Is this a scam?

Hi, I´m Simona and I wanted to go work as an aupair. I´m in contact with good looking family, but I ,,met" 2 times scammers (mr.Rufus Dacey and mr.Maroon Owen) so I´m little afraid and I wanted to ask from you what you think about this family: I´m in contact with Mrs. Veronica Humphton here is her 1st message:

I am Mrs Veronica Humpthon and i work here at the state hospital as a Dentist, and my husband works as an Engineer Fluor Corporation in Texas, but we just got transferred to New York, and we will require the service of an aupair to come and live and work for us here in New York.
My kids are lovely kids and they are in the ages of 3 year old,5 years old and their names are Derrick and Jack We have been trying so hard to get a real aupair for the kids, but its seems that its very hard because all of them are after large salary...my kids are nice and respectful kids.Facilities are made available to take them to school in the morning and back from school, and a guest room is prepared for your arrival in which you have a computer and internet connection in your room,a private bath room and toilet.there is a car for you if you would be able to drive.I will be paying you 800 Dollars per month,also i will use this opportunity to inform you that both love going to parks and zoo.you can take them for shopping every Friday okay,and you are to
work from Monday to Friday. your working hours will be 7-10 and 2 -6 which will be 7 hours per day.and you are free to go to school,as i will be helping you if you so wish to school.
here is the address of where i live here in New York :
123 hilltop Dr.
Brentwood, New York
11717
US
If you do not mind,and toy are still available for this job, i would like you to send me your EMAIL ADDRESS and also your TELEPHONE NUMBER, so that i can send you some pictures and also tell you more about the job and then you can get to know me and my family better....

Then she send me contact on agency - Cultural Homestay international agency and then they send me this e-mail :

Cultural Homestay International
Opening doors to the world since 1980
Dear Simona Siebertova,
Cultural Homestay International Agency. will like to inform you that we have received your details that you have sent to us and everything is complete.
A Total of any of this Work Permit Validity to enable us process the necessary Documents for the Visa and Work Permit for you to Travel down to United States of America to live and work as well.
Cultural Homestay International Agency. will like to inform you that all documents will be arrange here in our Office after which will be forward to the American Embassy along with your Flight Ticket and Health Insurance, and we will also some Copies of this Documents will also be send to the address of your home that you have sent to us in your last message.
Cultural Homestay International Agency. have calculated the total amount to process all your documents including your Flight Tickets and we are giving you the load down below.
For your flight tickets it will cost £665 Pounds because it will be a Round-Trip flight.
For your visa it will cost £210 Pounds
For your working permit it will cost £210 Pounds
For your health insurance it will cost £255 Pounds
And definitely our agency is gonna charge you for our agency fees which is not that much but it will be just £ 200 Pounds, so the total amount for the processing of all your documents including your Flight Tickets will be £1550 Pounds in total.
Send the payments of £1,550 Pounds via Western Union Money Transfer to the details below :
Name : Mr Tyler Aaron
Street :106 Butterfield Road,
City : London,
Post Code : SW6 1AZ,
Country : United Kingdom.
Cultural Homestay International Agency will want you to go to the POST OFFICE and tell them that you want to make the payments through Western Union Money Transfer.
Cultural Homestay International wants to inform you that Mr Tyler Aaron is our cashier and he is the one that is in charge of all the payments coming In and Out of our Agency, so he is the one that is going to receive the payments to us when you send them.
Anticipating your respond

Yours Faithfully
Cultural Homestay International


I just wanted ask you if ou ever had contact with this lady or with agency...I really like them and on photos they look like nice people but I´m little afraid because of my previous experiences.

Thank you so much

100% scam. A huge, huge red flag is the payment of fees through Western Union. Whenever you read something similar and Western Union/Moneygram comes into the picture, it is a definite scam. The writing and grammar errors in the mails point to West Africa. I suggest to stop all contact immediately.

Could you please post the email addresses and other data you received from them? The more info we can list on them, the better.

Sad to say but the same scam can be seen here, almost word for word.
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=77323

And then from early Twenty 13 comes the same basic script on viewtopic.php?f=42&t=71316

The poor English and the specific mistakes tell me that the scammers are African. They are most definitely not American and have probably never set foot in the United States. The English from the "Agency" is also very poor and contains typical African mistakes, showing that "Mrs. Veronica" and the "agency" are the same criminal. You have never been in contact with the real Homestay International Agency.

In order to be an au pair in the US, you MUST go through a very extensive qualification process.

-You will have to apply with an official agency. Because scammers often use the names of real agencies, you MUST contact the agency through the website or phone number on this list, in order to be sure that you are dealing with the real agency, not a fake:
http://j1visa.state.gov/participants/how-to-apply/sponsor-search/?program=Au%20Pair
-As part of that application process, you will have to fill out various forms, including a complete personality profile.
-Then you MUST have an interview, IN PERSON, with a representative of the agency. The interview will be in English, and the representative will write a report about the interview that will be shared with any family that is considering hiring you. This interview will happen in your country, and is required BEFORE any agency can sponsor you.
-You will NEVER send money to anyone via Western Union or Moneygram in order to get a job as an au pair.

If you have not done these things, you CANNOT get a position as an au pair in the United States.


Please post the email addresses that these criminals used, both for the fake family and the fake agency.

Here are the addresses: e-mail address of a ,,family": [email protected]
agency: [email protected]
Telephone Number : +447024074870

And when the family called me at phone I had write thet calling is made from Ohio so that was weird to me because they said they´re from NY

Thank you guys!

Thankyou Sisi for posting the e-mail address. Many people search scammers by the method. The agency would not be using a at consultant dot com e-mail address. The scammer has merely signed up to mail.com which is a free e-mail programme like yahoo etcetera. Anyone can sign onto mail.com and use it. Scammers do so because it makes them look important.
I notice you published one of those pesky phone numbers beginning with 4470. Any time you see these, be wary. An earlier posting at viewtopic.php?f=26&t=13567 better describes phone numbers beginning with those digits.