 Hi, Linda here from I-T-T-T, back with another live session. Welcome. And today we're going to talk about what scams to look out for when looking for Teflon and TESOL jobs, teaching jobs, mostly abroad. So yeah, that's our topic for today. We talked a lot about finding jobs, all these kinds of things in recent weeks in our last live sessions. So now I thought it's time to kind of dive into specific scams that are sometimes happening out there when looking for Teflon and TESOL teaching jobs. Unfortunately, there are some scams out there. And I want you guys to be aware of them, how you can spot them. And if you kind of have this feeling in your gut, oh, is this a scam? Or is it not a scam? There are some techniques, some methods, how you can find out if it is indeed a scam or not, and that's what we're going to talk about. We're going to talk about the most common scams and how to kind of spot them, how to figure out if it's real or not. So yeah, that's today's topic. I hope you're going to enjoy it. And also a little disclaimer, I am a bit sick today. So I have my tea right here. I'm going to have to drink a little bit more than normal. I do have a cold. So I might have to cough sometimes. I do apologize, but I just didn't want to skip out on this live session. I really wanted to do it for you guys today. So but there might be some coughing, some sneezing, some tea drinking, just letting you know in the right away. And yeah, also, please don't forget to like and subscribe. If this is your first time watching, welcome. If you are a regular viewer, welcome back. Thank you so much for coming back. And just don't forget to like and subscribe because we do go live every week. It is a weekly thing and I'd love to see you week after week again here. So please like and subscribe so that you get notified. You get updated whenever we schedule a new live session so you know what the topic is and you know when to tune in, etc. And then also, guys, let me know where you are right now. Let me know in the comment section. Where are you? Leave a comment just saying hi and where you're watching from and maybe what time it is where you're watching that be very interesting. I am in South Korea and it is 10 30 a.m. Friday morning. So very exciting. Soon heading into the weekend. I love that. So let me know, guys, where you're watching from today, what time it is, etc., etc. And then I just want to quickly introduce myself if you're watching this for the first time and you don't really know who I am. So I just want to give a quick introduction here. So my name is Linda. I'm a travel writer and content creator under the name Linda goes East East because I've been living in Asia for over 10 years and yeah, I have a personal website at Linda goes East.com and I'm also very active on Instagram at Linda goes East and I basically share all about my travels and my life in South Korea before South Korea. I also lived and taught English in China and I'm originally from Germany slash USA. My mom is German. My dad is American. And like I said, I'm based in South Korea. This is going to be my eighth year in South Korea. I'm very excited. Time goes by so fast when you live abroad. You kind of think about, oh, yeah, I'm just going to stay a year and then leave. But now it's been eight years. So just be aware of that. If you're thinking about teaching English abroad, time goes by very fast. Yep. And then I'm also a Teflon and TESOL marketing professional for ITT, which stands for International Teflon and TESOL Training. And you can find us at TeflonCourse.net. And what is ITTT? You might ask if you're watching this for the first time. ITTT is a leading Teflon and TESOL course provider worldwide. We offer a wide variety of different Teflon and TESOL courses to make you English teachers so you can go and teach English abroad in different countries or also online or also in your own home country. So that's what this is all about. And Daniel's here. Hi, Daniel. How are you doing? Happy Friday. And then we have Citumini. I'm probably pronouncing this wrong. I apologize. Citumini from Sri Lanka. It's seven four a.m. Oh, my gosh. So early. Hi. Thanks so much for tuning in. Citumini. And then we have Amitabha. How are you? I'm I'm OK. Thank you. I'm a bit sick. So like I said, in the beginning, if you just if you're just tuned in now, I am a bit sick. So there might be some sneezing and some coughing and there will be a lot of tea drinking so we can make it through this live session. But I didn't want to just cancel it because I really wanted to be here for you guys. But just notice my maybe my voice is a bit different. There might be some coughing. Etc. So I apologize. Just be aware that I am sick a little bit. Yeah. And then also want to share this discount. If you've watched before, you know, we always share a 30% off discount during our live sessions. So you can actually get 30% off any Tefl or TESOL course from ITTT. You can scan this QR code, but we also have a link that I'm going to share with you guys in the comments section. So looks like this. And then you just copy and paste this link. Looks like this. It ends with FB live minus Linda. You copy paste this. It will lead you to an application page. And you will see at the top it says congratulations. You get 30% off or something like that. Then you know it's the right link. So yeah, with that, you will get 30% off any Tefl or TESOL course. So if you're thinking about getting Tefl certified, TESOL certified, now is a great opportunity to do so with this link 30% off. We don't share this at any other time. You're only going to find this discount here in our live sessions. It's very special, this big of a discount. So if you're not yet certified, now is a good time to do so. All right. Good. Yeah, I see we have a couple of new people watching. Guys, please let me know where are you watching from today? Where are you watching from? What time is it? How are you doing? Let me know. I would appreciate it. My name is Linda again, and