#243324 by finnishaupair
Thu Mar 26, 2015 4:08 am
Please help me, I´m not sure if this is a scam...but I afraid so
A host family contacted me on Greataupair.com and told that they were interested in my profile. They say that they are British, but just had moved to New York, USA, because the family´s father got a job from there.
I sent an email to the family, to the email address they gave me on Greataupair.com. The email address is: [email protected] . They replied me back:
Thanks for the reply that you have given to me [my name], as i have told you before, my name is Patricia Alberto and my family is a British family...
before i contacted you on the greataupair website, i took my time to prepare a documents that would tell you more about my family...
so i am sending you a link in which you can check more about me and my entire family... i also add the picture of our home, and the picture of my kids, and also the picture of my husband, and the pictures of the room where you would stay when you arrive here in our home...
So for you to be able to view the pictures, and more about my family, you would have to check on the link below and log in with your email address to be able to view the documents, and please answer the question that i attach in attach in the documents because once you log in with your email, the documents would be delivered into your email address directly...
http://seoclerks.ca/mil1/mil1/mefile/index.php
I replied to that message and they send me A SECOND EMAIL
Thanks for the reply that you have given to me and also it is a great pleasure that you are interested in coming to work for me and my family here in our home...
My husband work as an Engineer and his name is Jonas, we live with our 2 children on the upper part of the city of Mamaroneck here in NY. We own a large house with garden. Our 2 kids are 5 and 7 years old; they are in the same school. Our au-pair will have a large room with bathroom and water closed, wifi is provided too.
Lauren is 5 years old while Seth is 7 years old...
You will be working from Monday to Friday... Your working hours will be 7-10 and 2 -6 which will be 7 hours per day, so you will be working for 35 hours in a week and Saturday and Sunday will be your offdays...
The reason why we decided to hire an aupair for our kids is because i just got a job at a clinic and i would be working as a Dentist because that is what i studied at the University...
The children are quite independent, particularly the older Seth, so rather than playing and entertaining them, we need someone to help run the house and care for the children . You need to have common sense and use your initiative.
In return we can offer your own bedroom (with wifi), full board and we would pay pocket money of around $200 per week (this can be negotiable depending on experience). Your hours would be around 35 hours per week.
We would like a friendly and kind au pair who is happy to help us with our children's activities. We need someone who will take the children to school, collect them and bring them to their activities.
There are lots of language schools in New York, and Universities and we live on a bus route with regular buses to the city centre. We encourage our future au pair to take lessons, English lessons.
We would love to introduce you to British culture, and encourage you to travel - there are lots to see and New York is a great city where there are lots of people from different part of the world....
We will pay you $200 dollars ever week and salary and that would be around $800 for the month and the aupair would be sharing our family life in its entirety (it deals with children, games, outputs external...).
We provide a very large bedroom with its own bathroom and toilet....
Here is the address of where we live here in NY :
816 the Parkway
Mamaroneck, New York 10543, U.S.
I have some questions to ask you and i hope that you will not have any problem answering me back....
so i will like to ask you some question.....
when can you come and start working for us here in NY ?
have you ever worked as an aupair before ?
do you have experience with kids ?
do you smoke ?
do you drink alcohol ?
what do your parents think about you coming to work for me and my family here in my home ?
have you ever been to usa before ?
I also send you some pictures of our home and in which you can see your room and other parts of our home.....
Patricia Alberto............
We exchanged many emails and then in this email they asked me to send a message to the agency called Cultural Homestay International. The agency is real, but the email address the family gave me isn´t the same the agency has on their website. Here´s the email:
You remember that i told you that this is my first time of hiring an aupair for my kids here in Usa and i am sure that it is very different from the way at which people hire an aupair from other parts of the world... because i heard that getting an aupair to come and work in Usa is the best and if the documents can be processed in the perfect way, then it would be great...
As i have told you before,you would be working only from Monday to Friday,and then during the weekends, you would be on your offdays, so if you want to enroll in a weekend English school, then you can register and the get to improve in your English because there are lots of English school here in NY....
we have been living in NY for over 2 months now and its a great city..... i am sure that you would love it down here in NY because there are lots of people from around the world down here..
We found an agency that a friend of ours here has already made use of for their family aupair and they told us that the agency is a very good and nice agency and that they have helped alot of people to process their documents, so we contacted the agency and we told them that we will ask our future aupair to contact them.....he also told us that the agency is amongst the recognized and registered agency with the American government....
