I currently do a bit of freelance tutoring for kids as a part-time job— not with any company but I’m signed up to a few websites like hellosensei and enjoylesson. At midday today I got an email from “Motoko from MTK International”, a “dispatch company”. They asked if I could “take a student in Kyoto” (I’m Tokyo based and have nothing ticked to indicate I can GO to Kyoto— yes it was for in-person classes as opposed to online). They sent a profile of the student, a 7 year old boy, including the full name and address which seems incredibly dangerous information to give out on a random email. The “preferred date” for the class is TOMORROW. As in, email sent on the 13th, wants the class on the 14th. Their “contract” seems extremely amateur and is missing a lot of information. The entire thing seemed extremely weird and suspicious so I wrote a short simple email essentially saying “I’m Tokyo based so I cannot take clients in Kyoto. Furthermore, I work independently as opposed to with a company, so if your student is interested in taking lessons with me, please tell them to contact me personally”. I have no intention of engaging with them but is this a scam? Some kind of weird thing targeting English teachers? I’m so confused.
by eichikiss