China Job Fraud Scammers Continue To Recruit Gullible ESL & TEFL Teachers With Fake Ads & Hype...
"Work Abroad in mysterious China where your money is worth 6 times more and beautiful young Chinese girls stand in line just to talk with you at English Corner!" Recently a a China job recruiter from China Job Express used this line on me, not knowing I had already made my rounds to China and got the hell out after I saw all the great tourist sites, got laid,moved to Singapore to earn 240% more money! Yes, the food was delicious, but eating it with reusable plastic chopsticks that the restaurant didn't sterilize gave me Hepatitis, that I now have to deal with the rest of my life with medication that costs me $180 a month. But looking back here is how I (and thousands of other naive foreigners) fell into the work abroad trap and ended up almost broke and a victim of identity theft.
First, I didn;t know that all these China job recruiters wrote their own blogs, testimonials, and reviews. So when I read them all seeming to come from different places, I believed them. The video testimonials were the most convincing for me. Later I would find out when I myself was in China, that these scumbags have their people solicit foreigners at bars and pubs to make an extra $500 cash to make a 2 minute praising some company they never heard of. How many expats with a few drinks in them do you think say "No Thanks"?
I also didn't know that the job ad I was replying to was fabricated. Because it was mixed in with ads for Disney English, Wall Street English, Pearson, and other big names, I just assumed it was legit, especially since the website looked so professional and real. The ad I replied to said "Earn 20,000 a month in China working 6 hours a day - furnished apartment provided - weekends off. It didn't even say rmb or dollars. EIther way it appeared to be a lot of money. So I uploaded my resume to echinacities and didn't see this until 3 montha after I was in China. http://chinascamwatch.wordpress.com. I have since learned that the Canadian Chinese owner of Echinacities (George Xu) also owns duplicate websites and duplicate scams hosted under the name of CN.Expatand Sinocites.com.
The Skype interview i had sounded real and professional. But when I was introdiuced to the "HR Specialist" I assumed it was a girl working for the employer, not the recruiter which the Chinese police told me had no SAIC business license and no SAFEA registration so they were not even authorized to recruit me in the first place. But since they worked for a bunch of blacklisted schools (See http://www.chinaforeignteachersunion.org) andidentity thieves, nobody but victims would complain, IF they ever figured out it was their own job recruiter that sold their resume to the identity theft ring. Eventually I figured it all out after I saw this this here yesterday Fraud Warning & Advice: How foreign expats can avoid identity theft scams when applying for teaching and other Jobs in China | Open Letter
I guess I am one of the lucky ones. I didn't have to actually pay for the Corvette that was financed in my name withonly a $5,000 downpayment (the ID thieves sell the cars to chop shops for $50,000 and after the car is taken apart, the parts will earn the chop shop a $50,000 profit). But I did have to hire a bilingual lawyer to get all my credit problems in China and America. It took me 7 months to get my good credit restored and all my credit cards replaced which set me back $6,000 in legal fees - which is just about what I netted working one full year teaching in China. I forgot to say that they baited and switched me on the job I actually applied for before I signed the contract and before I paid my "refundable placement fee" (only refundable if I "was not offered a job in China within 30 days". After I arrived in China, I was offered two different jobs because the one I actually applied for was now gone! (They said it was already filled because the company could not wait another two weeks for me to get to China even though it was in the middle of the summer berak!). The two jobs they offered me both sucked in the salary department and neither came with free housing, and both required working 6 days a week with Mondays off!
