Au Pair Scam?

Dear Scam Warners Users,

I and my girlfriend want to be a part of an au pair offer but we are quite not sure if this is fake or not. So I hope someone here has maybe already experience in such a case and can maybe help me.

I few days ago my girlfriend got an email from a woman who is living in Beijing (Peking, China). She told my girlfriend that she found her on aupairnet24.com/en. The name of the agency is "Loho Center" and way are offering us an au pair in china, they told us that they can find two separate families in Beijing for me and my girlfriend. The families are "rich" and would pay us the flight tickets (one way) and everything else like visa and so one.

They send us an email with a file for application. The requirements are very, very low. You should have fun with kids, send them about five to ten photos with children, speak fluently English and send them also a copy of your passport. The website of the Loho Center seems to be very cheap and nonserious: [url]lohocenter.com[/url]. They told us that the creation is still in progress.

They also told us if we want to stay in china forever after the one year au pair they could help us with everything like find a job and so one. Thats seems to be very nonserious? Could that be true?
They do this all for free for now and they didn't told us yet that we have to create an bank account or to send them money.

I mean if everything would be true, that would be a dream for me and my girlfriend to get such an possibility but I'm not sure. At the end my girlfriend ends as a bitch in china or something like that - if you know what I mean.

What could happen if we send them our personal data like our passports?

The email addresses are very dubious too: [email protected] they are using the free email service from china vip.163.com

Here are the phone numbers:
Tel: +86 10 64162346 Fax: +86 10 64164326

So could that be true or is that just a fake? I hope someone can answer me. Thank you very much in advance!

Welcome to SW...

I have had a look at the website it has only been registered for just over a year, that could indicate a scam

If it seems too good to be true ....then it is.

They may not have asked you for money yet though I have a feeling that they will, please send them nothing that they could use (no photo's, passport etc)

It will help if you post the emails with headers to this thread, we will be able to tell better once we see them.

First of all thank you very much for your reply . Then second the problem is, the email is in German so I'm not sure if you would understand it but here it is:

Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 14:19:58 +0800
From: [email protected]
To: -
Subject: Aupair in China

Hallo Elisabeth,

wie geht's dir? Hier ist die Yu, die Beraterin bei der chinesischen Aupair Agentur LOHO Center. Wir haben vorher auf Aupairnet.24 ueber das Programm "Aupair in China" gesprochen. Ich freue mich, dass du und dein Freund an dieses Programm Interesse haben.

Als Anhang sende ich dir die Erklaerung von dem Programm "Aupair in China", du sollst erst mal lesen. Ausser der unterkunft und dem Lebensmittel bezahlt Unsere Gastfamilie noch fuer das Aupair min. one-way Flug, die alle Gebuehr von Sprachkurs in einer staatlichen Uni, jeden Monat min. 1000RMB Taschgeld. Die Versicherung und die Gebuehr fuer das Visum in China uebernehmen wir auch. In der Anhang findst du noch die Antrag, wenn du durch unsere Agentur eine Familie suchst, sollst du den ausfuellen, dann per Email mir senden. Ich suche dir sofort eine passende Gastfamilie , wenn ich den Antrag von dir bekomme. Ich werde auch dabei helfen, wenn du mit der Famili Kontakt nehmen moechtest, wenn du Visum beantragt, usw.

Es tut mir leid, dass ich diesem Moment dir keine Webseite zeigen, da wir gerade eine neue Webseite machen. Anbei sende ich dir noch eine Referenz von meinem anderen Aupair.

Ich hoffe, ich bald von dir hoeren kann, und waere ganz froh, wenn du als Aupair nach China kommen moechtest!

