Another Au Pair Scam

Hello there,
My name is Valentina and I've made acounts on a few Au Pair web-sites.I've had some suspicions from the begining but I did not belive this tipe of scam really exists.I am happy that I am not so dumb and I usually question everything.Well now looking on your web site and forum I can see that it was not all in my mind and is bigger than I thought.I recived some letters from suposed famillys that wanted me to work for them.Now I see the scam "screaming in my face" and to be honest I am so furious I can't speak.Please escuse my grammar...
So I'll give you some examples of e-mails I recived,and also one e-mail from a so called UK Border worker asking me for money:


From: This sender is DomainKeys verified"DAVID HAYDEN" <[email protected]>
To: undisclosed-recipients


My name is David Hayden and I am a pilot, My ex wife is a nurse but we have been divorced for 2months now and I am usually very busy, I live in Birmingham, UK. I am looking for a nanny/Au pair to take care of my kids. My kids names are Samantha is 5 and Richard is 2years old.

I want an Au pair/Nanny that is ready to come over hear hopefully when you can come, You will be treated as part of my family and not just like an Au pair. Also I will want you play with the kids and teach them new things so as to widen their horizon, all necessary incentives like your personal car, computer, telephone, accommodation, bathroom e.t.c will be taking care of by me.
As a family we enjoy barbecue (weather permitting),socializing, generally having fun, reading, computers, TV, the boys love computer games , arts & crafts. Food is another great love of ours - given the time I enjoy cooking.

Please get back to me if you are interested in the job.

Waiting to hear from you.

David Hayden



From: "Mac Kings" <[email protected]>
To: undisclosed-recipients

Dear Nanny
This is a old family of (ages 49) with two cute boy and girl (5and 2). We live in NY United State. We are active members in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter . Husband is attorney, wife is Real Estate agent.We Need help with some one how will help us watch the kid during day while we are at work.. Nice neighborhood, nice new home. Fun family, enjoys meeting new people, having fun activities together, traveling, etc. We Wants an Au Pair who will teach the family a foreign language,Looking forward to becoming good friends with an outgoing individual.I have an apartment room for he/she that would be taking care of my kids in my house and i will be paying you $3000 for every four weeks and a pocket money of $700 per week for the buying of some things for your self and i will also be responsible for some of the money for your flight ticket .And the working hour is just 8 hours per day and your responsibility in my house is just to take care of my kids, cooking ,taking them on shopping ,taking them to where the school bus will pick them up from which is just 2 km ahead from home.also if you wish to be having free period from 5 pm to 6 pm is acceptable.So i will like you to get back to me if you are interested in being my aupair nanny for my kids.So i hope to hear from you soon
Regard Mac Kings


An now the "cherry"


From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]


Attn Applicant,

We wish to thank you for contacting us regarding the arrangement of your traveling documents to the UK and we promise to Offer you the best which you will be glad you used our services. We will like you to provide us with the following details:


- Full Name

-Mailing Address

-Phone Number

-Nationality

-Scan copy of your Passport Photo page

Everything will be processed within three weeks, once we receive the fees for processing your required documents from you.

1)UK Insurance Number = 200pounds
2)UK tax clearance certificate = 150pounds

A Total of £350 Pounds to enable us process the necessary documents for you to travel down to the UK and work.

All documents will be arranged here in our Office after which will be forwarded to the UK Embassy and also copies of this documents will also be sent to you when you pay the fees(350pounds)

You are required to pay the fees through western union money transfer to AUBRIANNA GORDON.

Below is the payment details.

Receiver's name: AUBRIANNA GORDON
City: BIRMINGHAM
Country: UK

After you make the payment, Please keep us posted with:
Sender's name: ?
Sender's Address: ?
Amount sent: ?
10 digit Mtcn number: ?

We will begin in earnest once we receive all necessary Details.

UK BORDER AGENCY
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: +447045776284
Contact person: MR. JONATHAN SEDGWICK





Well these are just 2 e-mails I recived,and I have more.....So please be carefull,when you recive this kind of stuff,read them very good,question everything and most of all I hope that you don't become a victim.
Best wishes and keep up the good work here.