The name of the agency is Cultural Homestay International, that they are very good and efficient agency.... he told me that they will be able to process all the documents that you will need for you, including your visa, health insurance and your flight tickets and all other things that you will need..... They would be processing a J1 visa for you, since that is the kind of visa that aupair coming to Usa usually apply for.....
th J1 visa would be for 12 months, but i want you to know that it is not really important for you to work for 12 months....
the agency is located in the united states, but they have a branch in London, because the branch in London is the one that is processing all the documents for European aupairs who would want to come and work as an aupair in Usa
The reason why i will want to do everything my way is because since this is my first time of hiring an aupair for my kids here in Usa and i am sure that it is very different from the way at which we hire aupair in other countries, so that when you arrive here in my home in New York, you will not be having any problems with the immigration or american governments.... that is why i will like you to contact the agency and tell them that i was the one that asked you to contact them... you should send them a message and tell them that i was the one that asked you to contact them that you will want to know what the necessary requirements are and how long it is going to take and how much the documents processing is going to cost.... As for the payments for the processing of your documents, i know that the total amount for your Flight down to New York will be little bit expensive, so me and my husband have decided to pay part of the processing fees for you... we will pay half of the processing fees for you, and you will be the one to pay the remaining half yourself, and when you arrive here in our home... we will return to you the money that you have paid for the processing of all your documents... all i need is just for you to send them a message and tell them all that i have told you and once you receive a reply from them i will like you to forward the message to me, so that we can know what they have told you, and then we can know what we have to do next.......
here is their email address ([email protected])..........
hope to read from you soon and have a blessed week ahead....
I continued exchanging emails with the family and also with the agency. This email I got from the agency:
Cultural Homestay International
Opening doors to the world since 1980
Dear Applicant,
Cultural Homestay International Agency wishes to thank you for contacting us regarding the Arrangement of your Traveling Documents to the United States of America (Usa) and we promise to Offer you the best which you will be Glad you did,We will also like you to know that we are very sorry for the Delay of your Reply,we like you to know that we will have to open a File for you here in our Office before we can email you,so that was the main reason for the Delay. We promise never to Disappoint you as we have never disappointed anyone either.
We will like you to provide us with the following so that the documentation will start immediately,and also fill the form and send back to us through Email......
----Full Name
----Contact Address
----Phone Number
----Nationality
---- Date of Birth
----Date You Want To Fly
---- Airline You Want
----American Embassy in your Country Address In your Location
------All Documents will be arrange here in our Office after which will be forward to the United States Embassy in your country along with your Flight Ticket and also some Copies of this Documents will also be send to you also.
Cultural Homestay International Agency will start with the processing of all your documents after we have received the details that we have asked from you, and after which we receive the details and we know the country that you are applying from and also the Airline you want to travel with, then we will be able to calculate how much it is going to cost to process all your documents, and once we calculate and we tell you how much it will cost to process all your documents including your Flight Tickets and all other things that you will need to travel down to the home of your host family. When we start with the processing of all your documents, it will take us 7 working days to process all the documents, and after which they have been approved, we will send the CONFIRMATION to the American Embassy in your country, and we will send the original of the documents to your home, after which the Embassy will call you to come to the Embassy with the Original documents with you, and also with your Travel Passports and your Birth Certificate, so that the Embassy can confirm that you are the real owner of the documents, after which they will stamp your Travel Passports and you will then be allowed to travel. So we await the details of the documents from you.
Here are the documents that will be prepared for you:
Visa
Workpermit
Insurance
Medicals
Flight Ticket
Yours Faithfully
Cultural Homestay International Agency.
Copyright ©2013 Cultural Homestay International Travels, INC. All Rights Reserved.
Terms & Conditions|Website Terms & Conditions | CCAA Travel Club Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Careers
Contact Address : 105 Fulham Palace Road W6 8JA, United Kingdom
Telephone Number :+447024056335
Email Address : [email protected]
The agency made me send money to them via Western Union. I sent them approximately $1700, which is a lot of money. This is the first email they asked money in:
Cultural Homestay International
Opening doors to the world since 1980
Dear [my name],
Cultural Homestay International Agency will like to inform you that we have received your details that you have sent to us and everything is complete.
A Total of any of this Work Permit Validity to enable us process the necessary Documents for the Visa and Work Permit for you to Travel down to United States of America to live and work as well.
Cultural Homestay International Agency will like to inform you that all documents will be arrange here in our Office after which will be forward to the American Embassy along with your Flight Ticket and Health Insurance, and we will also some Copies of this Documents will also be send to the address of your home that you have sent to us in your last message.
Cultural Homestay International Agency have calculated the total amount to process all your documents including your Flight Tickets and we are giving you the load down below.
For your flight tickets it will cost £485 Pounds because it will be a Round-Trip flight.
For your visa it will cost £240 Pounds
For your working permit it will cost £260 Pounds
For your health insurance it will cost £255 Pounds
And definitely our agency is gonna charge you for our agency fees which is not that much but it will be just £ 300 Pounds, so the total amount for the processing of all your documents including your Flight Tickets will be £1550 Pounds in total.
Send the payments of £1,550 Pounds via Western Union Money Transfer to the details below :
Name : Jason Tucker
City : London.
Country : United Kingdom.
Cultural Homestay International Agency will want you to go to the POST OFFICE and tell them that you want to make the payments through Western Union Money Transfer.
Cultural Homestay International Agency wants to inform you that Jason Tucker is our cashier and he is the one that is in charge of all the payments coming In and Out of our Agency, so he is the one that is going to receive the payments to us when you send them. So when you want to make the payments from the post office, the First Name would be Jason and the Surname would be Tucker.
