scam or not ?

[KARREPHILLIPS]

Please help, we are trying to find out if a "host family" is a scam as our daughter is planning on going to Australia in the very near future (two weeks) without our consent - although she is 19 years of age - we are very concerned regarding her safety and the legitimacy of the "folks - Family" where she plans to stay.
As parents how would we go about finding any information regarding this family - please help ASAP as our daughter plans to leave for Australia in the next two weeks - she will be travelling to Brisbane Australia.

Thank you

[Helen Halper]

Welcome to Eater, KARREPHILLIPS.
First of all, how did your daughter come in contact with this family? What country does she live in? Has she been asked to pay any fees for anything relating to the position?
If there was communication by email, do you have access to any of the emails that your daughter was sent? If you could post one or two emails, including the headers, we might be able to see where the messages were sent from.

Please edit your names out of your post. We want you to stay safe on the internet.

[KARREPHILLIPS]

hi there - thank you for your reply - please see my response to your questions:

First of all, how did your daughter come in contact with this family?
this is the web-site: www.aupair_world.net

What country does she live in?
Canada, Ontario

Has she been asked to pay any fees for anything relating to the position? she says No

If there was communication by email, do you have access to any of the emails that your daughter was sent? No - she is not providing us with many details - we are trying to get as much info as possible - all we haev is the family name and general location....I haev contacted the police in the city to see if they can run a check on the HOST/Family name - waiting for the response

If you could post one or two emails, including the headers, we might be able to see where the messages were sent from. -we dont have any access at all - she is communicating with her personal cell phone

Please edit your names out of your post. We want you to stay safe on the internet. - yes - good idea - I assumed this was a safe site - can never be too safe - thank you

[Helen Halper]

Hi KARREPHILLIPS!

I can't really find anything with the few details that you've posted. Contacting the police was a good idea. I can see why you're worried, with your daughter being so secretive about all this.

Au pair in Australia

In Australia there is the Working Holiday Program which means that you cannot go to Australia as an au pair but only as a Working Holiday Maker. To be able to go to Australia under the Working Holiday Program you must be a citizen of a country which has signed a reciprocal Working Holiday Maker Arrangement with Australia.
Under this agreement, Australian nationals are allowed to go to one of the countries listed below as a Working Holiday Maker as well as citizens of these countries are allowed to go to Australia.


Working Holiday Program

Conditions:

Age: 18 - 30 years (at the time of applying)

Working hours: 30-35 hours a week

Pocket money: 150 - 250 AUD per week

General requirements:

Working Holiday Makers

* must not have dependent children
* must be outside Australia when they apply for the visa
* may study or train for up to 4 months

Travel costs: The au pair must bear the travel costs himself/herself. Please be aware that you may be asked to provide evidence of your return ticket on arrival in Australia. If you as a host family want to bear a part of the costs, please do not do this until the au pair has successfully arrived and stayed with you for a part of the agreed time.

Accepted countries:

Citizens from Belgium, Canada, Republic of Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People's Republic of China, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom are eligible to apply for a Working Holiday Maker Visa (Subclass 417).

Do you know if your daughter has applied for this visa?

[KARREPHILLIPS]

Yes - she tells us she has applied for her Visa, has paid for her air-fare $1800 CDN and as paid for health insurance. I also contacted the following - fraudatio cruor <[email protected]> and they came back advising us to contact this site - which I had already done.
We are at our wits end - she his bound and bent she is going and this it is safe we can't seem to get through to her of the potential dangers - I sent her the link to this site as well so she could see for herself - what a I am afraid her father is going to have a heart attack over this - we are so worried for her safety.

[Helen Halper]

I'm really sorry that you are having to deal with this. As a mother myself, I can totally sympathize.
I'm wondering why she is being so secretive? It would be in her best interests to investigate this family as thoroughly as possible. I would sure like to trace the email headers... Perhaps you could get her to at least do that?

[Chris Fuller]

Au pair scammers do not have a real au pair position to offer to anyone - the au pair position is invented, and the scam is to trick the au pair into paying for a non-existent visa and/or work permit; or for invented insurance, apartment rental, a contract, or flight costs; or to 'prove sufficient maintenance' by making a Western Union or MoneyGram transfer.

If your daughter has obtained a Working Holiday Visa for Australia in the normal way:

http://www.immi.gov.au/visitors/working ... ntries.htm

http://www.immi.gov.au/visitors/working ... -apply.htm

and has not paid any money to the host family, nor to any travel agent, lawyer, or immigration office which the host family directed her to; and has arranged her flight herself, or can confirm directly with the airline that her flight has been booked, it is unlikely that she is contact with a scammer.

If a fee had been requested by the host family or by someone that they had put your daughter in contact with, it would be wise to investigate further, and we can usually recognise whether a host family is genuine or not from the email/s in which they describe their family and the au pair position.

What we can't do, however, is help to discover whether a real family is kind and dependable, or otherwise. Googling their email address and telephone number may lead to some further information about them, but, of course, some people do not have any 'online presence' at all.

Although I understand that you may not wish to seem as though you are supporting your daughter's decision to travel to Australia, for your own peace of mind, it may be best to have a chat on the telephone with the host family yourself, and speak to them about any concerns you may have - maybe your daughter would agree to this?

Also, do make sure that your daughter has access to enough money for hotel accommodation and a flight home, should she change her mind once there, and want to leave; and make sure that she feels totally comfortable about calling you at any time for any assistance needed.

I've removed the names of the host family from your first post, for their privacy, as there is no evidence at the moment that this is a scam.