I was also lucky that I was not one of the 2,987 expat teachers that were arrested and deported for "visa fraud" since most of these China job hustlers persuade the job applicants to come work in China on the wrong visa (Q,F,M,or L). The right visa required by law is the work visa whish is called the Z visa. Those that did get caught, about 10% of all the 30,000 teachers working in China spent 30 days in a Chinese jail, fined $2,000 and sent home as a convicted felon. Luckily for me,I was sick at home from the Chinese air pollution the day the PSB visa squad made a random check at my school and 2 of my colleagues were taken away. Why are so many China foreign teachers getting arrested? - TEFL Forums - Eslbase.com. This chart shows why so many foreigners were booted out of China last year,
But what really pissed me off the most was that all these black agents and shady recruiters openly lied about the legal China government requirements to work in China and insisted I did not need a degree to work in China, when the law specifically says that I do. They also never told me about all the BIG problems with working in China like toxic air pollution during the winter months, a 20% chance of getting Hepatitis, and the fact that I would have to have at least 1 or 2 rommates to be able to afford to work in Beijing or Shanghai where the housing prices are crazy - about 1/2 of your salary every month! Little did I know that after I got to China, my recruiter would sing a different tune and tell me the job I wanted requires a university degree, but I needn't worry because they would sell me one for $1,500. After a bit of haggling, I paid $1,000 for a piece of paper to get me a job that paid $12,000 a year, but since I had to pay double tax (Both Chinese and American taxes) and pay my rent. I netted $6,000 by the end of the year, and one-third of that went to pay for my airplane ticket home. I learned a very expensive lesson.
Here is a profile of just China Job Scam operation. https://www.scam.com/entry.php?6418-...rgeting-Expats Now multiple this by 379 because that is how many are blacklisted (collectively on three different blacklists). Now what you do you think your chances are of finding a honest agent who won't rip you off? SO my advice to everyone even thinking about working in China, is to work in Korea, Singapore or Japan instead where the pay is 3X higher, the scams are less than a third of China, and you can fly to China during your holiday break to see The Great Wall and all the other cool tourist sites during the summer months when you can actually breathe the air without wearing a surgical mask! 73% of China foreign ESL & TEFL teachers surveyed are leaving China jobs for 5 reasons in 2017 according to CFTU poll | Open Letter.
If you insist on working in China, at lhe very least, avoid agents, go direct to prospective employers after you REALLY check out your employer. And make a quick visit to: http://reddit/r/chinascamcentral just to be sure.
Re: China Job Fraud Scammers Continue To Recruit Gullible ESL & TEFL Teachers With Fake Ads & Hype...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Frankly My Dear...
I was also lucky that I was not one of the 2,987 expat teachers that were arrested and deported for "visa fraud" since most of these China job hustlers persuade the job applicants to come work in China on the wrong visa (Q,F,M,or L).
Wow, the Chinese really don't have a problem with illegal immigrants, do they. The US is just simply kicking ass in this area.
https://www.ice.gov/removal-statistics/2016;
That's what, a ratio of 80 to 1?
I am assuming that foreign teachers are the largest group being deported there. Or are something like foreign dock workers or foreign laborers in general deported in larger numbers?
Just curious, since this article at The Philippines is Deporting 1,318 Illegal Chinese Immigrants from 29NOV2016 points out that some Chinese were deported from the Philippines, which is only one immigration raid in the Philippines by the way. And that number is almost half of the one you give in your post.
Of course, as this article from bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-09-20/china-for-many-expats-its-not-worth-it, from 20SEP2012, points out. It just isn't worth it to be a expat in China anymore.
Oh, and just thought I'd point out that someone in a country on a illegal visa is not a expat. They are an illegal immigrant. You should always check with your own countries State Dept., Foreign Min., etc... to make sure you are traveling legally and to check for any warnings pertaining to travel to said country from your home country.
If you are in a country illegally then, of course, that country can deport you. That's common sense.
Oh, and thanks for the info there BAG.
Re: China Job Fraud Scammers Continue To Recruit Gullible ESL & TEFL Teachers With Fake Ads & Hype...
Yep, America is tough on immigration and always had the highest deportation rates. China used to be tolerant with expat teachers and just gave offenders a warning, a $1,000 fine and gave them 10 days to get a real Z visa. That all changed in 2014 and now they have a zero-tolerance policy. Now they are actually huntng down illegal workers. Before they would just stumble upon them at traffic stops or brawls at pubs. No sympathy for foreigners working illegally in Shanghai - Global Times
This is also not encouraging if you are a English teacher inbound to China for a job Low salaries leave expat teachers bottom of class|China|chinadaily.com.cn