Yours Faithfully
Cultural Homestay International Agency.
Copyright ©2013 Cultural Homestay International Travels, INC. All Rights Reserved.
Terms & Conditions|Website Terms & Conditions | CCAA Travel Club Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Careers
Contact Address : 105 Fulham Palace Road W6 8JA, United Kingdom
Telephone Number :+447024056335
Email Address : [email protected]
This is another email they asked money in:
Cultural Homestay International
Opening doors to the world since 1980
Dear [my name],
Cultural Homestay International Agency are Glad to Congratulate you that your Visa and Work Permit has been Approved today by the American Governments,and they have issued you Visa for 12 months, from April 2nd 2015 through April 1st 2016, and we have booked an appointment for you at the American Embassy in Helsinki, on the 2nd of April 2015 for 11am in the morning which is on a Thursday, and we booked your Flight Tickets through American Airlines on the 1st of August 2015 as you have instructed us to do, and the time for your Flight will be 10:05 Am and we booked a Return Tickets back for you and it is an open ticket. So whenever you are ready to travel back to your country, you would get your boarding pass from the Airport since the return tickets is an open tickets.
Cultural Homestay International Agency are glad to inform you that we have just finished with the packaging of all your documents,and we are ready to send out the Documents to you soon by FedEx Express Courier Service because that is our agency official shipping agent. The American Embassy in your Country would require the document soon for preview because you have to appear at the Embassy on the 2nd of April 2015 which is on a Thursday.
FedEx Express calculated the shipping cost of all your documents to this 2 Address :
Name : U.S. Consulate General Helsinki
Itäinen Puistotie 14 B,
00140 Helsinki,
Finland.
____________________________
Your Home Address
Name : [my name]
Address : [my address]
City : [my city and zip code]
Country :[country I live in]
Mobile Number : [my number]
Cultural Homestay International Agency want you to know that for FedEx Express,it will cost £245 Pounds to ship the Documents to your Home,and also another £245 Pounds to ship the Documents to the address of the American Embassy in Helsinki, so for FedEx Express,it will cost £490 Pounds,and that will take 2-3 Working days to Arrive in your Country.
Shipping Fees : £140
Shipping Handling : £50
Shipping Tax : £55
Total : £245 will cost to send the documents out to the American Embassy in Helsinki, and it will cost another £245 to send the documents to your home address also,so the total amount you will pay for shipping of all your documents through Fedex will be £490 Pounds.
Cultural Homestay International Agency will like to inform you that if you are choosing Fedex Express,you will have to send the payments of £490 Pounds for the shipping and it will take 2-3 Working days for you to get the documents after you have sent us the payments.
Here is the FedEx Account Department Account Department information where the money can be wired to via Western Union MoneyTransfer.
FedEx Express Courier Service Department of FedEx to this details :
Name : Jason Tucker
City : London
Country : United Kingdom.
After payment kindly send us the scan copy of the Western Union Money (Receipt) so that we can proceed with the Shipping of all the Documents to your Home Address and also the Address of the American Embassy in your Country that you have given to us.
Cultural Homestay International Agency will like to Advice you that it will be GOOD if you can send us the payments for the Shipping of the Documents very early,so that we can hand over the Documents and the payments to the Shipping company,and they can send out the Documents to you as soon as we have received the payments from you. The main reason why we are advising you on all this is because you know that you will still have to go to the American Embassy on the 2nd of April 2015 because that was the only available date we were able to get for you, and it will take 2-3 days for the documents to be delivered to Helsinki. So if we can get the payments from you today, it will be great.
Anticipating your respond
Yours Faithfully
Cultural Homestay International Agency.
Copyright ©2013 Cultural Homestay International Travels, INC. All Rights Reserved.
Terms & Conditions|Website Terms & Conditions | CCAA Travel Club Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Careers
Contact Address : 105 Fulham Palace Road W6 8JA, United Kingdom
Telephone Number :+447024056335
Email Address : [email protected]'
So, later the agency told me that the Consulate in London is going to contact me and I got several emails from them and I also paid money to them via Western Union...Here are the emails:
FIRST EMAIL
Goodday [my name],
This is the office of the American Embassy here in Grosvenor Square here in London,we received some documents from the Cultural Homestay International Agency some hours ago because we want to review the documents before we send it back to them,we will also be issuing you a Social Security Number ( SSN ). So once we have finished reviewing all your documents and everything is complete,we will send you a message and let you know.
SECOND EMAIL
Goodday Miss [my name],
After several hours of Going through all your documents,and also gone through the records of your Host Family ( Alberto Family ) and also going through your background,right now we want you to know that we have seen that everything is very much okay with all your documents now,and we are ready to send them down back to the ( Cultural Homestay International Agency),so that they can ship the documents down to you,and also send the confirmation to our Embassy in your country.
