxxx living in Miami Florida, USA) to contact us. As an official Au pair placement agency designated by the United States Department of State, AupairInc will sponsor your J-1 Au pair visa, organize your travel to and from the United States, and provide you with training and support throughout the year. We promise never to disappoint you as we have never failed in fulfilling our promises.


We would request that you strictly download, print, read through, fill carefully and send back to us via this email address scanned copy of the duly filled forms attached to this mail, it contains all necessary information you need in regards to the Total cost and the documents requested from you to provide so that we can successfully process all your Travel document, Visa and Flight Ticket(Round trip).

For the Cost and the Child Care Agreement Form for download, read and fill carefully the attached word document file titled-COST AND PAYMENT AUTHORIZATION FORM stated in this attached is the total cost of $x,xxx as an Au pair .

For your AupairInc Registration Form and list of required documents you will have to provide, download read carefully and Fill the attached Word Document file titled- AupairInc APPLICATION FORM. We expect you to get back to us with the filled forms not more than a week from now, so that we can schedule a provisional flight ticket for you to confirm and inform you on how to make payment.


Please Note: That we cannot proceed with if we do not receive the scanned copies of the duly filled form, these forms enable us to register you with AupairInc Program as an Au Pair and it also provide all necessary information that we will require to process your Visa and other travel documents so once the payment is made with a detailed submission of all the duly filled forms then we can start processing of your Visa, Flight ticket and every other travel documents.


TERMS AND REGULATIONS

AupairInc work in full terms and conditions with all international Visa & Working Permit Agency for all travelers in Countries that are not in the same country with the agency of their choice.


Which allows for the Following Terms and Regulations:


- All Document necessary must be valid and certified in the country of the traveler

-The photo Page of the passport of all traveler must show the original personality in physical.

- Visa charges and work permit fees must be paid directly to the Consulate of the Country the traveler is going which is in affiliation with the Immigration Department of the country the traveler is traveling from.

- All Customers Processing Visa of the country of their choice with Agencies in the country of their choice must send along with other necessary document the photo page of their Passport which will serve as evident of legibility at the Consulate of their country of their choice in their location.

- All Customers Processing Visa of the country of their choice with Agencies in the country of their choice must have a mailing address where all necessary document which include letter of invitation to the country of their choice by Consulate of the country, letter of invitation by their host family and Faxed papers for Visa charges payment will be mailed to.

- Payment which was recently added in the advent of cyber-crimes disallow any form of payment without cash therefore Bank check, Credit Cards, Money orders are not accepted for payment for any service. In keeping these regulations legible applicants who are not in the same location with the traveling agency of the choice will only make payment via the host family, Bank transfer or via Money gram or Western Union or to our agency representative.

Thanks for contacting us in anticipation of your response.


"At AuPairInc we are interested in getting you to your destination in style and comfort."







John L. Wilson

International Relations Director

AuPairInc
333 South Grand Ave,
Suite 3000
Los Angeles, CA 90071
Phone: 1(949) 272-8551

[email protected]


Au Pair Incorporated does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, color, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, marital status, age, disability, sexual orientation, Vietnam-era veterans status or any other discrimination prohibited by law in the processing of Au pairs, administration of its training policies, employment policies and other Au Pair sponsored programs or activities.
=== end mail1 ===

MAIL2 - extra (refundable) payment must been done by law
Our management wish to tell you that we received an order from the US Consulate, the content of the message which is being passed to you and your Host Family in view of the response we got on account of the Traveling Packages sent to them for verification.

This information affects all Au Pairs/Nannies entering into the U.S from August, 2013 & beyond (effective for every other Au Pair applying to enter into the country as from this due date; so with this recent development; We hereby write to inform you that it's in the best interest of the Au Pair and their Host Family this law was promulgated and necessary steps and requirements needed must be observed accordingly without any delay .




We are supposed to send along with these email attached copy of your flight ticket and other important documents in the package that has been sent to theUS Citizenship and Immigration Service for final verification and certification.

We hope you understand that we are always here to assist you if you need any other form of assistant pertaining to our services.
CC:
Au Pairs
Nannies
Host Families and References
Agency Affiliate
&
Other Departments of concern








John L. Wilson
International Relations Director
AuPairInc
333 South Grand Ave,
Suite 3000
Los Angeles, CA 90071
Phone: 1(949) 272-8551


[email protected]
=== end mail2====

Total scam!

The scammers are using a name similar to that of a legitimate au pair agency, but they have absolutely no connection to any legitimate agency.

Email addresses @usa.com are free email addresses, just like yahoo or gmail addresses. They have no connection to any legitimate company. It's no different than someone opening an address like [email protected] and telling you that they are microsoft. The writing tells me that the scammers are almost certainly African.

Some things you need to understand about au pair positions:
-All au pairs must be sponsored by one of the agencies on the official list:
http://j1visa.state.gov/participants/how-to-apply/sponsor-search/?program=Au%20Pair&state=any
There is no other way to get a visa.
-If you are contacted by someone claiming to be with a legitimate agency, you need to (a) verify that they are on the official list and (b) either call them at the number on the official list or follow the link on the official list to their website, and then contact them using the contact forms ON THE WEBSITE. Never follow a link or use an email address provided by a supposed family or another website, as you cannot be certain that you are dealing with the legitimate company.
-There is no cybercrime law that prohibits use of credit cards or paypal for international transactions. Those are actually the safer ways to transact business. Western Union, Moneygram, and bank transfer are actually the least safe means, as there is no protection if someone just grabs the money and walks away (which is what the scammer intends to do.
-Legitimate businesses do NOT use WU or MG for business transactions.
-An au pair does NOT pay anything to their host family.
-A real agency cannot offer you a job when you haven't even filled out an application. The US government has certain requirements for all au pairs, and they must verify that you meet them before they can offer you a job.
-US law also requires that agencies personally interview all candidates,and in English, and provide a report of the interview to the host family. "Personally" means NOT by email, and NOT by phone. A legitimate agency will have a representative in your country who will meet with you and document the interview. This will occur before you are offered a job.