I am in South Korea today. Like most weeks, I'm in South Korea, but yeah. And if you also if you have any questions throughout this live session, just put it in the comments. We're also going to have probably a very brief Q&A session at the end. Might be shorter today than normal because I am sick and we will see how far we can make it through this live session with my voice and throat and everything. So we might have to not do a Q&A session or not that long. We'll see. But just put your questions in the comments and then we can also get back to it later. Even after the live is finished, we can get back to it. So at any time, even if you're watching a replay, feel free to just leave comments. And I'm trying my best to get back to it. And yeah. So this is today's topic again. What scams to look out for when looking for Tefal TESOL teaching jobs. And here we have Karen. I hope I'm saying that right. Karen from Honduras. Nice. How are you doing? It's 7 30 p.m. Oh, wow. OK. Nice. 7 30 p.m. And then we have LaTurg from the Philippines. It's 9 39 a.m. How are you? I'm doing OK. I'm a bit sick. So I mentioned this already a few times, but there might be some coughing. So I do apologize. I have a cold. So my throat in my nose. So I'm drinking tea and all that. So yeah. All right. Scythermini is asking, could I have your contact number to know more details? So what you can do actually to contact I TTT, if you have any questions about the courses, etc. You can reach out to us here via email is the best way. Courses at TESOL minus Tefal.com with any of your questions about any courses, course options about any anything really related to Tefal, TESOL, etc. I TTT, whatever you want to know. You can just email us here. We also have a callback option. So when you go to our website, TefalCourse.net, there will be yeah, request a callback right at the top. You see a small button where it says request a callback. You can click on that and leave your phone number. And then my team will actually call you back. Karyn says, I hope you get better as soon as possible. Thank you. Is it Kieran or Karyn? I hope I'm saying it correctly. It's a nice name. I've never heard that before. It's pretty cool. I hope you get better as soon as possible. Yeah, I hope so too. It's been like five days and I've been sick. So I hope I'm getting better too. I took some medicine every day. It's already better, but usually in the mornings, it's, you know, the worst and then again in the evening. But yeah. All right. So today's topic again, scams. Unfortunately, there are some people who like to scam other people, right, as we know. And this also happens in the Teflon TESOL world. Unfortunately, other people trying to take advantage of teachers who want to move abroad and start new jobs. Unfortunately, that happens sometimes. So today I'm going to show you what are the most common scams out there that we see and how you can spot them and how you can figure out if this is a real job or if this is a scam. Basically, that's what we're going to talk about today. So let's first. Oh, Brent, nice. Long time no see. I'm feeling like garbage too. Oh, no. We're all sick. Yeah, it's the time of the year, right? Where we're just everybody's sick. I hope you're doing well. I love your Trevi fountain picture. I think it is nice. Awesome. Good to see you. Oh, awesome. I already feel better now when I see you. OK, great. So first off. Teflon scammers, what do they want? Why are there Teflon scammers out there? What do they want? What is like their goal? What's there? Why are they doing this? So most of the time, like other scammers, too, they try to take advantage of teachers looking for jobs overseas for pure financial gain. So they try to take your money. OK, they just try to take your money. Sometimes they also try to take personal information like, you know, passport information or like credit card information and things like that. But it's pure financial gain and sometimes also personal information, personal data. But most of the time it is financial gain. So just be aware of that. So whenever the topic comes up of something with money, it has to do with money, usually with the scammers, this topic will come up very early on in the job search process with the scammers. So just be aware of that. OK, and to me, just a real quick to answer your question. So after we do the course, I assume, can we begin to teach online? Yes. So our courses are also for teaching English online. We actually have one course that is specifically for teaching English online after that is the 170 hour TEFL course with online specialization. So if you're interested in teaching English online, I recommend that course. OK, so this is the goal of the scammers. They want to take your money most of the time. All right. So let's have a look at the most common scams here. Scam number one. What they often do is they use the name of a well known school. OK, so usually a lot of countries, Korea, China. Many other countries, they will have pretty well known reputable schools like like franchise chains. And they will use these names of these well known schools in the job ad. So, for example, they will use similar email addresses with a different domain. OK, so, for example, they would use School of English at gmail.com instead of jobs at schoolofenglish.com. Right. So they would use a Gmail account or whatever it is, Yahoo or I don't know, just a free email instead of the real school domain. That's very common. OK, so when you see this, it is most likely a scam. So how do we avoid the scam? So basically always do research on the school name online. OK, and check if the email advertised is on the official home page. So sometimes let's go back to this real quick. Sometimes, especially if it's a small school, they might actually have only a Gmail address, like not an official because these email addresses, when it's at schoolname.com, you have to pay for them. They are not free. So a lot of the big schools, they will have that because