[Whistleblower]

Hello folks,

I received an e-mail from a chap to teach his family the email contents are below:

Email For Job Proposal

My name is Wilson Brown and I am married to Lilian. We are from
Portugal, working and residing in Nigeria on contract for (SHELL).

My wife and Children are not really good when it comes to speaking English hence we require an ESL Teacher to come and spend One year with us. You would teach my wife and my two kids how to speak English and some writing too. This is very important to me hence I would be offering to pay you $4500 every month.

You would have a Private Live-Out or Live-In Accomdation depending on your preference with Private Bathroom, SittingRoom and Bedroom. Your room would also be furnished with a TelevisionSet, an Internet Ready Computer System and a Fixed Landline telephone. If you can drive, we can make arrengment for that too.

You would take them in English Classes every evening. 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 have attached our family picture for you.

I hope to hear from you in earnest.

Now I am not one for being lured into just taking any job that comes along, but this one made me sit and wonder: "Is this job real and how can I find out about it's authenticity?" What do you guys and gals think, is this job authentic or not?

Personally, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. So, I suppose this is a warning to those out there who are pretty new to teaching. Research the school etc before you sign any contract.

Martin

[clivehawkins]

If you run that text through google you'll see it comes up with a scam warning.
I'm afraid it does seem too good to be true!

Maybe it'd be more realistic if it said the photocopier never works, the board pens are never replaced when they run out, you don't get paid on time, etc etc. Ouch - am I a bit fed up this morning by any chance?????!!!

[Eric]

Nigeria is known for its scams. I would totally disregard this message.

Eric

[Eric]

Quote clivehawkins

Maybe it'd be more realistic if it said the photocopier never works, the board pens are never replaced when they run out, you don't get paid on time, etc etc. Ouch - am I a bit fed up this morning by any chance?????!!!

Hey, I didn't see you at our school today...

[simplyesl]

hehehehe

[clivehawkins]

OK, so maybe it was a bit harsh. Especially when you consider I work in MY school!

Anyway, we've just had the final run through for the Christmas show with the kids and it's cheered me up no end. I'm already giggling at the thought of the parents booing us from here to Easter What a shambles!

[Eric]

Quote clivehawkins

OK, so maybe it was a bit harsh. Especially when you consider I work in MY school!

Anyway, we've just had the final run through for the Christmas show with the kids and it's cheered me up no end. I'm already giggling at the thought of the parents booing us from here to Easter What a shambles!

I was just joking. Your situation sounds very similar to my situation therefore I made the comment, "I didn't see you at our school today..." meaning we must work at the same school... i guess it wasn't that funny

I ddin't think your comment was too harsh bit it was funny.

I agree with you, I would think a school that flat out stated its flaws would be far more trustworthy than some of these schools that paint these heavenly pictures of their schools..

[Whistleblower]

Anyways to keep you people up to date on this I sent a reply to the very nice chap offering me fours hours work a day and the chance to earn over $4000 per month and this was his reply:

Dear Martin,

Thanks for your mail,

We bent on making a search to find a reliable and experinced Esl teacher to come and teach my wife and kids English language when we came across your profile at (Worknplay) so we decided to contact you beliving you caryy out you duty perfectly, you shall teach them 4 hours a day you have the weekend off,

Location:
Novas Gas industrial Housing
estate Block A Flat 113
Port-harcourt, River State.
Nigeria.

We wish you resume work with us as soon as your Visa and other documents are ready. Other details are stated in the contract letter which we shall send you upon the acceptance of this offer.

looking forward to hear from you soonest
Sincerely
Wilson brown

I shall see how long I can pull this out to find out more info. I would love to see their contract for a laugh. Btw, I thought I was gonna be teaching at a home for his kids whilst he is on contract with Shell, but turns out he is working now for Novas Gas. He must be busy changing jobs all the time to earn a competitive salary for my monthly $4000+ salary for teaching.

I shall keep you all updated.

[clivehawkins]

Don't worry about that. As I already said, when you put it through Google there is a search result which comes up with a scam warning. Don't touch this offer with a bargepole!!!
They will ask you to send work permit fees etc etc and then you never hear from them again.

