This sort of puts things in perspective for anyone dumb enough to even think about working in China. According to the CSP (China Scam Patrol) they spent 3 months answering ads they found on line and tracked them down to their source. First they found that 58% of the ads were post by the same group of just 5 job spammers, and 60% of the ads were peddling fake jobs to begin with. Here's the link and a few of the statistics. I guess it's time to take China off my short list eh? China Scam Patrol Adds 319 Fake Teaching Jobs To Blacklist - Beware! - WORLD Law Direct Forums

* 32% of the online job ads investigated turned out to be posted by unlicensed entities that advised job applicants to violate the law and come work in China ILLEGALLY on L, M, or F visa when the Chinese visa law clearly states that a Z visa is mandatory.

* 21% of the online ads were posted by identity thieves fishing for personal data. Once an interested party responds, a fake Skype job interview is arranged. A day or two later the mark will be asked for a color scan of their passport, and then sent some tax forms with a job offer letter. In order to obtain your invitation letter, the tax forms must be returned and those documents ask for you SSN or "taxpayer identification number". Game over for the victim. They will never hear from that person again and get a "Regret to inform you email" that a sudden budget cut caused a hiring freeze. They promise to call you when the freeze is lifted. About six months from now you will wonder who opened bank and credit card accounts in your name and put a downpayment down on a BMW M3, that was sold for $30,000 in parts the day after "YOU" drove it off the lot 3,500 miles away in another country.

* 68% of the ads led to websites of entities that are already blacklisted by the CFTU or ESLWatch. See China Foreign Teachers Union and Topics in China (1/5) - ESLwatch - ESLwatch - Information, News, Forum and School Reviews

* 78% of the online ads went to websites containing fake testimonials and/or self-created reviews with no possible way to verify the extremely favorable comments.

* Out of 500 China TEFL & ESL websites visited since last August, 319 of them (just over 60%) were rated as full-blown scams.

* 58% of the ads were posted by the three largest spammers of "blind ads": China ESL, TeacherESLCafe, and ESLCafe,


Also the below may come in handy for the poor bastards who already got lured over there and don't have the bucks to come home...

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Topics in China (1/5) - ESLwatch - ESLwatch - Information, News, Forum and School Reviews

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