American Embassy in your country ( Helsinki) will call your telephone number that you have given to the agency after they have received the Confirmation letter,so that you can come along with your Traveling passport and they can stamp your Traveling passport for you,before you will be allowed to leave your country to United States of America. We have also processed your social security number for you and right now we want you to know that your Social Security Number will be [the social security number]. And we will advice you to keep that Social Security Number (SSN ) because when the American Embassy in Helsinki calls you to come to the Embassy with your passport,they will also ask of this Social Security Number from you,so that they can believe that you are the real owner of the documents.
American Governments wants to inform you that we have a Policy here in the United Kingdom which we often use to protect anybody traveling to our country for their safety and that Policy is simply called REPATUATION,and REPATUATION simply means,any Applicant that is going to the United States of America to work and live,and they have a Host Family that will want to hire them to come and live and work here in the United States of America must pay a REFUNDABLE amount of $1,000. ( One Thousand Dollars ) which will also be EQUAL to £675 Pounds to the American Embassy Address,and when you have received all your documents, and the American Embassy in Helsinki have stamp your passport and you arrive in the home of your Host Family ( Alberto Family ) in New York,you will then contact us back at the Embassy,so that we can send the money back to you.We are doing all this to make sure that you arrive in United States of America in good faith and make sure that you have little money with you as pocket money that you will hold with you,so that you will not be left without any money with you,we have been doing all this now for a very long time,the main reason why we do all this, is because we want you to make sure that you have at least $1,000. ( One Thousand Dollars ) which will also be EQUAL to £675 Pounds after the Aupair arrive in the home of your host family in Usa you will not be stranded without any money.
We want you to know that this is a policy of the British and American Governments that anyone coming to the United States of America to come and live and work must Deposit a sum of $1,000. ( One Thousand Dollars ) which will also be EQUAL to £675 Pounds to our office and as soon as you arrive in the home of your host family,then you can contact us back and then we will have to send the $1,000. ( One Thousand Dollars ) which will also be EQUAL to £675 Pounds to you in the home address of your Host Family. Once we receive the receipt of the money from you,we will return the documents to the Cultural Homestay International Agency so that they can send out the documents to you.
This is the FINAL STAGE of the processing of your documents,and we are doing all this for your safety.
Anticipating the payments of the $1,000. ( One Thousand Dollars ) which will also be EQUAL to £675 Pounds from you soon,and here is the details that you will have to send the money to through Western Union Money Transfer.
Details for the payment :
Name : Andrew Wilks
City : London
Country : United Kingdom.
NOTE : THE MONEY YOU ARE SENDING IS YOUR OWN AND ONCE YOU GET TO THE HOUSE OF YOUR HOST FAMILY IN U.S.A,YOU WILL CONTACT US AND WE WILL SEND IT BACK TO YOU IN THE HOUSE OF YOUR HOST FAMILY. ALSO SEND US THE RECEIPT OF THE WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER ALSO,SO THAT WE CAN SEE IT AND BELIEVE THAT YOU HAVE SENT THE MONEY,WE WILL THEN SEND BACK THE DOCUMENTS TO THE CULTURAL HOMESTAY INTERNATIONAL AGENCY ONCE WE RECEIVE THE SCAN COPY OF THE MONEY ,SO THAT THEY CAN SEND OUT THE DOCUMENTS TO YOU. THE $1,000 DOLLARS WILL BE KEPT IN THE EMBASSY ACCOUNT,AND ONCE YOU ARRIVE IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND YOU CONTACT US,WE WILL SEND OUT THE MONEY TO YOU.
I sent the money they asked for and then they sent me another email, asking for more money:
Goodday [my name],
We just got a message from the Immigration office in United States of America yesterday and they told us that the amount has increased from $1,000USD to $2,500USD, that the policy was increased upon the 23rd of March 2015, but we where not aware until this morning,so that was why we did not send out the documents back to the Agency. That was why we had to fully confirm everything before we sent you a message this morning. We have contacted the American Embassy in your country and we have re-schedule your appointment at the Embassy to the 9th of April 2015 which is on a Thursday. So you do not have to worry about your appointment at the Embassy.
So we where informed by the Immigration office that we should collect the remaining balance of $1,500USD from you, and when you arrive in the home of your host family we will return the $2,500USD back to you. So if you will be sending us the remaining balance, you will have to send us $1,500 Dollars which will also be Equal to £1,007 Pounds. When sending us the payments, you should send the payments to the same details that you sent the last payments to. We are sorry that we did not tell you about this soon, but it was just that we just got the message from the Immigration office today.
We strongly advise you to send us the payments soon, because the American Embassy in your country MUST receive the documents this week, so you have to send us the payments as soon as possible, so that we can give the agency the go ahead to continue with the shipping of the documents. Once you arrive at the home of your host family, you will contact us and then we will send out the $2,500USD back to you.
Below is the proof of the confirmation that we got from the Immigration office. So you can see the confirmation of the documents below
And to the email above was attached a picture of American Airport Authority document, signed by Capper Aston. This is when I started to think that this may be a scam. I googled the name Capper Aston and I found some relations to scams with that name.
I have erased my personal details from the emails, for my own safety. But if this is a scam, I´m really afraid because the scammer has all my personal details..
