Balfour Construction Consortium Senegal

[garrobo]

Folks,
I got a request to submit from these guys back in Sept, I sent them a reply,
they sent me a form, I filled it out, sort of forgot about it, then Saturday I
get a reply from them with a contract acceptance form.

Here is what I have seen so far, they have not asked for any money up front,
they told me to sign and scan the contract and return it to them. The also told
me to send a copy to the Senegal consulate as part of a visa application proc-
ess. ( have gone though this to do work in glass plants in Russia, Brazil and
several other places, so this looks legit to me) They told me to keep all of my
receipts, as all would be re-paid on arrival at the office in Senegal. they also
indicated that the first month salary and allowances would be paid on arrival.

I am not new to international work and travel, I am just out on my own as I
have always done it under the shield of a company I was working for.

Does anyone know if these guys are legit or not? I send a note with a copy
of the info to Balfour Beatty, they said that it appeared to be a scam, but
at the same time, the scams I have seen were already hitting you up for
"FEES" in the first or second transaction. The e-mail address they used is
a yahoo.com address, but I have noticed that there are a lot of legit ops
that use those addresses for collecting resume and and contact info so it
is not all that unusual. I have googled them and and find NOTHING, not even
a complaint, I did find one entry from LONGRIDER on this board, but that is
all, and he was asking the same question. If they are legit, I am going to take
the contract as I need to get back to work, but I do not want to step into
something that is bogus or worse. Anyone have any ideas??

Great site folks, wish I had found it back on the 27th of Aug. I do not see
much for cold end glass guys but I see a lot of electrical, networking and
other technical stuff, I am going to have to get some licenses for some of
the jobs something I never needed because I was covered by my employers,
Hint, you young guys even though you are working under someone else
papers, go ahead and get your own, then you will not be where I am having
the knowledge and not having the papers...

[Justus]

How did they find you? I hate to be a pessimist but this just doesn't sound right. No one can find anything about them, a yahoo email address, no phone numbers to call (at least you didn't mention any)...it just seems bogus to me. I hope I'm wrong.

[garrobo]

I think it came through one of the job sites I was providing my data to. I would have to look back though all of the mails to see where it came in from, but I got
first the usual saw your resume and are interested in more info, so I replied to
that, they replied with a form which I filled out, it just more or less was sort
of a resume of experience, again no request for 'fees' or other stuff, just fill this
out and we will get back to you, I did so and forgot about it because I have
done so many of them, usually when they see I am 58 yrs old they go dark.
But this one did not, I got a contract, they asked me to sign it and return
it and also generate a copy and send to the Senegal immigration, they also
gave a e-mail address which is on the e-mail which I could deal with I looked
it up and it is a immigration consultant like the ones I used when I was with
Emhart Glass, to get a visa for Russia and Brazil. I did not find any complaints
against the org. The things that have caused alarms to go off are the e-mail
address, the fact that Balfour Beatty dis-avows them and some of the spelling
in the contract. They do give me a address and phone number as seen here:

Balfour Construction Consortium Sénégal
245 PAP DIOF AVENUE
GRAND YOFF
DAKAR SENEGAL
Phone number +221767426292

I called the Senegal Consulate and talked to them about it, the lady that
attended me was very attentive, also treated me very well contrary to a
lot of embassy consulate folk, she asked me to send them a copy which I
did, she said they would research it for me and tell me if it was bogus or
good. She told me that she had just handled some similar request and knew
that there was a lot of bad stuff going on, and that they were trying to
kill as much of it as possible.

[garrobo]

More poop on the Balfour Construction thing in Senegal, I contacted the
Consulate in Houston, they were very gracious and asked me to send a copy
of the e-mails, I did so, figuring that would drop off into a bureaucratic black
hole, I was attended very nicely not the usual attention I have gotten from
some consul and embassy people, some of who it would be better to deal with
a porcupine, anyhow I did as requested and got a call back within 2 HOURS,
that is a record for me in dealing with these people, I was away from my
home, but found the voice mail, and called them right back the nice person who
I had talked to very politely took my call and asked me to stand by to talk to
the Consul, again, the attention was above and beyond the call of duty, they
had called Senegal, and tried to locate the phone it was a cell number, she
also told me that the street address was not quite right, she said that the
location in Dakar exist but that the way the street was given was not in acc-
ordance with the street naming convention. She also noted that it was
strange that a company would give a cell number (I thought so too) as the
call back. She pointed out that the English appeared UK style but again she
said it was not quite right, I told her that I thought it was Nigerian based on
my having spent some time in Nigeria, and indeed that was my next step to
run it by my Nigerian friends, they never fail to detect them.