Thank you for posting these scams. As you said, the poor English is a definite sign when the person claims to be American or British.

Taking one unique line from the first email and googling it tells you a lot:
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22As+a+family+we+enjoy+barbecue%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a


The second email is a confirmed scam in the first 3 lines, since people generally know the names of their own countries and churches, and this one knew neither!

The last one is a typical scam money request, of course--and there are several giveaways there, the first of which is that the British government does not use free email addresses or take payment by Western Union. Any "employer" who asks you to pay them or someone they recommend for your traveling documents is a scammer. The 44-70 number is also a classic sign of a scam-these numbers are redirect phone numbers that can be forwarded to phones all over the world--scammers use these numbers to pretend they are in UK when they are really in Africa or Malaysia.

Please feel free to stop by and post other scams as you receive them--every scam posted may help someone else avoid being scammed!

Hello Valentina,

I also thank you for posting these scam mails.

The scammer who calls himself David Hayden also uses these email addresses:

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

His fake UK Border Agency may also demand payment for a visa and work permit, if the scammer guesses that might be believable:

1)UK Insurance Number = 200pounds
2)UK tax clearance certificate = 150pounds
3) Visa = 150pounds
4)Work permit = 100pounds

A Total of £600 Pounds to enable us process the necessary documents for you to travel down to the UK and work.

The IP addresses of this scammer show that he is actually living in Nigeria.

Welcome here Valentina.

It's exactly as you say, now that you recognise the scams, they become very obvious to you. But if you never have dealth with this before, and never been working as an au pair in the UK, it's easy to get scammed. These scammers work fast and have their scam very well worked out. Especially the emails from the travel agency, or border agency are full of nonsense. But the scammer makes it appear that you need all these documents, a visa (even if you come from an EU country, then you never need a visa) and that you need to pay for taxes, or tax clearence. Sometimes they even will arrange your flight ticket. It's all made up to make you pay.

o: undisclosed-recipients A sure sign of an email sent out in bulk

My kids names are Samantha (odd name for a boy) is 5 and Richard is 2years old.

the boys love computer games ,

Hello again,
First of all I want to say thank you.Most of all to Chris Fuller because he had sended me the first e-mail that opened my eyes and then to all of you for making this site live.To be honest at this moment I am most sad because this kind of people even exist.I recived more e-mails from scamers but at this point I do not even have to look at it twice to see if it is real or not.And that is because of you.So thank you again and I will post more e-mails that other people might find exemple in so that they do not fall in the "hands"of these asses.(escuse my langage)

Ello again,
I've recived aso called contract from one of the "famillys".From the first e-mail I did not reply to them but still they sended me this:

"Standard employment contract for au pair
The application must be filled in clearly and in full. Please use capital letters only
Between (hereinafter referred to as the host family: Mr. Allen Dave
And (hereinafter referred to the au pair):

Name of agency (if an agency in used): [email protected]