Please answer me as soon as possible, I need to know if someone has scammed $1700 dollars from me... I don´t honestly know what to do anymore..
A host family contacted me on Greataupair.com and told that they were interested in my profile. They say that they are British, but just had moved to New York, USA, because the family´s father got a job from there.
I sent an email to the family, to the email address they gave me on Greataupair.com. The email address is: [email protected] . They replied me back:
Thanks for the reply that you have given to me [my name], as i have told you before, my name is Patricia Alberto and my family is a British family...
before i contacted you on the greataupair website, i took my time to prepare a documents that would tell you more about my family...
so i am sending you a link in which you can check more about me and my entire family... i also add the picture of our home, and the picture of my kids, and also the picture of my husband, and the pictures of the room where you would stay when you arrive here in our home...
So for you to be able to view the pictures, and more about my family, you would have to check on the link below and log in with your email address to be able to view the documents, and please answer the question that i attach in attach in the documents because once you log in with your email, the documents would be delivered into your email address directly...
http://seoclerks.ca/mil1/mil1/mefile/index.php
I replied to that message and they send me A SECOND EMAIL
Thanks for the reply that you have given to me and also it is a great pleasure that you are interested in coming to work for me and my family here in our home...
My husband work as an Engineer and his name is Jonas, we live with our 2 children on the upper part of the city of Mamaroneck here in NY. We own a large house with garden. Our 2 kids are 5 and 7 years old; they are in the same school. Our au-pair will have a large room with bathroom and water closed, wifi is provided too.
Lauren is 5 years old while Seth is 7 years old...
You will be working from Monday to Friday... Your working hours will be 7-10 and 2 -6 which will be 7 hours per day, so you will be working for 35 hours in a week and Saturday and Sunday will be your offdays...
The reason why we decided to hire an aupair for our kids is because i just got a job at a clinic and i would be working as a Dentist because that is what i studied at the University...
The children are quite independent, particularly the older Seth, so rather than playing and entertaining them, we need someone to help run the house and care for the children . You need to have common sense and use your initiative.
In return we can offer your own bedroom (with wifi), full board and we would pay pocket money of around $200 per week (this can be negotiable depending on experience). Your hours would be around 35 hours per week.
We would like a friendly and kind au pair who is happy to help us with our children's activities. We need someone who will take the children to school, collect them and bring them to their activities.
There are lots of language schools in New York, and Universities and we live on a bus route with regular buses to the city centre. We encourage our future au pair to take lessons, English lessons.
We would love to introduce you to British culture, and encourage you to travel - there are lots to see and New York is a great city where there are lots of people from different part of the world....
We will pay you $200 dollars ever week and salary and that would be around $800 for the month and the aupair would be sharing our family life in its entirety (it deals with children, games, outputs external...).
We provide a very large bedroom with its own bathroom and toilet....
Here is the address of where we live here in NY :
816 the Parkway
Mamaroneck, New York 10543, U.S.
I have some questions to ask you and i hope that you will not have any problem answering me back....
so i will like to ask you some question.....
when can you come and start working for us here in NY ?
have you ever worked as an aupair before ?
do you have experience with kids ?
do you smoke ?
do you drink alcohol ?
what do your parents think about you coming to work for me and my family here in my home ?
have you ever been to usa before ?
I also send you some pictures of our home and in which you can see your room and other parts of our home.....
Patricia Alberto............
We exchanged many emails and then in this email they asked me to send a message to the agency called Cultural Homestay International. The agency is real, but the email address the family gave me isn´t the same the agency has on their website. Here´s the email:
You remember that i told you that this is my first time of hiring an aupair for my kids here in Usa and i am sure that it is very different from the way at which people hire an aupair from other parts of the world... because i heard that getting an aupair to come and work in Usa is the best and if the documents can be processed in the perfect way, then it would be great...
As i have told you before,you would be working only from Monday to Friday,and then during the weekends, you would be on your offdays, so if you want to enroll in a weekend English school, then you can register and the get to improve in your English because there are lots of English school here in NY....
we have been living in NY for over 2 months now and its a great city..... i am sure that you would love it down here in NY because there are lots of people from around the world down here..
We found an agency that a friend of ours here has already made use of for their family aupair and they told us that the agency is a very good and nice agency and that they have helped alot of people to process their documents, so we contacted the agency and we told them that we will ask our future aupair to contact them.....he also told us that the agency is amongst the recognized and registered agency with the American government....
