Nigerian Scam

Even though there are many legitimate people looking for au pairs and families, there are a few bad apples who use the Internet to scam people. These people have been using ebay and several other sites to scam people. Now, they are using the au pair sites to try to scam people.

Some of them pose as families looking for au pairs. The others pose as au pairs looking for families. They pretend that they live in the US or UK to gain trust. They give you an address and phone number to sound legitimate. This might be a US or UK address and number as they have accomplices in the US and UK. Their goal is to send their victims a bogus check which is a large amount. They do not even bother to interview the person whom they send the check to. They either offer you an au pair or want to be your au pair right away. They are very eager to get you a bogus check in a large amount because it has no actual value. It is printed by them and has no monetary value. If you deposit it to your bank, the bank will notify you several weeks later to tell you it is a bogus check.

As soon as the victim receives the bogus check, they come up with an excuse so that the victim wires the money to Nigeria immediately. They pressure the victims claiming they have a family emergency or they have a death in the family. Their goal is to pressure you to refund them the check before your bank realizes that it is a bogus check.

Scammers also may ask you to directly wire money to them or their bogus travel agent so that they can take care of your visa and travel arrangements.

As a precaution, DO NOT wire any money to anyone you do not know, especially NIGERIA or other developing countries under any circumstances.

If you have any doubts about a family or au pair, make sure they are emailing you from the country they claim to live in. You can check their location by their IP number that you can see in the email properties. This may not always be bulletproof as they can make the IP number look like they are emailing you from somewhere else.

Use caution and commonsense. If someone is offering you a lot of money (e.g. a large salary for au pairs), without even thoroughly interviewing you, be suspicious. Interview the au pairs or families thoroughly. Do not rush in to hiring an au pair or accepting an au pair job.

Keep in mind that there are many great people genuinely looking for au pairs and families. Act smart and use commonsense in your search.