Tuesday 7 April 2009

Au pair scam

Yet another recruitment scam, this time a scam that pretends to recruit au pairs to look after children in the UK.

A reader who registered on an au pair web site was contacted by someone claiming to want an au pair to look after his children in the UK. Apparently he is an airline pilot who obviously travels a lot and would pay £2,600 per month to help with the kids.

Of course as soon as our reader expressed an interest she was told to contact an agent who would process her visa, for money of course.

The clues were the same old ones.
  • an offer of a ridiculously high wage (no au pair gets that much)
  • the very poor command of English (strange for a British airline pilot)
  • the looming "advance fee" for the visa
  • the use only of cellphone numbers
  • an address that didn't exist (Google Maps is brilliant for that)
Be warned, don't believe anything!

No comments: