ESL Scams Part 1: Money Up Front
The global ESL industry is ripe with scams, schemes and frauds. As an industry that primarily relies on long-distance communication via the Internet and telephone to conduct its business, verifying the authenticity of employment opportunities is extremely important. If you have questions an employer can't or won't answer, that's usually the first sign something is wrong. If a job looks to good to be true, i.e. an outrageous salary and great benefits, then it probably is. If an employer asks you for something you shouldn't have to provide, like money for processing papers or an airfare through their company, then you may have stumbled upon a scam.
Any job that requests money from a teacher before the commencement date of employment should be outright rejected and preferably exposed on the several trusted ESL news forums and blogs like www.eslcafe.com or ESL Daily (you can write to us through our comment section at blog.esldaily.org) for the benefit of other teachers. Other ways to verify the validity of an offer or ad is to Google search the company name, or perhaps the first line of text. If this provides nothing, pose a question on a forum. Other ESL teachers are a great source of advice because of their experience.
Common sense is the best defense against scams such as these. You are the employee. They are the employer. They pay you, not the other way around. Some scams are more intricate and will lead the teacher on before fleecing them, asking for documents to prepare travel papers or providing contracts which promise reimbursements. The time will always come when they ask for an airfare or a commitment fee.
In Part 1 of this series, ESL Daily explores the most popular scam, the Money Up Front scam. The following are two job offers recently given to us by a teacher (who wishes to remain anonymous) who received them via email. ESL Daily has provided the full text of these offers, including the teacher's own remarks (with grammatical corrections) because we believe they are edifying as well.
In Part Two of this series, we discuss the use and importance of "Exotic Locations" in ESL scams.
Job Offer 1:
"Dear teacher,
My name is DR Michael ********** i am from Berlin Germany and work as a CHIEF MEDICAL DIRECTOR at ABIA STATE UNIVERSITY TEACHING HOSPITAL, ABA Nigeria (www.absu-th.com). My wife and Kids recently joined me in Nigeria, she is German and can't speak English.
I am contacting you because i viewed you resume at www.eslpro.com and would like to know if you would be able to come and teach my wife kelly and my two kids Jasmine and John English, most importantly is my wife; She would be attending an interview at a bank here in Nigeria by December 2008. Therefore, i want you to know if you can come by January or February to teach my family English.
I contacted the local directory of Teachers and found out the salary range of teachers, Therefore i would be willing to offer you US$6,500 per month and also include a health fee of US$700 and vacation fee of US$1000.
I have a twin duplex, Me and my family occupy one of them at the moment, and if you accept this offer, you would be staying in the second Duplex.
I have informed the Hospital where i work, and they would be paying for your relocation cost if you accept the offer.
If you are interested, please send your Full name and contact address, so that i could prepare a contract and inform you about further proceedings in getting into the country to resume Work.
Regards,
DR Michael ************
Medical Director
+2348022754550"
Teacher's remarks:
Come on; give me a job that pays $6,500 bucks a month. I can't get that much in the middle of Iraq (which pays about $4,000-$5,000 a month). I have been asked numerous times if this is real or not. Use common sense, what person would pay that much? It is a scam. They ask you to pay for your flight up front through a so-called "travel agency" of their bidding. They take the flight money and run. No job. It's a real hospital, a real city, and a real person… just stolen. There are similar jobs out there, just don't go for any job that you think isn't practical. Either you have them pay for your flight or pay for your flight through a company of your choice. Make sure you have the ticket.
Job offer 2:
"Dear teacher
me name is Dr Hans ********* me is from Berlin Germany and me is work in madona teachinghospital. www.madonateachinghospital.gq.nu me is see you cv at www.eslpro.com and me is like it and me is want to know if you is able to come and teach my wife kelly and me two kids.most importantly is me wife she needs to go banking interview here in Nigeria by first week of march next year and me is want you to know if is is to come by january or February to teach me family English sine February this year me family join me me kids are not in school because they is hard to speak English me wife it trying but she need to be teach well well for the interview.
me is offer you US$6,500 per month and me is include health fee of US$700 and vacation fee of US$1000 .
me is get you good house were you is live and me is good family you is like us if you is come stay with us.
me is see you cv already me is just want to know if you is make it now or if you is ready to come immediately me is get you travel paper here and send to you.
so me is which to here from you soon so me is prepare you contract letter and send you so that we is get you papers ready.
cheers
Dr Hans ********
+2348058564538"
Categories: Finding ESL employment,Scams,Spencer McCall,Africa,Danger,Illegal,Recruiting,Middle East
Very practical it was good you showed the two different flavors of the same scam
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Thanks, I'm glad you liked that. You should also check out Part 2, to be published this week. It is based on my personal experience with a scam allegedly based in Spain.