The Consul asked me if I had been asked to pay any fees or other cost to
the company, I told her no, that I had run into these before and usually got
hit up for "processing fees" right up front, that so far I had not been asked
for any money. They had indicated that I should use a immigration site based
in NYC to process the visa, she told me that was not correct, that I should
do as they had specified, and send the documentation directly to her, that
Senegal did not use go-betweens for their visas. She said that since they had
not requested any money and since they had not been able to PROVE that
they were bogus, to go ahead and sign the contract and send it back, BUT
she said to add a note directing them to FAX the contract info and request
directly to the consulate fax number which she gave me. She said that if they
got past that to see what happens and keep her in the loop.

As you can see I am impressed with their consulate, and I told her so, she
told me that they were the first contact for many people with their country
and always tried to make sure it was positive.

I will keep you all up to date as to how this flows, just in case any others
get one of these things, of course if someone else has already tried it out
would be nice to see what happened.

[mexfishguide]

Anytime I am asked to fly to some where ? and pay my way - bells, whistles, & red lights, go off.:rockwoot:

I would absolutely stay away from these folks.

Try to stay with the contractors we have in our contact forum.

Take care
Mex fish guide:cheers

[garrobo]

That was still way down on my radar, I figured if the respond to the fax and
send all of the data to the consul, I will then tell them that I am quite willing
to go there, but I need my cost up front. I was just going to see where it goes
based on the Consul's request, but I can assure you I was not going anywhere
on a promise, I had that happen to me once, I got what turned out to be a
rubber check, they thought I would jump on the airplane and head that way
once the check arrived, I deposited it and waited for it to clear, when it
bounced I informed them I was no longer interested, oh they assured me that
they would make right on the check, I told them that they may do so but once
I am on site what is to prevent them from doing similar stuff, needless to say
that one went dark...

[The Wild Rover]

I am glad the consulate could help you, but did you try the RSO in the US Embassy in Senegal...he can send his local ARSO's to check it out. I have been there, and it is a pretty bad place. With the economy in the US as bad as it is, it is even worse over there. This sounds like a meet and greet at the airport type of deal, and it turns into a meet and beat you after the airport... where they kidnap you or take all of your belongings and drop you off in the bush...maybe naked, maybe dead, maybe both. It sounds fishy to me. Go on the US embassy/State dept. website and get the info before you go. Get a credit card with a $500.00 limit. Get a seperate savings account with a $500.00 limit for the ATM machine. Keep a copy of your passport back home, or even better, fax one to the US Embassy in Senegal so they have a copy. Call the US embassy and tell the RSO/ARSO when you'll be coming in, and your contact info, hotel, employment info while you are in country. Call the number and talk to the Project manager, the engineer, and ask the questions your trade requires...please, be safe.

[garrobo]

W R. Thank you for the info, the Consulate asked me the same question, she
told me that they were going to continue to call the number to see if anyone
answered, and would try to get someone out to the address but she did point
out that I should also contact the US embassy there, I was getting ready to
head that way. At this point I see a big red NO WAY on this one. After what
the Consul told me she had found or not found, I figured when it raised a big
red flag to a Senegali, it was pretty much a given that it was a fake.

I have seen similar stuff happen to people in Nigeria, not pretty, I have friends
in Ibadan, and when I have been there working, I have visited much with them,
they have told me some of the horror stories that have happened to people
arriving there with fake contracts. I enjoyed my jobs in Africa, but I guess
having local friends helped a lot.

[Electrical Al]

Sounds like you be better off in a afgan tent camp to me. Hell as least you know where and what your getting in to!!!: :AR15

[garrobo]

Yes, I am sure I would be, but I do not have a clearance, got to figure out how
to deal with that too. I live in Tampa, I see so many great jobs here at
CENTCOM but can not touch a one of them due to no clearance. I get notices
of them all the time, it is very frustrating to see what they are asking for in
terms of knowledge and not be able to touch it due to not having the clearance.
Very frustrating indeed.

[Javabear]

How do I get on that CENTCOM mailing list?

[garrobo]

I see them on one of the job boards that I joined I will go through and see
which ones were carrying it, but all I can say is it is frustrating to see so
many jobs posted so near to me (well they have heavy travel but this is
home base) and I can not touch a one of them because I do not have a
clearance.

[mexfishguide]

Bro, have you made it clear to all the prospective employers, that you are willing to go thru the process to get a clearance?? :rockwoot:
You realize a clearance must be sponsered, & requested, by a firm doing the work and having a clearance equal to are above, what you need. Clearance is not obtainable by an individual.

Good luck, hang in there fellow.

Take care
Mexfishguide:cheers

[Sasquatch]

It doesn't sound good to me. I would run not walk from this one. I would never pay for a ticket to go somewhere.

[garrobo]

Mex, ohh yes I have made it very clear, I have several friends here in the bay
area who work in the defense industry, they have told me not to stop
submitting, that at some point someone will pull me into something and get me
into the process, but after filling out so many and sending so many resumes,
or in many cases now they already have it, you just log into the site and
append all of your information to the job listing, and be done with it, but no joy
to date. I will just keep at it I guess.