1- Duration of the employment period
The contract enters into force from the date on which the au pair’s work permit is issued by the
police. The employment relationship is expected to last until/for. (Fill in the date or period of time.
Note that a work permit as an au pair cannot be granted for more than two years in total):
2- Termination/Resignation
· the contract may be terminated by either party with at least one month’s notice. The period
of notice is reckoned from the date on which the other party received notice. Notice of
termination must be in writing. The host family cannot dismiss the au pair except on
reasonable grounds. If the au pair so requests, the host family shall state the grounds for
termination in writing. The au pair is not required to provide grounds for termination.
· Either party may terminate the contract with immediate effect if the other party is in serious
breach of the contractual obligations, or is otherwise in material breach of this contract.
3- Pocket money/pay
The au pair is entitled to monthly pocket money/pay from the host family, in addition to free board and lodging.
Amount per week in GBP :350 POUNDS
Method of payment : WEEKLY
4- English language course
The host family shall pay for an English language course for the au pair : YES
5- Responsibilities
The au pair shall carry out light domestic work, mind and look after children, look after pet etc. The
au pair’s working hours shall not normally exceed 5 hours per day, and a maximum of 40 hours per
week. The au pair’s specific duties in the employment relationship must be specified below:
I would expect you to work 5 hours per day Mon-Friday, Take the kids to school and bring
them back to the house. Take good care of them and look after the pet. There will be a car
for you should in case you want to take the children out, that is if you can drive.
6- Time off
The au pair is entitled to at least 48 hours off ( free period) a week. The free period shall never be less than 24
hours uninterrupted time off. Every other week the free period shall include Sunday. Furthermore, every other
public holiday shall be a day off and the au pair shall have at least one fixed afternoon off per week.
The au pair shall also be given an opportunity to attend English language tuition and
participate in leisure activities.
7- Holidays
The au pair is entitled to 25 working days holiday per calendar year.
8- Illness
If the au pair becomes ill, the host family shall continue to provide board and lodging
free of charge until another arrangement has been found for the au pair.
9- Status within the family
The au pair shall be treated as a member of the family and shall be given an
opportunity to participate actively in family life.
10- The host family
The host family confirms that the family consist of :
Adults
Father’s Name: ALLEN DAVE
Mother’s Name: JOANN DAVE
The host father’s works in: Garment Industry
The host mother’s occupation is: MISSIONARY
If the host family consists of a single and a child or children, the host parent’ s percentage
responsibility for daily cares and control of the child or children must be documented.
Separate documentation of the percentage responsibility must be endorsed.
Children:
Name: PETER DAVE and MARIA DAVE
Which language(s) does the family speck on daily basis? English
Host Family’ address: 37 FLEMING WAY, LONDON, SE28 8NS
10- Dwelling
The host family confirms that its dwelling is a house/flat consisting of the following
total number of rooms: 4 ROOMS
11- Rooms
The au pair will have he’s/her own room in the dwelling: YES
12- Additional information
The host family confirms the following additional information’s (For example, if the host
family is to pay for the au pair travel to and /or from, this should be stated here):
I WILL BE PAYING FOR THE LANGUAGE COURSE AND ALSO IF THERE IS NEED FOR ME
TO PAY HALF OF THE TRAVELING FEE.
13- Disputes
If any disputes arise, they shall be dealt with in accordance with United Kingdom Law.
14- National insurance
The host family shall ensure that the au pair is registered in the England National insurance Scheme
15- The au pair are aware that
· A host family may only employ one au pair at a time or couple au pair
· The au pair may not commence work as an au pair until his or her permit has been granted
· The au pair ,ay not be related to any one in the host family ( sibling, cousin, brother-/sister-in-law
Or uncle/aunt).
· An au pair permit con be granted or a total of two years.
· Other contracts than this standard contract is not permitted. The host family and au pair may
not enter into additional contracts which are in breach of the principles of this contract
16 Signatures
The contract must be signed by both parties
Signature of the au pair and date _________________________________________
Signature of the host family and date
________________________________________27/07/2010
Some of the information on this form will be stored in a computer register. A person who has
provided information which may be registered has a right of access to the information, ct the
Personal Data Act of 14 April 2000 no. 31, section 18. As a rule, right of access means that you
are entitled to be told what information has been registered about you


I did not reply to them,from the first e-mail the amount of money they are willing to pay was to high,the phone numer he left me for contact was one +4470... ,the pictures they sended looked like made by photoshop and like they were taken from a comercial(to damn perfect),they did not write my name anywere so I would know that what they write is for me,etc...And all has the signs of scam...

Thank you Valentina for posting another au pair scam mail - this will help warn other people who are looking for an au pair position.

And I'm so glad that you can identify scams now!

If you receive any more au pair scams, you might like to post them in the Employment Scams forum here (click on the viewforum link below):

viewforum.php?f=34

If you click on 'NEWTOPIC' on the left-hand side of that forum, you will be able to post each scammer in his own thread topic, helping readers of the forum to spot them easily.

It is wonderful that you want to help warn others in this way.