Living costs in Hampshire

Are you sure it's £6,500 per month?

that's what they sent me, it is an official paper.
I even think it's a lot. Maybe because i'm an american???

I doubt it. Salary being influenced by Passport/Nationality works in the Middle-East, but not here in England (my opinion, so don't take it as fact!). I think you need to look at it again, just in case you made a mistake.

yep you're right, in middle east the salary is affected by the nationality "Big Time".
This is what they said:
[color=#3EC738]1. SALARY
You will be eligible to receive G-BP 6,500.00(Six Thousand and Five Hundred Pounds Monthly). Funds can be transferred to any Bank designated by you and this must be in conformity with the present tax situation of the country
Allowances and Entitlements
Hazard/inconvenience GBP 350.00(yearly)
Car maintenance GBP 625.00 (yearly)
House &. Furnishing: -GBP 5000.00 (Yearly)
Entertainment & Recreation: GBP 235.00 (yearly)
Travel & Event GBP 550.00 (yearly)[/color]

What is your opinion ?

I don't know how to prove if a job offer is genuine, as I haven't been in a position of looking to work abroad. But considering there is a lot of "fake" offers out there (for the purpose of scamming people, by asking them for money/copy of identity papers etc etc), are you 100% certain it's legitimate? Because I find the salary quite substantial. It's a similar salary to a GP.

I think it's too good to be true, since it is a very high salary. But the question is "how can i know if it is fake or not".
Knowing that they didn't call me or do with me a Skype interview, they just contacted via email. And the weird thing is that they are sending me emails from an Gmail account not an "@virginmedia" account.
Hmm, i have no idea what to do ........

There are a number of things to look out for, and one of them, is when they don't use a proper email address. Someone posted the list of things that tells you it's a scam, on this site, I will look for it and paste it here.

Contact the company directly. Go on their official website, send them an email, or call them, and confirm. I'm born in the UK, and lived here all my life. So from my experience, as soon as I read the amount they are offering, I knew immediately something wasn't right!

I will do, thanks very much.

I'm trying to locate the exact post, but I've so far only managed to locate a similar post:

How exactly did you receive the initial contact regarding this job offer? Was it actually a job that you had applied for previously or was it by way of an unsolicited e-mail? If it was by e-mail you can tell quickly if it came from a legitimate company because the e-mail address of the sender will have a DOMAIN NAME like a.b.johnstone[at]xyzcorp.com the domain name of a real company. Anyone should be extremely suspicious of any kind of job offers or any other kind of schemes that come from someone they don't know in the first place and especially when the person uses a gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc., e-mail address. No genuine company will ever use these free e-mail providers.

You also need to check if the offer provides a real address and official website. If it does then check it out closely, make sure that the company exists and do a Google search to find out if the website you've been given is exactly the same as the real company's website. Many scammers go to the trouble of setting up websites that are almost identical to the real company's site. If the company's (official) site differs in any way from what you've got then contact the real company directly. They're not going to be upset about this, it's something that any prudent person would do. They'll either confirm the offer or they'll thank you for letting them know someone is using their company name to pull off a scam.

The biggest tip-off that you're being scammed is if you're being asked to pay any fees in order to get the job. You should never have to pay any up front fees, not even for visas; if you have to pay a fee for a visa then you should always pay that directly to the Consulate where you must apply for it. If the company wants you to obtain a visa then THEY should be prepared to pay the cost and arrange for you to repay them later, once you've began working for them if need be. If it is a so-called AGENCY then remember that almost without exception they make their money by charging the employer, not the prospective employee.

Always bear in mind the old saying that still holds true today... "If it seems too good to be true, that's because it IS too good to be true."

It's settled then, fake offer !!!!
The domain is Gmail.

Thanks very much,  I really appreciate it....

Also take a look at UK Jobsites to get an idea of the average salary for such a position:

http://www.technojobs.co.uk/jobs/telecoms-engineerhttp://www.reed.co.uk/jobs/it-telecoms/ … s-engineerhttp://www.telecomsjobsource.co.uk/jobs … aintenancehttp://www.jobsite.co.uk/jobs/telecommu … s-engineer

And from that, you would know immediately £78,000 per year is certainly not the average salary!

it's good that i didn't send them my scanned passport

sam bayt wrote:

It's settled then, fake offer !!!!
The domain is Gmail.

Thanks very much,  I really appreciate it....

I used to study Cisco in the past, before switching courses, so I had some knowledge of what the average salary is for jobs in that area and other engineering positions. So when you said £6,500 per month for a new telecoms engineer, I instantly knew it was a fake! And England doesn't offer Americans anything special, in terms of salary. They get the same as a British. It's all about how skilled and experienced the person is, not what country they come from. You will find a lot of immigrants from Asia, Africa, anywhere, doing highly-paid jobs, paid equally as the Brits, and their nationality hasn't effected their salary at all.

sam bayt wrote:

it's good that i didn't send them my scanned passport

That's what I mean, when I said they will ask for money/identity papers. So I see they've asked for identity papers. My guess was right.

Hiya Sam,

This is exactly what ex-pat blog is all about. People from a different country helping prevent an innocent and decent person being scammed.

Everyone who has participated in this thread has been magnificent. Sound advice given by genuine individuals who care about complete strangers in another country and don't want to see anyone taken for a fool.

Good luck Sam in your adventures........

Chuckles

thank you all for the advice

sam bayt wrote:

thank you all for the advice

No problem. Hopefully a real offer arises, and then we can give you advice about cost of living, if you're to work in England. Another thing to keep in mind, is employers in England do things the proper way. Certainly not by sending random emails, from random email addresses. They would expect to see your C.V, there would be interview and so on. It's not a quick process. Basically they would do what you would expect from a professional organisation looking to take on a new employee. They certainly don't send emails of the kind you've shown. All reputable organisations have their contact details on their official website. So a quick email to them, informing them that you've received an offer, is all it takes to know if it's a scam or not. Treat all offers as scam, until shown otherwise. Guilty until proven innocent approach works for me!

Best wishes for the future.