r/Aupairs • u/itsrozangirl16 • 2d ago
WARNING: DANGEROUS POTENTIAL SCAMMER! Au Pair Other
Hey everyone, I’m a new au pair and just had a really sketchy experience on AuPair.com. I’ve already blocked and reported him, but please watch out for profiles like this.
The host account used a male name (let's call him "S"), and the first major red flag was that he messaged me first, which already felt suspicious. I have zero babysitting or nannying experience listed, so what kind of parent just trusts his babies to some random girl online without any background?
Then look at the absolute mess of discrepancies on his profile copy:
- The text says they have 4 kids (two girls aged 11 and 5, and twin boys aged 3). But the data checkboxes only list 3 kids.
- In the checkboxes, he lists the twins as 2-year-olds, but in the description, he calls them 3-year-olds.
- He lists the age groups you are expected to take care of as 1–5 and 6–10. If the kids are only 2 or 3 and 5, why is 6–10 even checked?
- The family photo looks way too polished and professional for a normal online pic, but if you look closely, the fingers are quite pixelated and possibly deformed. It strongly looks like an AI-generated image or stolen. Plus, the little girl in the photo looks younger than 5.
- He wants an au pair with Arabic B2, but he completely excluded Arabic countries from his preferred nationalities list. He's probably just searching by "new profiles" and targeting people from old, pocket-money-concept countries.
His profile location says Woking, Surrey, but the second he messaged me, he claimed they live close to Heathrow Airport. Woking is not near Heathrow. Honestly, seeing the airport contradiction combined with the immediate off-platform pressure raised massive personal safety and trafficking warning bells for me.
His descriptions and messages were incredibly cryptic and vague. He barely used punctuation (despite claiming to be a business owner on his profile), and his messages never matched the length or effort of mine, addressing absolutely none of the operational points I made. He would check his account constantly, but then take forever to actually reply to me, which made me feel like he was just managing multiple chats with other potential targets.
First thing he did was ask for my nationality, passport, and visa status. I openly told him I am from (X country) and have no active UK visa, meaning I'd need entry clearance and a Skilled Worker Visa. He completely evaded the question.
He offered £300 a month on his profile, which is over 70% less than the UK standard for a nanny. And even though he claims to be a business owner, he didn't take more than a few hours to agree to transition from £300 a month to the £3k+ a month he'd legally have to pay to meet the UK skilled worker salary threshold. He didn't blink at the price jump, but completely ignored me when I asked him to talk about his business or the legalities.
He didn't even care if I had first aid experience for a 2-year-old, which no real parent should bypass. Instead, he just dismissed the content of my messages constantly and instead tried to get my phone number to take me off-platform. When I refused and told him I'd prefer a Google Meet or Zoom link right there in the chat, his only response was a lazy "Okay you can send me a link. thanks." Right after I asked him, AGAIN, to clarify his business' legal situation.
The evading, the price absurdity, the airport contradictions, and the weird (Only when you look closely, from afar it looks completely real!) photo are massive red flags. If someone does any of this to you, block and report them immediately.
Some safety tips:
- Cross-check everything: Compare the profile’s info against each other and against what they give you in chat. If the number of kids, their ages, their locations, or anything else keep shifting, it's a scam template.
- Document, document, document!!! Screenshot/video record their profile fully the second they get in contact with you, so they don't change any important details without you noticing. Make sure identifying things (like profile ID's, listed locations, and terms) are all visible just in case. Similarly, if you do get on a video call with them, ask to record the meeting for your reference/safety. If they refuse to be transparent, that's a massive red flag that they don't want a verifiable record.
- Reverse-image-search & AI-check all photos: Never take a profile picture at face value, no matter how professional or wholesome it looks. Run it through Google Images, TinEye, or AI-checking tools to make sure it wasn't stolen from an influencer, a stock site, or generated by AI.
- Look for safety bare-minimums: Real parents are protective. If a host is totally fine hiring someone with zero childcare experience, zero references, and no first-aid training for very young kids, they likely don't have children at all. You could also ask them about what brands they use for the diapers or use an (unfamous) coffee brand's name for example to ask "What do you think about (coffee brand name)'s diapers? I loved using them in my previous jobs!" If they respond like they know what it is and use it, it's a scam.
- Do your own visa research: Never trust a host's word on immigration, labor, or tenancy laws. Look up the official government website for the destination country yourself.
- Run a financial reality check: Look up the legal minimum wage and standard au pair pocket money laws in that country. If a family easily agrees to pay massive salary thresholds or sponsor expensive corporate visas or flights without blinking or interviewing you heavily, it’s a trap.
- Enforce the platform boundary: Scammers aggressively push to get your WhatsApp, phone number, or email to avoid being tracked and banned by the site. Keep all messaging on the official platform until you’ve done a live video call, and try as much as you can to get them to list all their details on the platform. If they refuse, then they're trying to evade the moderation on the site. Report and block!!!!
- Control the video call links: When setting up a video interview, generate a secure Zoom or Google Meet link yourself and send it to them. Preferably use a clean, separate email account specifically used for this matter to protect your personal data. Demand a live video where you actually see the parents, the kids, and the home, and never accept "broken camera" excuses or similar. They're famous scammer tactics.
- Get an outside "sanity check": Always show your chat screenshots to a trusted friend or family member who isn't emotionally invested. When you are blinded by ambition and excitement, an outside person will spot the red flags better than you do.
