BEWARE - CHILDMINDING SCAMS

**angeldelight** · 25-01-2008, 06:10 PM

Vicky has asked me to stick this at the top for a while so you are all aware of this

There seems to be lots of childminding scams going around again here is just a few of them to give you a few examples .....................

Good day,

I am John Lauren . I saw your contact on www.childmindersdirectory.com. Anyway, I am an English speaking man from Cotonou . I will be coming over to the UK, Waterbeach area precisely, from 16th of February to 29th of March with my wife and out 2 year old Son.

While we will be in the UK, we will be busy as we will be attending clasess for the duration of our stay( mondays through fridays), so we will require the services of a childminder who can take care of Adam while we are studying, Lecture times for us are 9am - 3pm. I will want to know if you can provide your services between these dates.

In your response, please let me have a little bio-data on yourself and how you run your childminding service, I will also appreciate if I can get a price quotation as we want to make advance payments before our visit so we can be rest assured as this is his first visit to the UK. An early response will be appreciated. Hope to hear from you soon.
John

.................................................. .......................

i will like to employ your service as a nanny for my 2 year old baby.
i am a male,35 years old,divorced with a 2year old baby boy.i will be coming
to the uk and i will be staying for 10 days between the 27th of august and
5th of spetember.i will need your service as a nanny for my baby during this
period between the hours of 7.00a.m in the morning and 5p.m in the evening.
do get back to me if you will be available to nanny my baby on those days.
regards.

.................................................. ................

CHILD MINDING SERVICES REQUIRED
My name is T robert and i
am an american . At present,i am
looking or a good personal for minder for
my 3year old son,that would be relocating to the uk with me..
we would be in the uk for 18months
my wife passed on 9 months ago,making me a single parent.
i am in search for a child minder who would be with him during the day
let me know if you can offer your
services. i would like to know your
1... your location
2....fees (per hour....perday) depending on how you
have always given your services.
In regards your fees,i would be
happy to ask my client to post a certified uk cheque
to you in advance for deposit and booking of your
services.I would make arrangements for every other
payment in cash once i arrive in the uk...I would be happy
if you can get in touch with me as soon as possible.
thanks in anticipation as
i await your urgent response.
best regards.
T robert...

VICKY HAS ASKED ME TO POINT THIS ALL OUT TO EVERYONE

THIS IS THE EMAIL THAT VICKY RECEIVED ...........

I've just had an email (below in italics) from my development officer for me to forward to all my supported minders and people in my area.

At least one childminder in our area has been contacted by an individual by email about arranging childcare for his son. He claimed to be an Italian American who had recently been divorced but was moving to County Durham for a period of 36 months and required childcare for his son. At this stage some emailing between the two took place and at this stage a photograph of a young boy was attached to a reply which he claimed was his son. There was some talk of costs and about him paying a deposit.

Our childminder became suspicious, for a number of reasons, and we did some investigating on her behalf. The following extract is part of an email sent to our service that seems to suggest that this individual may be part of a wide scam that is targetting childminders in the UK.

We have advised our childminder to reply to her contact directing this person to use the CIS as an agent to arrange the care. Not surprisingly we have not yet received any contact.

The Police and Trading Standards are aware of this in our region and we are going to contact all of our childminders in County Durham in order to warn them of what appears to be happening.

Hopefully by circulating this message further fraud will be prevented.

Thanks,

**Trouble** · 25-01-2008, 06:24 PM

why would anyone do this?

**Pauline** · 25-01-2008, 10:13 PM

Originally Posted by rascal

why would anyone do this?

It's all to get your money rascal, they send a cheque then later say that they cannot complete the agreement and ask you for a refund, if you do you then find out later that the original cheque isn't valid and bounces, you are then out of pocket and stuck with bank charges for an overseas cheque etc.

It actually happened to someone on the forum quite a while ago, it was mentioned on the old forum, not sure where now, but she luckily read the warning and was saved from losing lots of money - she acually had the cheque ready to post back to them.

Pipsqueak · 26-01-2008, 09:13 AM

Thanks Angel. The more of us who are aware of it (and we can pass it on to our friends - even our Development Officers and they can forward it to all their minders in their area) then the less chance we have of being caught out.

