| Country | China |
| City | All over China |
| Address | Offices in Beijing & Hangzhou |
They fooled me too. I make myself feel less bitter about it all by remembering the great food and the blast I had exploring the Great Wall. But really, these scammers need to be rounded up and executed IMO. They rip you off from abroad - in the safety of China where the FBI or FTC can't touch them. Having no legal recourse is what is really frustrating for me. I actually met a dozen Gi2c clients who were planning to hunt the owner down in his house and duct tape his ass naked to a chair and then put hime in the middle of Tiannamen Square with a big sign in Chinese that said "I CHEAT PEOPLE FOR A LIVING - SPIT ON ME IF YOU DON'T APPROVE". I was all for the plan but the guy lives in a gated community with guards. $6,000 down the toilet.
This is a sophisticated scam that is full if surprises and none of them are good. I was a tourist visiting Beijing for two weeks having a pretty good time. I was at the Forbidden City in Beijing when a young American guy about 25 years old came up to me and asked for $10 to buy lunch. I was surprised to see a foreigner begging in China when most all of the begging is done by local Chinese.
So I invited this young man to have lunch with me and learned that he was from Indiana and graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in psychology. When I asked "Lucas" why he was begging I heard a horror story of how he became homeless in China after he quit his job as a print-shop manager to come to China to get a $50,000 job with Kraft Foods through a HR company called Laowai Career Center.
To make a long story short, everything the young man was told was basically a pack of lies and he spent his last moneys to travel to China and rent an expensive apartment in Beijing. After go to the Laowai Career Center orientation and paying $1,000 for Chinese lessons he was pushed into buying "because Kraft only keeps bi-lingual employees after the 90 day probation period." he was told that there was a "hiring freeze" at Kraft and it would be at least 3 months before he could be hired on.
But they offered him a job teaching English that paid $800 a month. He had no choice but to take the teaching job because he had less than $300 in his wallet. after paying 3 months rent in advance, buying his $1,800 plane ticket and buying the Chinese lessons. Only one month after teaching English to Chinese elementary school he said police came to his school and the principal told all the foreign teachers to hide behind some lockers in a storage room for 2 hours. It turns out that Laowai Career Center did not get him the right "Z visa". and he was working illegally as were the three other foreign teachers at the school.
He said they were discovered by the police and were questioned. He falsely claimed he had to use the bathroom and then escaped out of the bathroom window three weeks ago. The police had gone to look for him at his apartment and when he went home the landlord had put all of his things in the hallway and told him to go - that he did not want any problems with the police. He called Laowai Career Center and asked for his wages so he could buy a ticket and go home to Indiana, but instead they tried to talk him into taking another teaching job and did nothing to help him get his salary or a new place to live. He said he slept in different McDonalds restaurants that were open late and sometimes underneath parked trucks or buses that were left unlocked. When he finally went to the Embassy for help he was told that he would be arrested if he worked anywhere in China and he needed to go home.
So for the last month he was waiting for his step-mom to buy him a return ticket and begging on the streets of Beijing to get enough money to eat. I called this Laowai Career Center on his behalf and was told by some guy in a East European accent to "mind your own business". Today after searching on the internet, I found over a dozen complaints like this one here: http://www.abroadreviews.com/fraud-alert-laowai-career-center-cheats-uni-grads-china-job-internship-scams
and this one
https://www.scam.com/showthread.php?683734-Gi2c-China-Internship-Scam-Now-Buying-Testimonials-For-1-000!&p=1973009&posted=1#post1973009
and this also: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?highlight=Gi2c&p=60715895
Basically they have 5 different scams built into one, depending upon which one you fall for. For example, if you refuse to pay their $299 up-front fee (I heard they recently abandoned this part of their deal) they then do the bait and switch China job placement using their "guaranteed job in China wiyhin 30 days" (but a specific job that you want and accept is NOT part of that guarantee), If you do not fall for that BS, they offer you a much better job but you will need a university degree, and if you don't have one, they will sell you the best counterfeit diploma you ever saw for $1,500 cash. Whether you buy the fake diploma or not you will still need to have a Z Visa (work visa) to work in China and they will sell you a black market version for $3,000! Then if you just tell them to fuck off, they will still make $500 from you by selling your resume and passport scan and national ID number and photos to identity theives. You will not even remember Laowai Career Center 6 months later when the cops knock on your door in Madison, WIsconsin or Atlant, Georgia about the $30,000 of credit card fraud YOU didn't do. Sure you will clear it all up after spending $10,000 on a lawyer and it will take you 3-6 months to restore your good credit and convince the banks to issue you new credit cards! These fraudsters are full exposed here with photos https://eslwatch.info/en/eslwatch-forum/china/756-old-russian-gi2c-scam-artist-is-back-laowai-career-center-new-china-job-scam/edit/1405.html and some of their former employees from their previous scam explain how they fool so many people. Spread the word or be a turd.