Could you also post the email address of the fake family?

Thanks Dotti,

The mailadres of fake host family is '[email protected]' (otherwise 'crystalmoore515@gmail).

Can she complain formerly about fraud somewhere in the us?

Regards,
Boos

Unfortunately, odds of recovering any money are quite low.

Western Union is a highly unsafe way to send money to strangers, because the recipient can use a fake name and false ID, and walk away with the cash in minutes.

US agencies can take action if the criminals are located in the US, or they can request action from other governments if the vicitms are Americans. She may be able to file a report with IC3, or contact the police in the jurisdiction of the person to whom she transferred the money.

The problem is that IF the recipient's name and information are real (and it is very possible they aren't), the person is very likely an unknowing mule who forwarded the money on to the scammers. He may have responded to a job ad claiming that he/she is serving as an overseas representative of a company, collecting and forwarding legitimate payments, or that he is working as a personal assistant of a businessperson, or even that he is working for a charity. He probably forwarded the money he received overseas (the scammers could be anywhere, but statistically are most likely sitting at computers in Africa or Malaysia), and the information he was given will have been fake.

For sure now: the mailadres of the (fake) host family is "crystalmoore515@gmail"
Mail3 seems so non-fake to me...

Mail3: example mail send by the (als fake?) host family

Thanks for your interest in our family, am sorry I couldn't reply so fast,
had to talk to my husband before emailing you, am sure it'll be exciting
been our Au pair
My husband and I both work out of the house each day for work. I work with
the Jills Real Estate Team here in Florida as Realtor, so I am with clients
and out of the house more often than my husband. Kurt works with Unified
payments, one of Florida's top payment processing services to merchants
across the U.S. and we are blessed with this gorgeous 3 year old girl Laura
.
We live Miami in Florida which is the second Largest city and has the
Largest concentration of international banks in the United States, of in
America which has several historic districts, an art museum, a symphony
orchestra, universities, city parks, and lakes. Music is everywhere here,
from rising artists to famous musicians, singers, and songwriters and the
Famous beach. The weather here is beautiful –with hot and humid summers and
short, warm winters, marked with a drier season in the winter.
Laura's school and activities is just within few minutes minutes of our
home. She's a wonderful kid mean the world to us, she's funny playful and
intelligent , we enrolled her at kindergarten and she goes to school three
mornings a week. She likes chocolates and watching cartoons and off course
she ask lots of questions. She absolutely loves to swim and love to do
arts and crafts at home, as well as visit the park, children's museum, play
centers, and the recreation center (that has an indoor pool year round) ,
when our outdoor pool is closed.
Our family style is mostly casual, warm and informal. We are excited to
have someone from another country and culture, who speaks another language
besides English, as part of our household,we enjoy being outside and
barbecuing, cook on our outside grill and socialize with friends and also
We belong to a recreation center/gym.We also don't have any pets, we don't
smoke and we would appreciate if you don't smoke around house and
definately not in front of our girl but you are allowed to drink but up to
a point where you know when to stop. We also do go on vacations and we
would always want you along with us.
Your duty schedules mostly around Laura,In the morning get her dressed for
school, walk her down to the bus pick up point by 8am, help her with after
school activities, get her food, watch cartoons together tell her stories
about your country , about kids you've been with and few words in your
language and watch over her, till we get back home, usually we are home
before 5pm except special over times which you'll be duly compensated
for.In the evenings you might want to take a walk together with her around
the street or have her bike riding and evenings she has her night bath and
the put on her pyjamas .Weekend will be free for you because we get to
spend time together at home and maybe hang with friends, or visit the beach
so you can go anywhere you want that's if you like going out.
We are somewhat flexible and can work out a schedule that suits you as our
Au pair while covering our needs as well. I would want you to be like a
guardian to her, someone she looks up to, more like a member of the family
rather than just be their Au pair.
Your duties doesn't not involve cleaning or doing the Laundry as we already
have a cleaner who comes by the house to do that but we might have you cook
some foreign dishes sometimes or assist me in cooking and definitely we do
the dishes together after eating.
You will be entitled to a pay of $1250 every month while you will also be
given an extra $80 every week for petty expenses which you might need for
personally and we might review this when you arrival.
Our Au Pair's room is private with the best bathroom in the house and a
sitting area, television, telephone, a PC with internet connection, and
closet. We have had an Au pair before and its was good, if you would want
to get a view of us from her, I'll be glad to give you her contact details.
I don't know if am meant to mention this but you'll be staying with us so
basically we'll be feeding you and paying all bills incurred except for a
few personal stuffs you might need.
There are also several English classes where many Au pairs in the area take
classes as it compulsory for the Host family to enroll the Au pair in an
English class as mandated by the law , its also an opportunity to meet and
socialize with other young people but I think they have a kinda Au pair
forum where Au pairs from around meet and talk.
There are a host of schools and employment opportunities here in Miami if
you decide to stay after you Au pair time with us, I can talk to my husband
or you can walk up to him yourself and talk to him, he has lots of friends
who works in the government and can help change the status of your Visa.
Just one questions I'll wanna ask is your experience with kids of Laura's
Age
Email me if you have any more questions and let me know of you intentions
if you're willing to be our Au pair .
I will love to know how long you want to stay with us and when you'll
wanna start.
If you do have a valid passport and other necessary documents needed for
Visa Application.
Love Crystal LAURA Kurt