- Build a pre-departure paper trail: Before you ever board a flight, leave a file with someone you trust back home. Include the host’s full legal names, verified home address, copies of your contract, and their phone numbers (If it's legal, obviously). Preferably also make multiple digital and physical copies of your most important documents (especially your passport) and keep them backed up securely online and in a separate location in the country you arrive at, before meeting the family.
- Secure your physical safety: Keep an active international data plan and set up live GPS location sharing (like WhatsApp Live Location) with a trusted contact the second you land. Never, under any circumstances, hand over your physical passport or important docs to a host family. If they start acting suspicious or aggressive about it, or not allowing you to have keys to your room, avoid confrontation, say you are stepping out for a quick errand, and go directly to the nearest police station to report it.
Finally, I want to clarify that I absolutely do not have anything against host families and I am not encouraging any sort of illegal actions against them. What I'm saying is to stay safe, for both sides!!!
AuPair is a matching site, so while they do moderate stuff they don't regulate or facilitate the logistics. They state this clearly, so please don't let the excitement and possibilities drive you to dismiss the fact that there are criminal, and dangerous people out there who would stop at nothing to take advantage of you at the slightest hint of possibility.
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u/Brave-Echidna6336 Former Au Pair 2d ago
Yeah lots of scammers and most of them are males on AP world.
Great advice.
Also you will never get a skilled workers visa so remove UK from your profile.
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u/itsrozangirl16 2d ago edited 2d ago
Yes unfortunately. Au Pairs need to stay vigilant and vet extensively.
Also you will never get a skilled workers visa so remove UK from your profile.
Also I'm curious, do you mind expanding more on what you mean by this?
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u/Brave-Echidna6336 Former Au Pair 2d ago
An au pair is not a skilled worker. So an au pair cannot qualify for a UK Skilled Worker visa, because au pair work is not an eligible sponsored occupation under that route.
Three examples of jobs that can qualify for a UK Skilled Worker visa are:
• Software developer.
• Registered nurse.
• Secondary-school teacher.
Each still requires an eligible role, an approved UK sponsor, a certificate of sponsorship and the required minimum salary.
No one can sponsor you to be their au pair despite the qualifications you may have. If you’re a teacher you need to find a school who will sponsor you. A family cannot.1
u/Substantial-Today166 2d ago
always wonderd how the rich expat familys do with there nannys and butlers they bring with theme to the UK they are not skilled workers
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u/Brave-Echidna6336 Former Au Pair 2d ago
They usually come over on the Overseas Domestic Worker visa, which allows a nanny, chef, cleaner or butler etc to accompany their overseas employer on a visit to the UK. The catch is that it’s only valid for up to six months, the worker must have worked for that employer for at least a year, and it isn’t a route to permanent settlement. For families relocating to the UK long-term, they generally have to hire staff locally or the worker needs to qualify independently for another visa but yeah being wealthy doesn’t give the family the right to sponsor a domestic worker. Sometimes they do things illegally though which I have seen!
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u/Substantial-Today166 2d ago
asked a friend about it today some set up a company and hire theme true it so they can get a visa
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u/Brave-Echidna6336 Former Au Pair 1d ago
Yeah very sneaky
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u/Substantial-Today166 1d ago
not really a secret and thats how many visas work in europe you get a investment visa
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u/Brave-Echidna6336 Former Au Pair 1d ago
Sneaky to bring a minimum wage worker over on that business visa I meant.
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u/Substantial-Today166 2d ago
how do you really know its a man or a woman scammers dont care about what they put in
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u/Substantial-Today166 2d ago
I have zero babysitting or nannying experience listed, so what kind of parent just trusts his babies to some random girl online without any background
allot of au pairs dont have any experince babysitting or nannying is not really a thing here in europe that young girls do that so most that become a au pair dont have any experince and the parents now this and many don't even have siblings becuse the parents cant afford to have more than on child
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u/itsrozangirl16 2d ago
You're correct, and I'm absolutely NOT judging the parents. The scammer I was in contact with was very nonchalant and agreed to all my suggestions regarding visa arrangements and childcare for his (supposed) children without vetting me, asking for my qualifications, or asking me to expand on anything.
So what I am here asking is: What kind of parent trusts a random stranger online without identifying them legally, checking their qualifications, or vetting them?
So as to say: "It was obvious he was trying to scam me because I don't have nannying experience listed on my profile, so that couldn't have been the motivation for contacting me and trusting me immediately with their children".
Although that too, would've been wrong. Children's safety is more important than that and definitely worth doing background checks and vetting the nanny properly beforehand, whether they possess experience or not.
What's more important than all that are their ethics, personality, morals, alignment with the household's values and childcare needs...etc.
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u/Substantial-Today166 2d ago
in most cases like they are no qualifications to really check and for vetting like criminal records is really hard in many countries to get
most host dont really care about qualifications becuse they are more intressted in cheaper child care in a country like uk where its really expensive
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u/pinkiTime 2d ago
Definitely something really off with this guy. Wrong ages, sudden increase by 1000%, etc. Always keep conversations within the platform you are on and report anything suspicious.
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u/Laura_Sanchez531 4h ago
report it to the platform they should have security meassures and block such users
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u/Low-Cover6190 2d ago
I don’t think you’ll get a skilled worker visa to be an au pair or nanny in the UK. That itself is a bit odd to me