The name of the agency is Cultural Homestay International, that they are very good and efficient agency.... he told me that they will be able to process all the documents that you will need for you, including your visa, health insurance and your flight tickets and all other things that you will need..... They would be processing a J1 visa for you, since that is the kind of visa that aupair coming to Usa usually apply for.....
th J1 visa would be for 12 months, but i want you to know that it is not really important for you to work for 12 months....
the agency is located in the united states, but they have a branch in London, because the branch in London is the one that is processing all the documents for European aupairs who would want to come and work as an aupair in Usa
The reason why i will want to do everything my way is because since this is my first time of hiring an aupair for my kids here in Usa and i am sure that it is very different from the way at which we hire aupair in other countries, so that when you arrive here in my home in New York, you will not be having any problems with the immigration or american governments.... that is why i will like you to contact the agency and tell them that i was the one that asked you to contact them... you should send them a message and tell them that i was the one that asked you to contact them that you will want to know what the necessary requirements are and how long it is going to take and how much the documents processing is going to cost.... As for the payments for the processing of your documents, i know that the total amount for your Flight down to New York will be little bit expensive, so me and my husband have decided to pay part of the processing fees for you... we will pay half of the processing fees for you, and you will be the one to pay the remaining half yourself, and when you arrive here in our home... we will return to you the money that you have paid for the processing of all your documents... all i need is just for you to send them a message and tell them all that i have told you and once you receive a reply from them i will like you to forward the message to me, so that we can know what they have told you, and then we can know what we have to do next.......
here is their email address ([email protected])..........
hope to read from you soon and have a blessed week ahead....
I continued exchanging emails with the family and also with the agency. This email I got from the agency:
Cultural Homestay International
Opening doors to the world since 1980
Dear Applicant,
Cultural Homestay International Agency wishes to thank you for contacting us regarding the Arrangement of your Traveling Documents to the United States of America (Usa) and we promise to Offer you the best which you will be Glad you did,We will also like you to know that we are very sorry for the Delay of your Reply,we like you to know that we will have to open a File for you here in our Office before we can email you,so that was the main reason for the Delay. We promise never to Disappoint you as we have never disappointed anyone either.
We will like you to provide us with the following so that the documentation will start immediately,and also fill the form and send back to us through Email......
----Full Name
----Contact Address
----Phone Number
----Nationality
---- Date of Birth
----Date You Want To Fly
---- Airline You Want
----American Embassy in your Country Address In your Location
------All Documents will be arrange here in our Office after which will be forward to the United States Embassy in your country along with your Flight Ticket and also some Copies of this Documents will also be send to you also.
Cultural Homestay International Agency will start with the processing of all your documents after we have received the details that we have asked from you, and after which we receive the details and we know the country that you are applying from and also the Airline you want to travel with, then we will be able to calculate how much it is going to cost to process all your documents, and once we calculate and we tell you how much it will cost to process all your documents including your Flight Tickets and all other things that you will need to travel down to the home of your host family. When we start with the processing of all your documents, it will take us 7 working days to process all the documents, and after which they have been approved, we will send the CONFIRMATION to the American Embassy in your country, and we will send the original of the documents to your home, after which the Embassy will call you to come to the Embassy with the Original documents with you, and also with your Travel Passports and your Birth Certificate, so that the Embassy can confirm that you are the real owner of the documents, after which they will stamp your Travel Passports and you will then be allowed to travel. So we await the details of the documents from you.
Here are the documents that will be prepared for you:
Visa
Workpermit
Insurance
Medicals
Flight Ticket
Yours Faithfully
Cultural Homestay International Agency.
Copyright ©2013 Cultural Homestay International Travels, INC. All Rights Reserved.
Terms & Conditions|Website Terms & Conditions | CCAA Travel Club Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Careers
Contact Address : 105 Fulham Palace Road W6 8JA, United Kingdom
Telephone Number :+447024056335
Email Address : [email protected]
The agency made me send money to them via Western Union. I sent them approximately $1700, which is a lot of money. This is the first email they asked money in:
Cultural Homestay International
Opening doors to the world since 1980
Dear [my name],
Cultural Homestay International Agency will like to inform you that we have received your details that you have sent to us and everything is complete.
A Total of any of this Work Permit Validity to enable us process the necessary Documents for the Visa and Work Permit for you to Travel down to United States of America to live and work as well.
Cultural Homestay International Agency will like to inform you that all documents will be arrange here in our Office after which will be forward to the American Embassy along with your Flight Ticket and Health Insurance, and we will also some Copies of this Documents will also be send to the address of your home that you have sent to us in your last message.
Cultural Homestay International Agency have calculated the total amount to process all your documents including your Flight Tickets and we are giving you the load down below.
For your flight tickets it will cost £485 Pounds because it will be a Round-Trip flight.
For your visa it will cost £240 Pounds
For your working permit it will cost £260 Pounds
For your health insurance it will cost £255 Pounds
And definitely our agency is gonna charge you for our agency fees which is not that much but it will be just £ 300 Pounds, so the total amount for the processing of all your documents including your Flight Tickets will be £1550 Pounds in total.
Send the payments of £1,550 Pounds via Western Union Money Transfer to the details below :
Name : Jason Tucker
City : London.
Country : United Kingdom.
Cultural Homestay International Agency will want you to go to the POST OFFICE and tell them that you want to make the payments through Western Union Money Transfer.
Cultural Homestay International Agency wants to inform you that Jason Tucker is our cashier and he is the one that is in charge of all the payments coming In and Out of our Agency, so he is the one that is going to receive the payments to us when you send them. So when you want to make the payments from the post office, the First Name would be Jason and the Surname would be Tucker.
Yours Faithfully
Cultural Homestay International Agency.
