Private Tutor and Nanny Job Offers
We’ve talked about Nanny and Private Job Offers before in the TEFLWatch Forum, but I’m seeing an increase in complaints from TEFL and ESL teachers about these kind of scams more and more recently so it’s time we put a warning about them here on the front page. While some offers, I’m sure, are legitimate, many it seems are not and English teachers looking for jobs abroad need to be aware of this.
The modus operandi is scammers to reply to job wanted ads or even place their own. Either teachers are told about a fabulous job offers that pays very highly and gives awesome benefits. It might involve private tutoring of a young child of a rich expat or it might just mean being a nanny. Either way, the job offers look to good to be true.
A typical ad might look like this one:
Dear ELS Teacher,
My name is *** and I am married to ****. We are from France working and residing in Nigeria on contract for Nova Gas Incorporated a Multinational Oil and Gas Company with headquarters in the USA. We saw your profile and know that can be capable to teach my Family how to speak English language.Meanwhile my wife and Child are not really good when it comes to speaking English hence we require an ESL Teacher to come and spend Six months or One year with us here in Nigeria . You would teach my wife and my Child who is 3 years old how to speak English and some writing too. This is veryimportant to me hence I would be offering to pay you $5000 every month. You would have a Private Live-Out or Live-In Accommodation depending on your preference with Private Bathroom, Sitting Room and Bedroom. Your room would also be furnished with a Television Set, an Internet Ready Computer System and a Fixed Landline telephone. If you can drive, you can let us know so that we can arrange a vehicle that you would use also let us know if you will prefare to live outside because we dont know your live style. You would take them in English Classes every evening time from 5 p.m to 8.30 p.m day from Monday to Friday. You would also have the weekends off .Weekends with us is very fun as we visit fun spots, go sightseeing and amusement parks. Do not worry about your travel arrangements as we would assist you in that
regards when the time comes. I will attached our family picture and our Residential for you when you get back to me for further details.
Perfect living accommodations, only 3 1/2 hours of teaching 5 days a week and pay of $5000 a month. It does sound too good to be true…because it is.
Don’t let the location in Nigeria fool you either, I’ve seen the same type of offers for teaching in other countries like Greece, Spain, and Italy.
You’re probably thinking, how can they scam me? They’re the ones giving me a job! Well, once they’ve hooked you with such a great offer, they can start talking about extra fees. Maybe you need to send them money to show your earnest in wanting the job or maybe you need to send them money for a visa. But probably, you’ll get to participate in the cashier check fraud scam.
It might work in an elaborate way like this. the scammers might tell you that they will send you money for the airplane ticket. They’ll end up sending you a cashier’s check for more than the amount and ask you to send part of the amount on to one of their friends or family members. The cashier’s check might be for $5000 and the ticket is only for $1500 so you send $3500 to one of the business associates. You take the cashier’s check to your bank. Because it’s a cashier’s check, they cash it right away. Happy now, you go ahead and send the money to the business associate. Two weeks later, you realize the check was bad and you owe the bank $5000.
Or it might be very simple. They will ask for for fees to cover visa processing or even a deposit to hold the job because other want the job. You might say yes because you think you are going to be earning a lot of money. What is paying a $500 fee when you will make 10 times that in a month?
These kind of scams work off of greed. Don’t fall victim to the greed. Just remember, friends, if it’s sounds too good to be true then it probably is. Any comments or further information about these offers?
Comments
10 Comments on Private Tutor and Nanny Job Offers
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aamir mughal on
Thu, 13th Mar 2008 4:54 am
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Jedi on
Sun, 16th Mar 2008 6:07 am
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Dave on
Tue, 8th Apr 2008 8:45 pm
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sofonias Gabonada on
Fri, 18th Apr 2008 1:14 am
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jenny lerit on
Wed, 23rd Apr 2008 3:19 am
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carol on
Thu, 24th Apr 2008 12:55 am
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Inchirieri Masini on
Tue, 24th Feb 2009 11:51 am
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Lauren on
Sat, 13th Feb 2010 1:34 pm
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Nanny on
Thu, 15th Jul 2010 9:52 am
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J. Byers on
Tue, 12th Jul 2011 12:23 pm
yeah
i received lots of emails even a telephone call from a person from portugal who has a couple of very young kids and a pretty wife. they had the same story offering 6000 us dollars a month etc. i snubbed them by asking a six month advance payment against the salary to be transferred directly into my account.
aamir mughal
islamabad pakisan
Reading posts above someone from Nigira was trying to hire me as a chef and sent me a contact. Wanted me to leave my family asked for pictures blah blah blah. No thanks…..USA is solid and has real money.
