I dumped the original email, so can't copy it here, but realised after a while that this had to be a scam. He said that he was Bobby from Paris, France had seen my details on the ESL board and considered I was a suitable teacher for his 8 year old daughter. We discussed the frequency of lessons, agreed the price and I said I would issue a PAYPAL invoice. He then said he couldn't do that, but would send a check. I refused the check and suggested a direct transfer, which he agreed. I sent the bank details and he then replied that his bank wanted more details - this is the latest email received today:

I got your mail and i really appreciated your effort and sorry for the the stress that i have been given you over the payment,i got the info sent to my bank and i was told the info wasn't completed and the remainning info was then sent to my mail box which i think after that,nothing will be needed anymore....................DOB,N.I Number,Driver's licence with date of expiry,Mother's Maiden name,Place of work,Sort Code or Routing Number.

Hope am not too stressing you over this cause i never did bank transfer before and that's why i didn't know all that i will be needed from you to make the transfer.I even asked why all these are been needed,what i got was that they have to get all these correct to avoid wrong transfer and scamming.And i know you should know better than me about this if you have been doing it before,and as soon as these last info get to me i will make sure i get it to them and get the money transfer immediately.

Everything you need to work out pin numbers, passwords etc!! During the exchange of messages, his daughter dropped 2 years in age and became 6 years old. I checked on the source of his emails and they route between America and Australia, but not France! (why am I not surprised!) Has anyone else heard from this gentleman??