Copyright ©2013 Cultural Homestay International Travels, INC. All Rights Reserved.
Terms & Conditions|Website Terms & Conditions | CCAA Travel Club Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Careers
Contact Address : 105 Fulham Palace Road W6 8JA, United Kingdom
Telephone Number :+447024056335
Email Address : [email protected]
This is another email they asked money in:
Cultural Homestay International
Opening doors to the world since 1980
Dear [my name],
Cultural Homestay International Agency are Glad to Congratulate you that your Visa and Work Permit has been Approved today by the American Governments,and they have issued you Visa for 12 months, from April 2nd 2015 through April 1st 2016, and we have booked an appointment for you at the American Embassy in Helsinki, on the 2nd of April 2015 for 11am in the morning which is on a Thursday, and we booked your Flight Tickets through American Airlines on the 1st of August 2015 as you have instructed us to do, and the time for your Flight will be 10:05 Am and we booked a Return Tickets back for you and it is an open ticket. So whenever you are ready to travel back to your country, you would get your boarding pass from the Airport since the return tickets is an open tickets.
Cultural Homestay International Agency are glad to inform you that we have just finished with the packaging of all your documents,and we are ready to send out the Documents to you soon by FedEx Express Courier Service because that is our agency official shipping agent. The American Embassy in your Country would require the document soon for preview because you have to appear at the Embassy on the 2nd of April 2015 which is on a Thursday.
FedEx Express calculated the shipping cost of all your documents to this 2 Address :
Name : U.S. Consulate General Helsinki
Itäinen Puistotie 14 B,
00140 Helsinki,
Finland.
____________________________
Your Home Address
Name : [my name]
Address : [my address]
City : [my city and zip code]
Country :[country I live in]
Mobile Number : [my number]
Cultural Homestay International Agency want you to know that for FedEx Express,it will cost £245 Pounds to ship the Documents to your Home,and also another £245 Pounds to ship the Documents to the address of the American Embassy in Helsinki, so for FedEx Express,it will cost £490 Pounds,and that will take 2-3 Working days to Arrive in your Country.
Shipping Fees : £140
Shipping Handling : £50
Shipping Tax : £55
Total : £245 will cost to send the documents out to the American Embassy in Helsinki, and it will cost another £245 to send the documents to your home address also,so the total amount you will pay for shipping of all your documents through Fedex will be £490 Pounds.
Cultural Homestay International Agency will like to inform you that if you are choosing Fedex Express,you will have to send the payments of £490 Pounds for the shipping and it will take 2-3 Working days for you to get the documents after you have sent us the payments.
Here is the FedEx Account Department Account Department information where the money can be wired to via Western Union MoneyTransfer.
FedEx Express Courier Service Department of FedEx to this details :
Name : Jason Tucker
City : London
Country : United Kingdom.
After payment kindly send us the scan copy of the Western Union Money (Receipt) so that we can proceed with the Shipping of all the Documents to your Home Address and also the Address of the American Embassy in your Country that you have given to us.
Cultural Homestay International Agency will like to Advice you that it will be GOOD if you can send us the payments for the Shipping of the Documents very early,so that we can hand over the Documents and the payments to the Shipping company,and they can send out the Documents to you as soon as we have received the payments from you. The main reason why we are advising you on all this is because you know that you will still have to go to the American Embassy on the 2nd of April 2015 because that was the only available date we were able to get for you, and it will take 2-3 days for the documents to be delivered to Helsinki. So if we can get the payments from you today, it will be great.
Anticipating your respond
Yours Faithfully
Cultural Homestay International Agency.
Copyright ©2013 Cultural Homestay International Travels, INC. All Rights Reserved.
Terms & Conditions|Website Terms & Conditions | CCAA Travel Club Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Careers
Contact Address : 105 Fulham Palace Road W6 8JA, United Kingdom
Telephone Number :+447024056335
Email Address : [email protected]'
So, later the agency told me that the Consulate in London is going to contact me and I got several emails from them and I also paid money to them via Western Union...Here are the emails:
FIRST EMAIL
Goodday [my name],
This is the office of the American Embassy here in Grosvenor Square here in London,we received some documents from the Cultural Homestay International Agency some hours ago because we want to review the documents before we send it back to them,we will also be issuing you a Social Security Number ( SSN ). So once we have finished reviewing all your documents and everything is complete,we will send you a message and let you know.
SECOND EMAIL
Goodday Miss [my name],
After several hours of Going through all your documents,and also gone through the records of your Host Family ( Alberto Family ) and also going through your background,right now we want you to know that we have seen that everything is very much okay with all your documents now,and we are ready to send them down back to the ( Cultural Homestay International Agency),so that they can ship the documents down to you,and also send the confirmation to our Embassy in your country.
American Embassy in your country ( Helsinki) will call your telephone number that you have given to the agency after they have received the Confirmation letter,so that you can come along with your Traveling passport and they can stamp your Traveling passport for you,before you will be allowed to leave your country to United States of America. We have also processed your social security number for you and right now we want you to know that your Social Security Number will be [the social security number]. And we will advice you to keep that Social Security Number (SSN ) because when the American Embassy in Helsinki calls you to come to the Embassy with your passport,they will also ask of this Social Security Number from you,so that they can believe that you are the real owner of the documents.