[clivehawkins]

Quote Eric

I was just joking. Your situation sounds very similar to my situation therefore I made the comment, "I didn't see you at our school today..." meaning we must work at the same school... i guess it wasn't that funny

Now we're getting our humour wires crossed. I was joking too!!!
It was funny.
It must be something to do with the different time zones \ delay etc. A bit like the TV interviews with the old sattelite links - impossible to follow :-)

[Whistleblower]

Quote clivehawkins

Don't touch this offer with a bargepole!!!

Haven't heard that expression for such a long time.

Don't worry Clive. I am not gonna touch this job, I thought it would be good advise for new teachers starting a career with ESL/EFL. Especially when there are people out there which are willing to con you out of your hard earned dough when you want to find an honest job.

I did Google the first line of the text and I did find the scam had also happened to some other teachers. As I said I shall find out more information and post it here so newcomers to teaching English will not make the mistake to take this type of job offer.

[clivehawkins]

Good work fella!

No, you're right. Still wet behind the ears Tefl teachers could well get taken in by that. Like you say, they should check out the school beforehand, post notices on forums asking if anyone has worked there before, even get in touch with the local consul or British council.

Enjoy the holidays, and make sure that cat doesn't get its tail trodden on while the mice are shivering away in the UK!!!

[Whistleblower]

So I have replied to the very very nice gentleman who is offering this employment (Please I am being sarcastic!!!) and he sent me a very basic contract which is like a pdf file but I am unable to ammend anything as it security locked to stop it being changed in anyway.

But to be serious, this is absolutely worthless. This was the worst contract I have ever seen and I am not even going to describe the basic errors in this contract.

However, here was his reply from his latest email:

Dear Martin,

We recieve your mail with contents well noted,
From our experince Nigeria is the one of the beautiful country in Africa, with exciting mix culture, wonderful places to hang out, you shall live within our locality because we are living in one of exculesive residencial estate build by the Government with security, so your security and wellbeing is well taken care of.
Attched herewith is the employment contract letter for your confirmation and study. kindly fill in the neccessary places sign and send bck to us for our confirmation while you contact the Nigerian immigration services they will funish with neccessary information also process your travling documents to enable you resume work with us in record time.

Looking forward to hear from you soonest
Sincerely
Wilson Brown

Now the good fella has attached his contract and is willing to employ me asap without contacting any of my referees. How professional???

I have decided to contact the MET (a police body in the UK) who has a squad dedicated to this type of crime which is seen as a 419 Nigerian Scam. I have found this useful guide from the internet Nigeria - The 419 Coalition Website:

Courtesy of The 419 Coalition

1. NEVER pay anything up front for ANY reason.
2. NEVER extend credit for ANY reason.
3. NEVER do ANYTHING until their check clears.
4. NEVER expect ANY help from the Nigerian Government.
5. NEVER rely on YOUR Government to bail you out.

---

I suppose that this really applies to anything at the end of the day especially if there are new teachers willing to teach in Korea. Please ensure that you speak to previous teachers from the school to ensure that the school does really exist and to get some idea of why the previous teachers left. At the end of the day, though, you have to be prudent.

So, to sum up things. I am just sending information to the police force in the UK organised to bring these criminals to justice. I am also going to send an email to the ISP's to ensure that the email accounts can be shut down causing a headache for the criminals.

I am no longer going to continue contacting this person as I have no desire to waste my time. I hope this information is useful for potential teachers no matter where you plan on working.

Take care & Happy New Year.

Martin

[livinginkorea]

Haha what a funny thread. Best of luck with the job!!!

But seriously I have seen some jobs like that around here and there. If the job is on worknplay then it's usually good enough. There was one last year offering housing and teaching about 3 hours a day and you would only teach this one family so they must be super rich. Sometimes a job like that comes along but it's hard to know if it's real or not. Always run the name through google and send lots of emails.

I am just wondering about the one you got whistleblower. Did he ask for any credit card or anything like that? How exactly was he going to make money? It's true that Nigeria is infamous for those scams.

[Eric]

Quote Whistleblower

have decided to contact the MET (a police body in the UK) who has a squad dedicated to this type of crime which is seen as a 419 Nigerian Scam. I have found this useful guide from the internet Nigeria - The 419 Coalition Website:

Good idea! Keep us posted if they send you any updates or info about what happens.

[Whistleblower]

Found this today:

Good Teaching Position

Can't believe that they really try this type of stuff. Whatever you do people don't apply.

[Motivated]

A scam from Nigeria?? No way!!! Just checked out Good Teaching Position - I could've sworn Seoul, Inchon and Busan weren't in Nigeria...