Ramirez Family - [email protected]

Dear all,
I received a letter from a family in UK, but I am not sure if it is real. Please, see the message below and if anyone of you have received it too, lets write in the topic. Thank you very much for your help!

Dearest xxx,

Ramirez is a wonderful family living in Newham United Kingdom, which is a suburb of the city of London. My family consists of me, husband and my only son Andrew. Am the head of a technology company that makes electronics and software and my wife a nurse.

My son is 1 years old and a loving and wonderful kid. His also very inquisitive; He will pet just about any animal, ride just about any ride at the amusement park, and pick up just about any insect that he sees. His special gift is that he has a big heart and is very empathetic for the people around him. He is a very good boy and thinks he can eventually catch up with anything.

I want our au-pair to be happy and feel comfortable in my home. I understand that you are traveling and you may get homesick so I want to make you laugh and do whatever I can to help you realize your dream of travel. I would like you to have a sense of humor, take pride in your work and above all feel like you can be open and honest with me. We will respect your kind nature and enthusiasm for life!!

I would ideally like someone who has already spent their childhood. Am looking for a mature person who doesn't want to "party" every week. That's not to say that you can't go out and in fact when am home you may even be able to have a week off out of every three!!

I would appreciate someone who has lived out of home so that they understand the running of a household and can see when things need to be done - without always being guided. I hope that you will be able to do some light household duties and look after my while you work part time (approx 20 hours per week). You may be required to drive to school or appointments if I am at work. During your time off (which is negotiable) you are free to do whatever you wish. I will be happy to suggest things for you to do and, if available even help you get there.

I propose a trial period of 3 months and if we all get on we would love you to stay for at least a year. I will be paying you £150 weekly which we believe is okay with you? You can email me right back on and let me know your view.

We promise to make you staying here a memorable one.

Yours Faithfully
Danielle Ramirez

The first paragraph alone tells me that it is a scam--the English tells me that it was not written by someone who is British. The types of mistakes and phrasing tell me it was written by an African--and the rest of the email confirms that.

There are other signs, too. For example, the description of the child is not appropriate for a 1 year old--a 1 year old is barely walking and isn't really talking--he is not riding amusement park rides and certainly can't be described as empathetic! The description (which is written in better English that most of the email) was copied from somewhere, and was undoubtedly a description of a much older child.

The best thing you can do is stop all contact with this scammer.

Hi,
Thank you very much for your response. It seem that there are a lot of scammers around.