**fionamal** · 26-01-2008, 10:12 AM

Jings! Whats the world coming to!

There seems to be scams going about for everything just now.

Thanks for letting us know.

**Mollymop** · 27-01-2008, 08:04 PM

Thanks for this Angel and Pauline. XXX

**LittleMissSparkles** · 28-01-2008, 10:29 AM

Thank you Ladies xxx

**littlepixies** · 02-02-2008, 01:37 PM

I was emailed with one of these requests for a 2 year old 5 days a week 6 hours aday, it was a japanisse male who had apparently just lost his wife and was moveing over here on work.
he wanted a quote and so i thought nothing of this to start with so quoted him
then i got another reply sayinghe would be happy to accept the place and would send me a cheque for a retainer fee of £2000 to keep the place open but he said he would send a cheques of £4000 and if i could deposite the other £2000 in traverlers cheques and send them back to his address he would really apprieciate it.
I spoke to one of the mums who sussed him out straighte away saying he was a money launder so we printed off the emails and took them to the police station,.
I explained what was happeneing and they just said just ignore the emails and for get them. we have alot of this at the moment

i was sooo shocked!!! surely they could catch this guy or woman or what ever it was?? but no interest at all

this was about 2 yrs bck now! so im guessing its still going on lol!

**crazybones** · 02-02-2008, 02:06 PM

One of my CM friends at school had the same thing this week too. She warned us all about it but not sure how much further she took it.

Annie x

**avril** · 02-02-2008, 03:22 PM

Originally Posted by annie337

One of my CM friends at school had the same thing this week too. She warned us all about it but not sure how much further she took it.

Annie x

HI

She said the police were aware of the scam but not sure if she told the police herself!

Avril

Pipsqueak · 03-02-2008, 04:25 PM

We have been advised
Do not reply to the emails
Keep the emails and make your development officer / EY Team aware of them
and in certain areas the Police and Trading Standards are aware so it may be worth notifying them.

**booboo** · 03-02-2008, 05:04 PM

I had an 2 emails last week ,one off a ITALIAN AMERICAN, he even sent a picture of the little boy, you could tell straight away it was a magazine picture!! and the second was about,me teaching pilate's to a 20 year old!!! don't know what it is never mind teaching it hehe

These people are unbelievable, i don't know how they are getting away with it, people def need to be aware.

Booboo

**tulip0803** · 03-02-2008, 05:13 PM

Unfortunately there is not a lot that the police here can do about these scams as the people running them are abroad. If something looks suss or is too good to be true be very careful.

**sandy** · 06-02-2008, 01:34 PM

Hi all

Thanks for the tip off.

I've never heard of this sort of scam. We seem to be forgotten about deep down in the westcountry ( luckily !! )

Will pass it on to all CM I know

Thanks
Sandy x

**Cheeky Chops** · 06-02-2008, 09:43 PM

oh eck!! this is horrid!! consider everyone I know "warned!" xx

**deeb66** · 07-02-2008, 01:34 PM

We have received warnings from our Early Years Team.

Apparantly the scams are rife at the moment and a few childminders have fallen for it!!!

**jenni119** · 13-02-2008, 05:28 PM

I too am a recent victim of this scam, luckly though I never handed over any money as my bank informed me the cheque was fraudulent, I have built up a good porfolio for the police who are collecting it tomorrow, I just feel so stupid

Pipsqueak · 13-02-2008, 07:43 PM

Hi Jenni - don't feel like that, some of the scams and cons deceive lots of people and can be pretty convincing.

The main thing is you didn't hand over any money, so you weren't daft at all and you done the right thing by helping the police

**angeldelight** · 13-02-2008, 07:45 PM

I agree Jenni good for you for reporting it - not many do

No need to feel stupid I still fall for some of these even now - they are so damn good at it

Angel xx

**jenni119** · 15-02-2008, 09:22 AM

Thanks for the nice replys, Im feeling better today and just cant believe that someone would try to scam childminders?
Im 5 months pregnant at the moment so I tend to take everything to heart and get upset so its come at a bad time.
Im still recieving emails from this guy wanting to know were his money is and to be honest not getting any advice from my CIS or police on what to do with these emails so Im ignoring them and hoping he gets the message.

Jenni