CFTU Exposes More Employment
Agent Fraud In Beijing
Meet “David Wu” who three months
ago was “David Chen” who six months ago was “David Wei”. What his real name is,
we still don’t know for sure. David was set up by the CFTU with the help of
China Scam Patrol (see www.ChinaScamPatrol.org). When we caught him last
Saturday he was carrying five different cell phones each having a different
name taped to the phone so he would remember how to answer each call from his
next victim! David is just one of some 80,000
employment agents working in China, of which about 7,000 operate in Beijing, of
which about 3,000 are unlicensed/unregistered scam artists who prey upon about
800 young new foreigners arriving to the Middle Kingdom every day. Despite articles like those below published
regularly in the Beijing and Shanghai foreign press, hundreds of foreigners looking for work get
lured into the webs of these fake agents and subsequently lose $150 to
$300. Perhaps small money to most
foreigners, but when you consider that David admits to swindling about 40
foreigners every month, you can see that this is a very lucrative scam. On a
collective basis the CFTU estimates that 3,000,000 yuan is stolen from foreign
teacher candidates every month just in Beijing alone.
Reluctantly the China Scam Patrol
persuaded us to make a deal with David. We would not hand him over to the police
if he agreed to do three things:
1) Explain
the details of his scam and answer all of our questions truthfully
2) Identify
his fellow scammer friends in Beijing
3) Agree
to return to his home town of Zhengzhou and never return to Beijing
He agreed, and before we personally escorted him to the train station, we spent three hours interviewing David after he consumed four glasses of bai zhou (Chinese white wine), this is what we learned... Although these agent fraudsters know each other by face, they never tell each other their real names in case they get busted by the cops. When they cannot sign-up a client they will trade names with each other of the failed attempts so each can take a second shot at the target. They are fierce competitors as well. Apparently there are three major rings. According to David, one is based in Fujian which he says are focused on identity-theft, another is a Beijing based group, and his own group from Zhengzhou, from which he claims he split away from over a year ago and became an “independent agent”. So here are some of the questions we asked him:
Q: How do you find your victims?
A: Basically three different
ways… First we have contacts with many different hr assistants and head hunters
and they will sell us a list of all the foreigners that they do not hire. My
girl will call and invite them to an interview. Second, we will go to the Wudaokou and similar
areas in Chaoyang where the foreigners live and my kids will distribute about
500 of my cards every day under the doors of apartment units. Lastly me and my girl will give my card to
any young foreigner we see on the street and if they respond good, we invite
them for an interview.
Q: Where do you conduct your interviews?
A: In one of two places, I prefer to use a
coffee shop which is convenient and cheaper for me and more friendly for the
client. My other choice is to pay a 200
yuan per hour fee to buy time in a shared office near the Friendship Hotel.
Q: What is that office used for normally?
A: A guy who sells real estate and provides
escort girl service owns the office, but I only saw him there one time in the
last two years.
Q: What is this man’s name
A: Mr. Xue
Q: Do other scammer agents also use this
office?
A: Only one that I know of.
Q: What is his name?
A: It is a girl named Ying and I don’t know
more about her but I see her there some times interviewing a client.
Q: How much do you charge your victims and
how do they pay you and when do they pay you?
A: I ask for 2,000 yuan but will bargain
down to 1,000 yuan if they agree to pay up-front. If they do not agree to pay the 1,000 yuan up
front, I make them pay 50% up-front and the balance after they get hired. If they are very difficult or suspicious the
least I accept is 500 yuan deposit, but I get 1,000 or more from about 80% of
my clients.
Q: Why do the foreigners believe you?
A: Because I give them real brochures from
New Oriental and show them real New Oriental video and dress professional in
jacket with tie. I will even offer to
give them tour of New Oriental school but most say they do not need or have no
time. I am always friendly and not pushy like other agents.
Q: How many interviews do you do a day?
A: At least 3 but sometimes as many as 5 or
6. I don’t work on Sundays.
Q: How long have you been doing this David?
A: Almost four years.
Q: In all this time did you ever get a job
for any foreigner?
A: Yes, in the beginning I want to be a real
agent and I find three jobs for foreigners but it take too much time to only
make 1,000 yuan profit per month per client. This way I do now is much more
profitable and easier too. I have a wife and two babies to support.