Viele Gruesse aus Beijing
He Yu

Second email:

Date: Sun, 25 Aug 2013 23:08:02 +0800
From: [email protected]
To: -
Subject: Re:RE: Aupair in China

Hallo Elisabeth,

danke fuer deine Mail! Du kannst mich einfach duzen! : )

Zu deinen Fragen:
1. Es gibt Moeglichkeit, dass du und dein Freund in zwei Familien, die nah beieinander sind? Die Stadt Beijing ist ziemlich gross, es ist nicht so einfach zwei Gastfamilie die nah beieinander sind zu suchen. Aber ich habe Moment zwei Familien, wer Freunden sind. Die suchen in der gleich Zeit Aupais, eine Familie sucht ein Aupair Maedchen und noch ein Familie sucht ein Aupair Junge. Ihr koenntet in der gleichen Sprachuni gehen.
Aber, die Familie, wer sucht Aupair Maedchen, hat zwei Wohnungen, sie wohnt von Mo. bis Fr. naehe von der Schule von dem Kind, damit das Kind nicht so frueh aufstehen muss. In die andere Wohnung, die naehe von der Familie fuer Aupair Junge wohnt sie nur am Wochenend und in der Ferien. Das heisst, ihr koenntet von Mo. bis Fr. in der gleichen Uni gehen und am Wochenend und in der Ferien in der Naehe wohnen.

2. Es gibt natuerlich bei jeder Familie frei Internet fuer das Aupair und auch einziges Zimmer.

3. Du kannst in China bleiben so lange wie du magst. Theoretisch bleibt das Aupair in der Gastfamilie ein Jahr. Danach, wenn du noch als Aupair in China bleiben oder noch Sprache weiter lernen oder Job in China suchen moechtest, koennten wir noch besprechen, dabei koennen wir alle dir helfen.

4. Ich brauchen den Antrag von dir und von deinem Freund, es ist mir egal, ob du zwei Bewerbungen von euch zu mir senden oder getrennt.

5. (Du hast meine Kollegin gefragt, ob ihr auch als Aupair in Shanghai bleiben koenntet.) Es gibt auch Moeglichkeit, aber ich bin nicht sicher, ob ich in Shanghai zwei Gastfamilie in der Naehe finden kann. Die Stadt Shanghai ist nicht kleiner als Beijing. Und ich meine, wenn man gut Chinesisch lernen moechte, soll man nach Beijing fahren, weil hier sprecht man Hochchinesisch(Mandarin), und in Shanghai sprecht viele Leute Dialekt zwar ziemlich stark. Also das darfst du entscheiden.

Wenn du noch Fragen hast, kannst du mir auf jeder Zeit schreiben. Und ID von mir auf Skype ist hy_sagittarius

Ich freue mich auf deine Antwort!!

LG
Yu

----

By the way, we didn't send them any information about us yet and they told us that their offer is to 100 % free. Maybe I will try to call the phone number later which seems to be legit because it's really from china .. hm ..

By the way, their German isn't very good but it's still okay and better than just a google translation. The womam told us that she was for about one year in Germany. But their English isn't very good too.

Here is an example from skype:

[8/23/2013 1:39:46 PM] Me: How can you affort all that, I mean the au pair members don't pay anything? I'm just curious about that.
[8/23/2013 1:44:25 PM] lohocenter: Ok. then, I'll tell you the truth, all the au pair agencies around world will only ask for the money for the family. And free of charge to their own au pair.
[8/23/2013 1:45:03 PM] lohocenter: You could ask any agents in Germany and they will give you the same answer

The language in those emails is typical African, even though it is in German they have used google translate (as I did)

Though I would like to see the headers of the emails if you don't know how to get the headers have a look here

http://www.abika.com/Reports/Samples/em ... rguide.htm

Here is the header:

