To those looking to teach overseas, this is yet another cautionary tale.

I was found online by a recruiter named "Jack" under the banner of a company called Bole Management Consulting Co., herein referred to as "Bole". I had never heard of this organization, and proceeded with caution. Jack offered me a job at a language center in Chongqing city, but contract details looked fishy, containing a "probationary period" clause, and a start date different from the one we agreed upon.

Two weeks of going back and forth on Skype revealed that the school was apparently run by very young women who were the only ones there who could speak English, albeit broken. My questions about details and provisions would not get answered time and again, and Jack was hasty to rush things along. Finally, a contract arrived in the postal mail, and I reported back that I would not be signing it. After stating that the deal was "closed" between Bole and myself, Jack then threatened to report me to Chinese authorities, stating that I had broken an agreement, and that I would eventually be forbidden to work in the People's Republic of China.

A day of researching yielded many Chinese companies named "Bole" (pronounced: BUO-Luo) and that he was connected with none of them. The domain of his e-mail address included a ".cn" which is a government domain, and therefore not to be used privately. Next, I found out that "bolebj.cn" did not exist at all.

After having called him out, he soon after removed me from Skype contacts, and removed his Linked In connection to me.

I know that this has happened many times before to countless others. However, many such individuals have been taken for a serious ride by characters posing as recruiters for Chinese agencies large and small. I have had these interactions before, but to little or no consequence. It only ended in a tremendous waste of time for all involved.

Please know that this is par for the course in overseas education recruitment. I have solid and direct contact with a handful of reputable Chinese universities and institutes, and will proceed with them on into the hiring stage if I see fit. Direct contact is the way to go in this regard, so do take great care and do not give it all away.

There are many Jacks out there, and there will be many more. Tread carefully. An individual in his living room with a laptop can cause tremendous grief.