Q: How much money did you make in 2011
David?
A: (After 2 minutes of hesitation he finally
replied) Almost 500,000 yuan, but there are others who make more than me. I am
small potato.
Q: Did you ever get caught?
A: Two times in three years.
Q: What happened?
A: One time a foreigner bring the police to
my interview and I had to pay the police 5,000 yuan to let me go after he make
the foreigner believe I go to jail. The
other time a foreigner follow me to my apartment and beat me very bad and rob
me.
Before taking David to the train
station we took all the phone numbers from his cell phones as we intend to set
up more fake agents if we can. We took David’s photo (above) and told him if he
is ever seen in Beijing again, we will give everything we found on him and the
chips from his phone to the police. He showed us the office inside the
Friendship Hotel complex that he said he uses five or six times a month and
China Scam Patrol will handle that matter. Surprisingly we learn that David
graduated from China Agricultural University and is an agronomist. He is 36
years old and claims he turned to scamming when he could not find a “real job”
and he saw one of his friends driving around in a BMW. The money was so good
and easy he said he never looked back and the only regret he has was the
beating.
In his wallet, David had phony
business cards with different names, all claiming to be the “Senior Recruiter”
from New Oriental, Wall Street English, English First, and Beijing IELTS. He admits that he changes his identity and
phone number every three months. In his IPad he had the resumes of 247
foreigners, which we deleted. Clearly a slick and slippery scammer by any
standard.We post this story here so you can understand WHY it is very risky business to use agents in China, and WHY we are asking the FEB, MoL, and MoE to establish a law to either ban agents or at least establish an on-line registry of the real legitimate agents with the photos that foreigners can check 24-7.
If you want to make your stay in
China an enjoyable, stress-free, and safe one, please read and learn from the
below links.
China
Minimum Wage For Foreign Teachers
LINKS:
LINKS:
Looking For The 2014 CFTU Blacklist? Click Below
Looking For the Free 2014 China Labor & Visa Laws In English? Click Below
Looking For CFTU Free China Job Placement? Click Below
Looking For The Latest Foreign Teacher Scams? Click Below
Want to Report A School Or Agent?
Looking For CFTU Member News?
If you know of a shady agent who has been ripping people off, please send DETAILS and a photo (if available) to us at: abuse(at)ChinaForeignTeachersUnion.org
Stop Agent Fraud & Employer
Abuse!
If you
see or experience it - Report it to the CFTU:
Abuse[at]ChinaForeignTeachersUnion.org
(Reports received are strictly
confidential)
Looking For The 2016 CFTU Blacklist? Click Below
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http://www.ChinaForeignTeachersUnion.com
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Explanation: Many of you may wonder why we chose this "unusual" way to post our web site on the internet and the answer is three-fold: Blogger is hosted by Google which has the most secure servers on our planet considering their ongoing dispute with big brother in China. When we had our web site hosted on a private server, we were constantly under hack attack. So the primary reason is security. Secondly, we wanted an interactive interface where visitors could leave their comments,ideas, and suggestions right on the web site - even anonymously if they choose. We also want to leave the door open for public argument and invite rebuttals from adversaries so we are not accused of being biased, or even racist. Lastly, it is quicker and more economically for us to update information in this format without hiring a full time webmaster (remember nobody here draws a salary at this time - we are all volunteers so cost was a major concern as well). And now that we have your attention, if you have someone to report or add to our blacklist, please us the cpomments section below but be specific, civil and factual. Those accused are also invited to post their rebuttals.
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ReplyDeleteHi, after reading all of the above I am slight worried about the companies who have sent me contracts to work in China. Would someone please let me know anything about 'Real World Education' also known as 'Verbal Education China' and 'Beijing HongYuan Sunny Education Technology Co.,Ltd' as I am unable to find any review on them at all.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much.
Hi, after reading all of the above I am slight worried about the companies who have sent me contracts to work in China. Would someone please let me know anything about 'Real World Education' also known as 'Verbal Education China' and 'Beijing HongYuan Sunny Education Technology Co.,Ltd' as I am unable to find any review on them at all.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much.