Job Discussion Forums

[Stania88]

A ficticious company called Education Institute Sharjah is advertising for EFL teachers in the emirate. This is an elaborate scam. Please stay away!

First this 'company' will ask you an interview question which will then automatically result in you passing and being offered an immediate contract promising 4000+ dollars per/month.

It turned out this company, which does not even have an address (though claims PO Box 13801 Sharjah) uses a made-up phone line and features a web link which pertains to the Sharjah Education Zone and has nothing to do with the Institute.

Upon further inspection, a search on Dave's ESL Cafe, it appeared that the exact same words and sentences used in the correspondances from 'Jahfer' - the recruiter for 'Education Institute Sharjah' - were also featured in a scam centred on a private language school in Fujairah..In other words, a diversification of this exposed lie.

Whether these guys want to forge passports (from the required passport page scans) or steal money by asking for bank details, im not sure the precise nature of this scam. However, I can assure you that there is indeed no such place as the one they are claiming and urge you not to waste your time with this 'firm'.

The website featuring the advert for this job has now thankfully removed it from their listings.

This was my first observed TEFL industry scam and it got me good. Thankfully I realised before it was too late. Be careful people!

As for 'Jahfer', well following my assesment of his 'firm' and after writing to him to seek clarity in the major discrepancies, he is no longer in correspondance with me, which is a u-turn change from the 'Jahfer' that was emailing me every 5 minutes asking me for more details so I could proceed to the next stage of the application...!

The scam becomes an elaborate scam with the introduction of a fake website to really lull the scammed into the belief that they are on to the dream job:

http://educationinstitutesharjah.webs.com

I wish I knew who to contact to get this website shut down. I hope, however that anyone who comes across this job also comes across my post to stop them in their tracks before its too late.

For any more info, please contact me. Oh and sorry for the lack of clarity..this is my first post

Stania

[veiledsentiments]

Thanks for the update on the latest version of these long running scams. I have added it to the SCAM sticky at the top of this page:

http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=58448&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

I hope that you haven't sent them any money.

VS
(BTW, no one can contact you by PM until you have made 5 posts)

[eslbear]

Can a passport really be generated from a scanned copy of the picture page? That seems far too easy and I would assume that passports have some form of minimal security to guard against this most simple copying technique.

I mean I have sent my passport picture page to travel agents, job recruiters and government offices for years without a second thought.

eslbear

[veiledsentiments]

I'd say that passport information isn't their goal, but to get you to send cash.

Most passport faking involves getting the actual passport and I can't imagine anyone would consider sending their original passport along with some job application. I suppose if they are top of the "forgery field" perhaps just getting the numbers and other information from the front page might be helpful.

But... these guys are trying to get your money...

VS