They got me. What can I say? I believed their great BS and my wallet went on a crash diet. And offcourse, I saw these warnings too late. Live and learn I guess.
http://www.tefl.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=7589
https://reportscam.com/laowaicareercom/
http://www.realscam.com/f51/scam-alert-lawaoi-career-center-old-sophisticated-china-job-fraud-new-name-same-russian-owner-my-review-4753/
https://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/warning-laowai-career-center-aka-gi2c-china-job-internship-scam-rotten-apple-china-job-internship-agency-c853096.html
http://Reddit.com/r/chinascamcentral
This company is owned by a russian man and his girlfriend who just laughed at me when i said i was going to call the cops. He defrauds people by making them believe he will get them a high-paying job in china. You end up with a lousy job that is not the one you signed up for nor paid for. You will be offered a job that only a hungry homless person would take working 6 days a week for $800.
But you do not learn the truth until after you arrive in china when you don't even have enough money to go home after paying three months rent in advance for a chinese apartment that foreigners are asked to do. Only after screaming i was scammed in front of their office door was i allowed to the owner.
He told me i should learn how to read if i was going to be a teacher, and pointed to the fine print disclaimer in hi contract which is the opposite of what the sales people told me on the phone.
When i went to the police station they told me i was the one who broke the law for coming to work in china on an f visa - the one that laowai career center told me to apply for! they said the russian wa snot breaking any chinese laws unless he wa snot paying taxes or did not have a license. One of the cops went with me to the laowai office but when yuri the russian saw us coming he smiled at the cop, handed him an envelope and said something in chinese. The cop smiled, shook his hand and just walked away.
Tomorrow i will go the newspaper office and make a complaint with them about these crooks. Today my sister sent me this link about these people: http://www.Opnlttr.com/letter/laowai-career-center-189-other-black-scam-agencies-get-more-2500-foreign-china-tefl-teachers
These crooks are the same people who had the gi2c internship scam. They ripped me off for a $299 processing fee which i learned not everyone paid. I applied for a job they offered me that paid $40,000 a year but ended up with a job that paid 30% less because their contract terms are tricky and gives them the right to switch your job based on "availability" but that is not what they told me verbally. Only after i spent $5,000 relocating myself and dog to china with an apartment did i discover my invitation letter was from a different company where they sent me to work. Their sales rep also told me to lie on my visa application so i could get an f visa Business visa) which now i learn it is illegal to teach in china without a z visa. These guys are sneaky bastards, who don't care about you after your first 90 days because that is when they collect their placement fees from the schools, most of which are blacklisted schools that the veteran esl teachers refuse to work for. See: http://www.Opnlttr.com/letter/laowai-career-center-189-other-black-scam-agencies-get-more-2500-foreign-china-tefl-teachers
Scam Alert! - Laowai Career Center is a Russia Bait & Switch Fraud
They got me. What can I say? I believed their great BS and my wallet went on a crash diet. And offcourse, I saw these warnings too late. Live and learn I guess.
http://www.tefl.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=7589
https://reportscam.com/laowaicareercom/
http://www.realscam.com/f51/scam-alert-lawaoi-career-center-old-sophisticated-china-job-fraud-new-name-same-russian-owner-my-review-4753/
https://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/warning-laowai-career-center-aka-gi2c-china-job-internship-scam-rotten-apple-china-job-internship-agency-c853096.html
http://Reddit.com/r/chinascamcentral