American Governments wants to inform you that we have a Policy here in the United Kingdom which we often use to protect anybody traveling to our country for their safety and that Policy is simply called REPATUATION,and REPATUATION simply means,any Applicant that is going to the United States of America to work and live,and they have a Host Family that will want to hire them to come and live and work here in the United States of America must pay a REFUNDABLE amount of $1,000. ( One Thousand Dollars ) which will also be EQUAL to £675 Pounds to the American Embassy Address,and when you have received all your documents, and the American Embassy in Helsinki have stamp your passport and you arrive in the home of your Host Family ( Alberto Family ) in New York,you will then contact us back at the Embassy,so that we can send the money back to you.We are doing all this to make sure that you arrive in United States of America in good faith and make sure that you have little money with you as pocket money that you will hold with you,so that you will not be left without any money with you,we have been doing all this now for a very long time,the main reason why we do all this, is because we want you to make sure that you have at least $1,000. ( One Thousand Dollars ) which will also be EQUAL to £675 Pounds after the Aupair arrive in the home of your host family in Usa you will not be stranded without any money.
We want you to know that this is a policy of the British and American Governments that anyone coming to the United States of America to come and live and work must Deposit a sum of $1,000. ( One Thousand Dollars ) which will also be EQUAL to £675 Pounds to our office and as soon as you arrive in the home of your host family,then you can contact us back and then we will have to send the $1,000. ( One Thousand Dollars ) which will also be EQUAL to £675 Pounds to you in the home address of your Host Family. Once we receive the receipt of the money from you,we will return the documents to the Cultural Homestay International Agency so that they can send out the documents to you.
This is the FINAL STAGE of the processing of your documents,and we are doing all this for your safety.
Anticipating the payments of the $1,000. ( One Thousand Dollars ) which will also be EQUAL to £675 Pounds from you soon,and here is the details that you will have to send the money to through Western Union Money Transfer.
Details for the payment :
Name : Andrew Wilks
City : London
Country : United Kingdom.
NOTE : THE MONEY YOU ARE SENDING IS YOUR OWN AND ONCE YOU GET TO THE HOUSE OF YOUR HOST FAMILY IN U.S.A,YOU WILL CONTACT US AND WE WILL SEND IT BACK TO YOU IN THE HOUSE OF YOUR HOST FAMILY. ALSO SEND US THE RECEIPT OF THE WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER ALSO,SO THAT WE CAN SEE IT AND BELIEVE THAT YOU HAVE SENT THE MONEY,WE WILL THEN SEND BACK THE DOCUMENTS TO THE CULTURAL HOMESTAY INTERNATIONAL AGENCY ONCE WE RECEIVE THE SCAN COPY OF THE MONEY ,SO THAT THEY CAN SEND OUT THE DOCUMENTS TO YOU. THE $1,000 DOLLARS WILL BE KEPT IN THE EMBASSY ACCOUNT,AND ONCE YOU ARRIVE IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND YOU CONTACT US,WE WILL SEND OUT THE MONEY TO YOU.
I sent the money they asked for and then they sent me another email, asking for more money:
Goodday [my name],
We just got a message from the Immigration office in United States of America yesterday and they told us that the amount has increased from $1,000USD to $2,500USD, that the policy was increased upon the 23rd of March 2015, but we where not aware until this morning,so that was why we did not send out the documents back to the Agency. That was why we had to fully confirm everything before we sent you a message this morning. We have contacted the American Embassy in your country and we have re-schedule your appointment at the Embassy to the 9th of April 2015 which is on a Thursday. So you do not have to worry about your appointment at the Embassy.
So we where informed by the Immigration office that we should collect the remaining balance of $1,500USD from you, and when you arrive in the home of your host family we will return the $2,500USD back to you. So if you will be sending us the remaining balance, you will have to send us $1,500 Dollars which will also be Equal to £1,007 Pounds. When sending us the payments, you should send the payments to the same details that you sent the last payments to. We are sorry that we did not tell you about this soon, but it was just that we just got the message from the Immigration office today.
We strongly advise you to send us the payments soon, because the American Embassy in your country MUST receive the documents this week, so you have to send us the payments as soon as possible, so that we can give the agency the go ahead to continue with the shipping of the documents. Once you arrive at the home of your host family, you will contact us and then we will send out the $2,500USD back to you.
Below is the proof of the confirmation that we got from the Immigration office. So you can see the confirmation of the documents below
And to the email above was attached a picture of American Airport Authority document, signed by Capper Aston. This is when I started to think that this may be a scam. I googled the name Capper Aston and I found some relations to scams with that name.
I have erased my personal details from the emails, for my own safety. But if this is a scam, I´m really afraid because the scammer has all my personal details..
Please answer me as soon as possible, I need to know if someone has scammed $1700 dollars from me... I don´t honestly know what to do anymore..
