I contacted the Sultan British Private School in Al Ain, UAE for an ESL position, I was quickly given a skype interview, next day I was told I got the job, it had a nice salary, a website (a little basic for an international school) but you don't usually think too much about it, I booked my one way flight from Shanghai where I have been teaching for 2 years to Abu Dhabi. They put me in contact with a so called travel agency who requested my documents to organize my Visa application ETC, I sent them, then I got an email from the agency saying their payment system is down and I need to send 4200 AED (nearly £1000) via Western Union to a certain address for a Mr Smart Ndidi, I know that Ndidi is a common Nigerian name. Not saying all Nigerians are scammers... But obviously warning bells were going off. After doing further research I could find little further information about the school outside of it's website, no teachers on LinkedIn, no reviews of the school, no reviews of this travel agency. I also couldn't find the school on a list of registered UAE schools. I did find a travel agency with a very similar name to the one who had contacted me. So I think they just chose a similar name to a reputable agency thinking people would fall for this. The scam agency is called Yascine Travel and the real agency is called Yassine Travel.

Quite obviously a scam, luckily I managed to get the majority of my flight money back and didn't send them any money, however I did hand my notice in at my current school, which I should be able to explain to them what happened and I am sure they will understand.

Avoid, just a scam.