I have had several e-mails from “Blaxland Reynolds” over the past 3 years or so. The last one arrived just a few days ago – my approach now, to the typical “job offer” or “please help me” emails, is to reply with a very crude instruction that tells the sender to go forth and multiply elsewhere. I add a load of personal insults too. My view is that if someone deliberately sets out to rob me then I have every right to call them what the hell I want.
It did elicit a furious spluttering response from the low-life, “Blaxland Reynolds” so at least I touched a nerve there. Moreover, now I know his true return address, I will devise something suitably nasty to repeatedly waste his time. Like him I can open many e-mail accounts and send him stuff from each one
Be as nasty as you like to people like him but do NOT open any attachments these crooks might send you.
helo, im sof. thnks a lot for the info. it really save me from hell. God will repay you of your kindness. thnks and regards.
I got a mail from this MR. REYNOLDS BLAXLAND and he said that I am qualified as an English Teacher for his kids. Too bad because I believed in him. Good thing I didn’t give anything because I don’t have money for the said DER. That is needed. Thank God because I looked his name in the internet and I have read all the scams about him. He even called me last night and he really wants me to pay the said DER immediately. Thanks to the internet and other information about this bad guy. It’s so sad to know that people are doing this just to earn money. We do all need money but let’s be fair and don’t let anyone fool us. God bless him and may he find the right way to change.
Maybe i am one of the latest victim of Engr. Blaxland Reynolds. It is good Im praying very hard taht the Lord just will guide me on whatt to do with this offer, if it is true or a scam.. Finally it entered my mind to search for his name and by surprise I got these many comments offering the same as mine. Let us not be move by what this man offers to us. Let’s pray for God’s will to come for us and not by this man’s evil doing…..BLAXLAND REYNOLDS, may God bless you and change your heart not to fool many people who is in need of work. OK?????
They are scammers 100% ! be carefull guys!
I got an e-mail, not from the same guy you were talking about but it seemed too good to be true. It was some story about how his daugher lives in Spain with her very ill Mom and needs to come live in my state and he would pay me a good amount. It seemed like a very weird story but he asked me a bunch of questions in e-mail about my name, address, etc. I answered those questions but then I had questions of my own. He wrote me back saying the check would be coming in the mail and he failed to answer my questions I asked about the job! At that point I decided to research things like that and I saw that it was a scam, which I already knew. I got a check in the mail the other day for $2000. I can’t cash it obviously…. I wish I knew of some way to “get the scammers back” for them doing this to innocent, honest people looking to make a living! Its just so wrong that they try to take advantage of people like that!
Why are so many of these coming from nigeria or ghana? And are they really?
How secure are those online nanny agencies? Would you trust their background tests.
I think I’m getting really paranoid here.
Although I also wonder who is falling for this. $5000 as a nanny? Yeah right.
I got 3 letter within the past 2 months while looking for ESL work overseas. The last 2 were within the past 72 hours. It is always some man of Asian origin who has relocated to England and wants a tutor for his wife and children.
What I found peculiar was the following: Like all scams the subject line is always in caps. Also what triggered me of was the casual tone of these people contacting me and the bad grammar. People belonging to a social status that allows them to pay out 3500-5000 pounds a month to a private tutor can afford to hire someone to check their grammar. Two of the three were Phds and nowhere to be found on Google (Phds are published and belong to associations that come up in google when you put their name in it). The addresses on the bottom of the email are always bogus; one was a tourist site, another an existing school (where the scammer did not work) and another was a house worth over 1 million pounds that seemed to high end for garbage like scammers to afford.
Unlike the rest of you in this forum I wish nothing but the worst (no less a MAC truck) upon all these people and hope their lives are short, painful, and miserable because they deserve no less….
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