Complaint Against clair, British Au Pair
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Complaint >> Posted: Oct 22 '07 by Dave and Amy in Maryland, United States |
| In Aug 2007, me and my wife were matched to a UK Cit by the name of Lorna Croft via two other Nanny websites. Ms. Croft was using the email address Lornacroft2005@yahoo.co.uk and the Yahoo messenger ID Lornacroft2005. We began a 45 day dialogue with Ms. Croft. She said she was volunteering at an orphanage in Cameroon called LittleManger that was run by Father Matthew Rial (a priest of Indian decent). We requested references for email and telephone. These were provided, one of which was Caleb_smith001@yahoo.com and littlemanger23@yahoo.ca We were provided phone numbers in the UK for the Smith family and a number in Cameroon for Father Matthew. We emailed both and received one reply from Father Matthew via the littlemanger23@yahoo.ca account. We called and spoke to a supposed Mrs. Smith via the UK number. The woman had a solid British accent. We also called and spoke directly to the supposed Father Matthew who also had a soild Indian accent (we know this because we have previously worked with Indian nationals). On three occasions we spoke with the supposed Ms. Croft who also had a strong British accent. Over a period of 30 days we received many emails from Ms. Croft. She discsused her visa interviews in intricate detail all of which were perfect because I am intricatly familiar with the visa process at US Embassies. Every detail of this process was accurate based on my eight years of experience in dealing with such issues. We requested a copy of her UK passport which she provided. One key mistake we made was not printing the passport copy out on the computer which would have shown it had been altered. Ms. Croft requested our assistance with half of her travel costs from Cameroon to the USA. We have read all the warnings about sending money to these individuals who are seeking work. I have dialogued with many others who have used these services and the reality is that probably 70% of these nannies seek partial coverage of travel expenses. I have many colleagues who have sent such funds and never once had an issue. The total for this came to $850. We decided to send her $1,000 via Western union so she had an extra $150 in her pocket. Days later another Nanny website we were registered with sent an email matching us with another UK cit with similarities in the profile close enough to have been copied from one profile to the other. We called US Embassy Yaounde and spoke with the Consular Officer who confirmed that no one by the name of Lorna Croft had ever applied for a B! visa. I was turned over to the Embassy Security Officer whom I spoke with for 20 minutes confirming that this was a scam. Over the course of the last three weeks, we have continued the dialogue with the supposed Ms. Croft playing stupid and stringing these criminals along to see how much detail we can get out of them. The scam is being run from Mauritius, an island off the east coast of Africa. The emails and profiles are being sent/loaded in Mauritius at the Ebene Cyber City. We tracked their emails via the IP addresses. Money is sent to Cameroon where it is picked up at Western Union. References are either in the UK or utilizing a UK issued mobile phone that is on roam. We have also determined that photos of the supposed Ms. Croft were taken somewhere at an orphanage in East Africa vice West Africa where Cameroon is. Ms Croft may also not be a UK citizen. A picture we were provided of her with her father and sister clearly shows the photo was snapped in New York City and that her father is wearing his wedding band on the left hand...many Europeans wear it on the right hand. The passport Ms. Croft was using expired in 2001 and originally belonged to a male from the UK. Here are the profiles which appear to be part of the scam:
Nannies4Hire.com (#126641) HelloAupairs.com Profile name: Lorna Croft email address: lornacroft2005@yahoo.co.uk other assoc email addresses: littlemanger23@yahoo.ca caleb_smith001@yahoo.com other names assoc: Father Matthew Rial Little Manger orphanage or foundation
GreatAupair.com; Clair Shawn (#719972) caleb_smith001@yahoo.com Connection: much of the text of this profile was emailed to us from the supposed Lorna Croft during her dialogue with us. Websites: Aupair-Options.com; Profile name: Jessica Stewart (#62746) email address: jeschildcare@yahoo.com Connection: much of the text of this profile was emailed to us from the supposed Lorna Croft during her dialogue with us. One can also see similarities between this profile and the Clair Shawn profile. FirstAupair.com; Profile name: Jessica (#2593) email address: unknown Connection: much of the text of this profile was emailed to us from the supposed Lorna Croft during her dialogue with us. One can also see similarities between this profile and the other profiles. |
Comment >> Posted: Nov 15 '07 by cindy in California, United States
Your experience sounds very familiar with our experience. The aupair that we are referring to send us pictures of herself and what do you know....one of the pictures is the exact same picture that you have. She is going under Nicki Schell at aupair.com.
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Comment >> Posted: Jan 11 '08 by tinuke in Brabant Wallon, Belgium
I got a listing for a Nicki Schell from Easy au-pair .com. We have just been asked to provide money for flight from Cameroon. I spoke on the telephone with the girl and got concerned. She stated that she was Irish with family living in Leeds. The woman I spoke to had a really strong African accent. My father is Nigerian so I know! I asked my husband to investigate and turned up this information here. I also received interestingly enough a reference from Mike Croft supposedly from the USA and another from a Robert Hardman who worked for Plan International but who can't be found with that organisation. The picture doesn't look quite the same but whoever it is certainly ticks a suspicious number of boxes.
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Comment >> Posted: Feb 04 '08 by gillian in Dublin, Ireland
Hi, this girl is most definitly a scam artist. I had the same experience as the previous poster and she was going under the name nicki schell. We were in correspondance and i instantly thought something was up when i got her references. There was a very far fetched one supposdly from a lady in greece going on about how her daughter had died of cancer and how nicki was her rock through all this. After investigating abit further i found that she was using other names on different sites. she posted me different pictures to this one but it is most definitly the same girl. She requested money to pay from her flight from cameroon as she couldnt afford the fare and said that we could take it from her pay when she arrived. Luckily for us at this stage we knew she was a con woman and kept up the pretence and told her that we had western unioned the money across. We then got a email stating that she couldnt access it ,at which point we told her we were only wasting her time as she had done ours, and that we had passed everything on to the authorities. So people reading this , BEWARE!!!
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Comment >> Posted: May 19 '08 by Carl in Stockholm, Sweden
This girl is now working under the name Faith Webb from Dorset, UK. Same references provided as under previous alias. i.e. Michael Croft, Canada and Robert Hardman in Cameroon. When a profile sounds too good to be true it usually is.
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