they have the budget they can pay for it. But a lot of smaller schools, they don't have the budget. Usually they just have Gmail free email addresses. So this could actually be a legit email address. So but oftentimes it is not. So how can you find out? Always do your research on the school name, how it is spelled exactly in the email address and check on their official homepage, which email address is listed there and if it matches. If on the homepage, they use an email address like contact at schoolofenglish.com, whatever school name and they use the official at school of English or at school name email address. Then if in this job ad, they use a free email address like Gmail, Yahoo, whatever, it is most likely a scam because then they already have their own email address. They would use this for everything, most likely. So that's how you can kind of figure it out. If you're still not sure and you want to double check, you want to make sure you can always email the school via their homepage or social media. So via the official email address and homepage or like a contact page, you can ask them if the job offer that you saw there is legit, is really from them, is really posted by the school. So that's a really good way to do this. So I hope that was clear. I feel like I can't explain well today. My I don't know because of my cold or whatever, but I hope I made this clear just going back again with the email addresses. So just in the job ad, when you see this and they use a very common popular school name in the email address, just make sure if you're not sure if this is real or not, you can always double check via the official website. OK, good. So this is a very common scam, number one. And if you if you figure this out and you're like, oh, yeah, this is not a real email address, you know, just ignore this job offer. Ignore it. Ignore it. Don't apply. Don't even do anything. You might email the school and say, hey, they're using your name. Is this real? Yeah, you can do that. And then maybe they can get it, take it down, etc. But this is a very common scam and this is kind of how it starts. And then what happens after this? If you send an email, if you want to apply there, you know, then the scammers, they will get back to you and they try to get personal information, they try to get money. So we're going to see scam number two, what they would do after this. This is a lot of times happens very quickly after that, requiring upfront payments. So they would request money from teachers very early on in the application process. So that is a very big red flag, right? Typically, they would ask for money, money for things like airplane tickets. Visa fees is very popular. Security deposits for homes, accommodation, etc. So this is a very big red flag. So how can we avoid this scam? Basically, you need to know that no Tefl employer, no Tefl, no school, they ever should ask for flight money upfront. That's just not really how they do it. Either. Either they just tell you, no, you have to book your own flight. And then, you know, you have to arrange everything or many employers, they pay for it and then later on, they reimburse the money once you start work. No, sorry, you pay for it. And then they reimburse the money once you start work. Also, or sometimes they pay for it. And then if it's not included, they actually take it out of your salary maybe over a two month period from your first salary. And then again, from your second salary, if the airfare is not included, if they don't pay for it and they make you pay for it. So they might book it and then just take it out of your salary. Depends. However, in many cases, the airfare is actually included and the employer pays for it. So then they should never ask you for flight money upfront. So that is that would be very strange. Also, very common, what they might ask is money for visa fees. So they might ask you, yeah, please send us like $100 for your visa application or whatever. That would also normally not happen. They would not actually ask that because you either they would just pay for that or, you know, you would have to go to the embassy and do all that and pay for it. So always take a look at the actual visa fees of the things on the official embassy website. And then you can also, if you're not sure, contact your embassy or that embassy and ask them if the visa fees that are proposed from the employer sound legit. So a lot of times the scammers, they would ask for very high visa fees. When in actuality, they are not that expensive. So that's another thing, flights and visa fees is very common. And then sometimes also the apartments where they ask for like a deposit for your apartment, for your housing, etc. So and again, this is very early on in the application process, right? Even before you signed a contract, before you maybe did an interview. So that is a very big red flag. These things might come up, but then after you have already taken the job, when you're signing the contract, very late in the process. This is very early on in the process. And then you can tell it's not it's a scam. It's not legit. All right. I hope that makes sense. All right. Then we have scam number three here. Getting hired without an interview also very common. A common scam here one second. So what you need to know is that most employers, obviously they will conduct interviews, right? They don't hire just they don't just hire you without an interview. And this will happen usually via Skype or sometimes also phone, but usually Skype, Zoom, you know, video, call. But if an employer just hires you without even asking for an interview, the chances are that this job is a scam. Very likely it's a scam. So how can you avoid it? How can you make sure? Oh, is this really a scam or not? How can you make sure? So should the employer not interview you? It's just safe to assume that this is a fake job and you should just walk away. But if you actually feel like it might be legit, request an interview and then see what