DD applying for what I think is a fake job.

[Ironpants]

It's a PA to a wedding photographer, suits her down to the ground. The salary is nearly £35k which seems way too much, I obviously googled the photographer & the website is v amateur with spelling and grammatical errors. The pictures are fairly amateurish and the company isn't registered anywhere and has no reviews.

To pay a PA that salary, it must have a turnover of what, £100k? I've never owned a business so I don't know but surely a company with that turnover would be registered at companies house?

You have to advertise the job to show the home office that there were no suitable applicants in order to get the visa

Well that doesn't sound very likely with a well paid job that requires little skill

Well that doesn't sound very likely with a well paid job that requires little skill

It does if you have 'justification' as to why candidates aren't suitable

Are the people who check these things stupid? You'd have to be to fall for that.

I think they will just want to harvest your daughters bank and passport details. Simple identity theft.

It's a bloody minefield and sometimes very little of the visa process makes any sense.

I want to apply now just to see how an organised crime gang like that would work, come on @Ironpants , post the link 😀

Devon, London and the USA is very um,.. weird. As soon as you said USA I thought money laundering. They are advertising a job to make it all look legit if anybody came knocking. Applicants, cv's, interviews. Its a "paper trail"

It's a bit of a weird one isn't it?

Where was it advertised? (In what medium?)

Yes this, or book my travel on your card, though if she's not thinking of doing a runner not sure how that would work either.

I used to be wedding photographer, I would love to know who this is!

I don’t know anyone who has a PA, I had a lot of peers which high end clients and none of them had one. I know of one who is a very good and high end photographer who was looking for an admin assistant but her work is visibly good, consistent and she has a lot of public followers. Maybe super, super high end, photographers who charge £10k+ Might need a PA but then you’d see from their standard of work and number of followers that they were pretty high end I think.

There has also been some scam photographers come to light recently - stack em high types. They will book hundreds of weddings a year fully knowing they can’t photograph them all, and will sub contract other photographers to actually do the work. Often this is last minute, and the associate photographers don’t always get paid. Quality of images doesn’t mean much here either, the photographer relies on couples wanting cheap photos, not good ones. Maybe they want to bring her on to manage something like this? (Steer clear!!)

That was scrapped some time ago. Also visa salary thresholds start much lower and the job needs to fit a certain category in terms of qualifications and skills - a PA job wouldn't. It's nothing to do with visas.

Strange how a photographer would only work in or around Devon, London and the US.

Sounds a bit London, Paris, Peckham, doesn't it?!

That's odd because our legal team say we still have to have a complete audit trail including the original advert and the responses.

I'm an EA for a global company, I'm only just over 30k lol

I'm glad you're clarified this, you'll see from my previous posts that this seemed very odd to me

Lots of fake roles at the moment. Most of them are on Indeed.

I've lost my job (hence my name) and applying for lots. Its really getting me down x

Yes, it is rather - and I agree with others that the inferior quality of the website is the real red flag here, though my instinct isn't screaming that it's a scam. A clued-up scammer might incorporate deliberate spelling mistakes and/or grammatical errors if the intention was to dissuade anyone but the most gullible from responding to the advertisement*, whereas this smacks of simple incompetence. The conclusion's the same, though - be wary.

[* More commonly applies to scams that begin with "my brother-in-law is the ex-finance minister of an overthrown dictator who has hidden 100 million dollars in a box somewhere in the Sahara Desert..."]

If it's a local Z-list name, then it's probably a trustafarian/yummy mummy's vanity project. I guess the risk is they will get bored pretty quickly when they end up spending their own money to subsidise the project or your DD will end up picking up dry cleaning, booking holidays and doing the school run. Maybe it is a genuine role and they want a family PA but think calling themselves a photographer makes it sound more attractive.

It's not screaming scam to me, more like just a crap job that might be short lived. PPs have already pointed out what to look for if it is a scam - being asked for payment or personal details. Just advise her not to pay any money and don't give out sensitive details like NI or passport number until she has met the photographer in person (and verified who she is) and there is a job offer.

@chesirecat99 I was thinking much the same after that too. Sort of thing where might run an art gallery or interior design place. Don't really need it to get a proper salary from, just something to do and a bit of spending money. Their website might be crap as don't necessarily need to attract business in that way. Just trades off 'name' and contacts. Likes doing the society thing doing their photography, but wants a PA to actually run things and organise it all.

Might just be my imagination though!

Yes, sounds more like this! I will encourage her to steer clear. Thank you for articulating this in a way i
xouldnt!