"
x-store-info:SmXCjkY1Un5L3qlTmewTw2528Vzv4BD31NGduIR/3CNdhXlfEy9KDFs0vKANco2QEyFhCqdFzXGKW1NpyZ9Klzr4Ldw5f8RxTpX3igVqqYPGxcG8UmW6k0QJp39dVJDrwElXfHtvha4=
Authentication-Results: hotmail.com; spf=pass (sender IP is 123.58.177.174) [email protected]; dkim=none header.d=vip.163.com; x-hmca=pass [email protected]
X-SID-PRA: [email protected]
X-AUTH-Result: PASS
X-SID-Result: PASS
X-Message-Status: n:n
X-Message-Delivery: Vj0xLjE7dXM9MDtsPTE7YT0xO0Q9MDtHRD0wO1NDTD0w
X-Message-Info: wjTPN9XlLm67y2LfawiRWCKRX4Q1MTCnUp3OhnXllF2ouEfneQTce3uHMYpFY88jmrJmBRpV93jN2sNQjA/ViaD1QeGqboCTiYpa4SUUolSz35jtufFPlB70/7hWg/4uVJ3q3ZiCZFf+WgapaEybH3WTVWwXghGx
Received: from m174-177.vip.163.com ([123.58.177.174]) by SNT0-MC3-F3.Snt0.hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.4900);
Sun, 25 Aug 2013 08:08:05 -0700
Received: from loho_heyu$vip.163.com ( [111.197.234.1] ) by
ajax-webmail-wmsvr4 (Coremail) ; Sun, 25 Aug 2013 23:08:02 +0800 (CST)
X-Originating-IP: [111.197.234.1]
Date: Sun, 25 Aug 2013 23:08:02 +0800 (CST)
From: LOHO_Y <[email protected]>
To:
Subject: Re:RE: Aupair in China
X-Priority: 3
X-Mailer: Coremail Webmail Server Version SP_ntes V3.5 build
20130709(22708.5479.5480) Copyright (c) 2002-2013 www.mailtech.cn 163vip
In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>
References: <trinity-a06270a9-94b0-4b47-968d-d605b5d97660-1373588896681@msvc031>,<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----=_Part_53870_1516098183.1377443282083"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
X-CM-TRANSID:rmZ4CkApM0XTHRpSTVqKAA--.16W
X-CM-SenderInfo: 5ork0spkh13qxylshiywtou0bp/1tbiEBOEkVD2hpwF2wAAs0
X-Coremail-Antispam: 1U5529EdanIXcx71UUUUU7vcSsGvfC2KfnxnUU==
Return-Path: [email protected]
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 25 Aug 2013 15:08:05.0223 (UTC) FILETIME=[E6623F70:01CEA1A4]

------=_Part_53870_1516098183.1377443282083
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
"

I checked the ip by myself and it's really from Beijing. And I can't agree with you with google translation. I can speak perfect (nativ) German and this German is really not that bad as a google translator text ... hm ...

I'm not sure. Should I give it a try? As long I don't send them money, what can happen to me for example?

Well,

In my opinion it is a scam, and as to your giving it a go well that is up to you.

Do not send any pictures, passport or other details I have a feeling you will regret it

Yes the IP is China but then scammers can operate from anywhere these days.

You came here because something seemed not right with the emails, and you have asked for an opinion, I think that you should drop all contact and have no more to do with them.

The punctuation does not look like it was written by an African. Two counts against the German being Google-translated, either from anything or from English:
1. Umlauts are split into "ae" and "oe" digraphs. I picked a sentence with "oe" in it, typed it in English into Google, and got an umlaut out. "Is it possible for you and your friend to be in two families that are near each other?" -> "Ist es möglich für Sie und Ihr Freund in zwei Familien, die nahe beieinander sind zu sein?"
2. There is no way that an automatic translation from English would produce the word "duzen". French or Spanish, yes, but not English.

The IP address is in China. I don't know German or Chinese well enough to tell if the German was written by a Chinese, but I've seen French written by a West African, and it has errors similar to English written by a West African. She obviously doesn't have a German keyboard, which is what I'd expect in China.

Okay, now the final result. We found out that the organisation is real and 100 % trusted . We will be in China next month. Anyway thank you very much guys for the answers!