they say. If you still feel like, oh, no, I don't think this is a scam. Try and ask them for an interview and then see what they say. I can see that maybe a lot of like smaller schools, you know, in countryside schools where they maybe don't get a lot of applications, they're just they take anyone they can get. So they might be just happy with your application. And they're like, OK, yeah, this is fine. I don't let's not waste any time for interviews. But this is really extremely rare. So getting hired without an interview does normally not happen. So if they just offer you a job without an interview, just walk away. It is a scam, most likely. OK, good. And then scam number four, we have here not allowing you to speak with current teachers. This is another interesting one. So usually at a time when you're applying for jobs and you interview and then you you can ask to speak with current teachers, other foreign teachers teaching at the school. This is very common, you know, to ask them about what's the city like, what's the school like, how's the work environment, etc. And that's very common. But should an employer refuse to let you speak with teachers currently working at the school, this really raises a red flag. So this could mean that they most likely aren't any teachers there because the school doesn't actually exist or that they don't want you to talk with other teachers because the school or the management is not very good. So the school could exist, but it could be a very bad school. Two things could happen here. So what can you do in this case? So if they say no and just ask them, why? Why is it not possible to speak with a current employee? And a lot of times they might say, yeah, because we don't want to give up personal information of our teachers. Which makes sense. But then you could tell them to give them your contact information instead and then just request to be contacted. So instead of you getting the information from other people, from the teachers, you could give them the information and then ask them to reach out to you instead of the other way around. And usually that would be OK. And if they still refuse, again, walk away, don't waste your time. Something's fishy, red flag, not worth your time, actually. So, yep. I also want to know if there's anyone out there here who has encountered some scams, please leave this in the comments. Let me know. OK, so these are really the four most common scams. So this is pretty much already it. I added two more here so we can just review one time real quick. So fake job postings. We talked about that. What can we do? We can always research the company and the position before applying. Very important. When you see like a fake name, a fake logo also can happen often. Always research the company. So that means go on the official website, check. Does the logo match? Is it the same logo email address? Does the email address match? And if you're still unsure, contact the school via their official contact information on the website with a link to the job ad, for example, and ask them, is this really your job ad that I've seen here? I would like to apply, but I just want to make sure if it's real, etc. That's a good way to do it. Then when they ask for upfront payment, what can we do here? What you need to know is legitimate employers. They should not require any upfront payments. So upfront payments, huge red flag, legitimate employers. They never require upfront payments, especially early on in the application process. Doesn't happen. Red flag, walk away. Then we talked about job offers without an interview. What if that happens? Just be wary that any job offers that are made without an interview usually not legit. Doesn't happen. That doesn't happen. Walk away, walk away, or ask for an interview. And then if they still refuse, no. Don't waste your time. Walk away. And I know, with these things, this is so important to just remember all these scams, because a lot of people, when we want to go abroad and teach, we get very excited and we get this amazing job offer in the city we want to go to. And the everything sounds great and they want to hire me right away. It's very exciting. It's very nice. But just slow down, slow down, take a step back and really look at it. Are there any red flags? It's very important so that you don't get scammed. OK, and then also this is something I didn't mention, but vague job descriptions. OK, this is also sometimes can happen in the job ad, very vague, not, you know, the student's age, what kind of school it is, you know, you're working hours, no salary, all of these things. It's just very vague. That's also very common. And just also if there's no detailed information in the job ad, just be cautious. It is a scam, most likely, if it's too vague, too vague, right? We always know these jobs job ads where it says your responsibilities and there should be it should be very detailed. If it's too vague, it's usually a scam. The other thing is high salary promises. You might see a job ad with just a huge salary promise. This can also be a scam. So always research the average salary for similar positions. That's a good tip. This is for any like in the beginning of your TEFL job search. This is what you should do. What are the typical? What's the typical salary in the place where I want to go to and typical benefits? You could find this, for example, also now on the ITTT website. We have a job section and you can search there. Usually all of these jobs are very similar. The salary is similar. The benefits are similar, etc. So if you spot a job ad that has unusually high salary promises, it could be a scam. That's how they get you, right? People like money, obviously, so they would contact the one with the highest salary. So always research so you know. And if this salary just seems to be unusually high, compared to all the average, compared to the average salary for this place, it's probably a scam. And the last one here is requests for personal information. So we