I almost got scammed
These scams are getting sophisticated, or maybe I’m just gullible or desperate to move back abroad.
I got an email saying a university in Germany is hiring for their newly opened language center. They are reaching out to qualified candidates whose resumes were found on a TEFL website.
I’m qualified and I’ve worked in Europe before (Celta + 9 years experience), so this didn’t raise red flags for me but it should’ve.
The email seems to have been sent by a real person who works at the university and can be found on the university’s website.
I apply, they ask me to answer some written questions via email.
They schedule a Zoom interview with me, right beforehand saying that due to technical difficulties videos should be turned off. Should’ve been a red flag but I thought hey, not everyone likes to be on video.
The person conducting the interview can also be found online, works for a consultancy that places teachers in Germany, so that checks out.
It was only when they sent an obviously fake contract with a too good to be true salary that I thought hey…
It turns out the email address used a slightly different format than the usual email addresses used at this university.
I emailed a contact I found on the university’s website and they confirmed they weren’t hiring.
Anyway I’m disappointed and I feel stupid, just wanted to put this out there and remind people to be WARY!