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Be aware (or beware) ... any, any, offers at all coming from Nigeria - you can consider automatically a scam... the latest I've been receiving is offers as a Private Tutor... but all the emails ask for money up front so they can "relocate near me and all will be refunded once their money clears the bank, "because of lengthy processing fees to transfer so much money (usually millions) and they have to relocte immediately and so on...
I wish I could relate a great story I have where I turend the scam around and these Nigerian fools who tried so hard to convince me of a great "help me get my dead father's money out of the country..." - well to make a long story short... believe it or not, but I turned the scam around and got "clean and free" $24,000 (Canadian)... This will be one for the grandkids to tell to and laugh about it. To this day, I can't believe that these people actually sent me this money and I got away with it. After the guy figured that he got scammed... he told me that was "just a drop in the bucket and I lost the chance to make hundreds of thousands"... True story, of course all the details are left out... and there are many details....My wife and I still really can't believe this....
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greetings of peace.
indeed, i was about to be fooled. i tried to check on abuja, nigeria and learned of the 419 scam. when i opened your esl scams, i got these goosebumps.
i got the offer as esl teacher. the text is similar to job offer #2. a certain dr. gus wiggle sent me the contract letter as well asan application form from the teachers registration council of nigeria. however, another contract letter arrived from a certain dr. peter nicholas of the madona teaching hospital. I felt so intrigued because
the same signature appeared on both contract letters.
how can we help stop these scoundrels with this kind of scam? this experience unnerved me so much i think i'm traumatized.
the first doctor even sent me a family picture together with picures of the house where i was supposed to stay.
really, i never thought that these kind of people exists.
by the way, the trcn form stipulated that i pay the amount of US$310 as application fee payment through the western union money transfer since i am considered an overseas applicant.
i hope that other esl teachers would learn from this bad experience of mine.
thank you very much.
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I believe that the best way to stop the scams is by writing about them. Before anybody considers taking an over seas job, they should search the Internet. Most of the scams come fromNigeria
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I also received the same offer..and too bad and i am a mooooooooorrrrrr fool because i sent them 710US$....now it has a terrible shocking effect not only to my emotional stance but to my health too..maybe i was just stressed.i have the same copies too..everything wth me....contract and stuff.
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Yes ESL daily is right.The only way to stop the scams is by writing about them....I am better now.I kept the communication with the scammers until today and see what they have.I posted everything on the blog that I made. From the contract to the offers..And everything..Feel free to check my blog.I made it to try to stop the scammers..I hope it can help other too..try it www.nigeriaesl.blogspot.com
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Thank you for your warnings. I received two very similar emails but got suspicious at the amount of money offered. I tried to check things out but wasn't sure how to go about finding if the job was legitimate or not. I checked the hospital website but there were no more details about the person named. I cut all contact with them when they sent me a second email with almost identical details. Then I realized that my suspicious were founded. I thank the Lord for protecting me from the scammers, but I worry that more naive teachers will be sucked in with promised of huge salaries. Please keep warning as many as possible! Thanks again for doing a good job.
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I am a newly graduated teacher and just found out I sent a copy of my passport, my CV, copies of my diploma and went through an interview process with Good Seed Intl in Barcelona, only to be asked for accommodation money upfont. There were no red flags until then, and I am no worried about identity theft. Is there any way to protect myself now? Is there any legal recourse available for these people? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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I wouldn't think that your CV or diploma copies will cause much of a problem. Passport is the only thing that may be useful for id theft. Even then you gave them a copy, and not the original. Most likely the company wishes to make a buck and pass on to the next teacher, so I would not worry too much. However, you are right about protecting yourself. Now I am no expert at this, so you may want to ask some others for advice, but I would first go to the police station and email YOUR embassy in Barcelona and ask for advice. None of your ID was actually stolen and originals are all safe, so I would not loose sleep over it. It might be wise to report this possible 'scam' to your embassy in Barcelona too, so that they can attempt to put an end to it. If they actually do attempt to steal your ID from your passport, they can get into serious international trouble. Let me know what the police/embassy says.
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Scammers are now scattered everywhere. Most of us have run across an email scam at one point or another. Several popular email scams (beyond just insipid chain letters) included giveaways from Microsoft or the Gates Foundation, or unclaimed money from a foreign national. One of the most rampant scams making its rounds these days is the Nigeria scam. You get an email from someone claiming that for a cash advance they'll send you money unclaimed from the Nigerian government or royal family, or oil reserves. Warning-if you fall for it, you won't be seeing your money again. Unless you're actually contacted by a verifiable Nigerian official, don't do anything – delete the message, because it's an email scam.
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Thanks for the message
Right now ANY email from a Nigerian or Africa in general... be very very very careful. Most of the emails are sent in large quantities. It is a good idea to do a Google search to see if anyone has black listed the message. Choose five or six words in sequence and place them in quotations. Also do a Google search for email address. If there are a lot of results, you can always add 'blacklist' or 'warning' to the search.
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