talked a lot about upfront payments, etc. But they could also ask for your past a copy of your passport or your social security number, all of these things, credit card information. So just know that legitimate employers, they will never ask for this information until after you have been offered a job. So before you've not signed your contract or anything, they would not ask you for this. They will ask for this later on for the visa, probably a copy of your passport. That is very common. You might have to fill out a form with your personal information after you've signed or for the contract, but not very early on in the process. So that is another very big red flag and a scam. OK, all right, we were we were through very quick today, but it was kind of good because I am sick. So that is basically it in a nutshell. I know it went very fast, but just to give you an idea of the scams. And now we can do a Q&A and maybe I'll leave this up real quick. And I just want to ask you guys if you have encountered any TEFL T-SOL job scams before that are different from these. Let me know because scammers get very creative and they obviously evolve and they change their methods too. So if there's anything that you've encountered, please let me know in the comments. And also, if you have any other questions, Q&A, we can do Q&A now for a little bit. No problem. So let me know. I know this went very quick. We usually go much longer, but this is just compact today. Pretty much everything you need to know about the TEFL scams. So that's fine by me because I am sick. So I probably can't do one hour today. But yeah, let me know. Has anybody encountered any TEFL scams in the past? Let me know, please. And just know all of the jobs listed on our website when you go to TEFL course dot net, you can see at the top it says jobs. All of these are legit. They are, you know, our partners. They are checked by us and verified. So there are no scams. They are just letting you guys know. All right. And then, yeah, let me know, guys. Q&A, if you have any questions, also about something different, totally cool. You can ask me your questions about anything else related to ITTT, TEFL TESOL, about today's scams, whatever it is, let me know. I know today's a quick one, but it is what it is today. Because of my cold and my situation, I probably cannot do anymore. Sorry about that. Next time will be different. OK, thank you, Brett. Brett says my instructors never let me down the wrong path. Great resources. Thank you, Brett. Awesome. That's good to know. Brett, how is your TEFL job search going? Have you decided on a country now? I know you were kind of torn between a couple of places. What are you doing? Give me an update. What's been going on? I haven't seen you in a couple of months, I think. How are you doing? Give me a life update. Oh, Daniela. Yeah, you know what? I can share it. Let me share this so you guys can see it. The presentation slides. Here you go. I just shared it in the comments. Yeah, Daniela, I'm sick today. So that's why it's going to be a quick one today. But yeah, here you can find the slides from today so you can check it all out. Yeah. All right, Brett says I'm probably teaching summer school again this summer. Cool in Italy or where are you going? No problem, Daniela. Where are you going, Brett? I need some more tea, too. Hold on. Tea, tea. Oh, oh, oh, nice. Slowly building a network of friends to transition to Italy. Congratulations. That is awesome. I mean, Italy is so hard to beat, right? Italy is Italy. Is there something better? I don't know. I would just move there for the food, honestly. Food, amazing, just amazing. Do you want to be in Rome or a different place or it doesn't matter? Are you looking into everywhere in Italy? Let me know. I'm curious if you want to share, only if you want to share. I don't want to be too nosy, but I'm really curious. Oh, and Daniela, you can always watch the replay as well. So even after this life is over, you can just watch again from the beginning. Our lives, they never disappear. They always stay on our Facebook page and on YouTube. You can always watch the replay. OK, I want to explore different regions. Yeah, OK, absolutely. Well, they have a good trade network and everything. So you can definitely explore a lot of Italy once you're there and you have a base. That's cool. I am actually drinking turmeric, turmeric tea. You know, I want something spicy so that my nose kind of opens up. So but green tea is obviously my fave. Yeah. All right. Good. Then, I guess, let me know if there are more questions before I sign off again. I know today was short, shorter than normal. But yeah, I probably can't do more than that, unfortunately, because of my condition today, I am sick. And yeah, but I hope you did learn a thing or two today. And I shared my slides today in the comments here so you can have a look and you can kind of review or you can save it. And again, you can always watch the replay and just make use of this discount if you are not yet certified. And yeah, 30 percent off. I'm just going to share the link one more time in the comments for the 30 percent off. So you guys have it. Looks like this. FB live minus Linda. Copy, paste it and you get 30 percent off. Awesome. Nice. Thank you, Brad. Get better soon. Rest up. I know I have to. Thank you, especially because it's Friday. I want to enjoy my weekend. I don't want to be sick. I've been sick the whole week, unfortunately. It's annoying. All right, guys. Well, if there are no more questions coming through, then I might just say goodbye already, but it was really nice to see you and also Brett. So please join again next week. Next week we'll be back to normal. We'll do longer. We will talk about something interesting. And I hope to see you again next week. Thank you guys so much. It was a quick one, but I hope you enjoyed it. And yeah. Thank you, guys. I hope to see you again next time. Then I'm signing off. Thank you, guys. All right. Have a nice weekend. Bye bye.