Is The China Daily Mail And Editor Craig Hill A Shill Scam?

This is a loooong and complex story so strap in folks and prepare for turbulence. About two weeks ago we began receiving emails from mostly expat teachers in China, along with a few recruiters asking us if we had complaints on file against the China Foreign Teachers Union (CFTU). Normally we don’t get more than 3 – 5 inquiries a day about the same scam so we knew something was going down with te CFTU. We checked our files and found that we did in fact have two complaints on file about the CFTU and one of them was from 2011 about a Chinese teacher who claimed he was being discriminated against because he wasn’t accepted as a CFTU member. The other complaint was in May of 2012 from someone that turned out to be an employment agent masquerading as a teacher – apparently trying to discredit the CFTU.

Then two strange things happened, we received an email from one of our sources asking why we were bashing the CFTU. We had no idea what he was talking about so he sent us this link http://chinadailymail.com/2013/03/25/china-foreign-teachers-union-could-be-another-chinese-scam/
and we were absolutely shocked to see that someone was posting comments under our name! The comments posted at this web site were not made by us and it is not our business nor custom to make posts like that. We have since sent an email to Mr. Craig Hill the “editor” of the China Daily Mail to remove those comments or at least publish notice that they are not comments that came from China Scam Patrol. We are awaiting his confirmation.

As for the China Foreign Teachers Union, the only complaints we received are those cited above, and considering the many fake agents, corrupt principals and ID thieves they have exposed on the past and on their website, it is understandable to us that they have created many enemies in China. In the past we had cooperated with the CFTU regarding the case of David Wu and other unregistered agents that were targeting foreign teachers for scams and from time to time they feed us tips of new names being used by scam agents that were exposed under names they previously used. We are not aware of any scam being run by the CFTU or any of its members, and would investigate any related information of such a fraud. Any tips can be submitted in confidence to tips{at}ChinaScamPatrol.org

We have reason to believe that the author/editor of The China Daily Mail may have some hidden agenda of his own and we have opened an investigation accordingly. Neither the China Scam Patrol nor our staff have had any previous dealing with Mr. Hill nor the China Daily Mail. We found this photo and link about him and have learned that he was a prison guard in Australia before coming to China. We have also received credible information that he has used alias names in the past and this raises some red flags for us especially since he took the liberty of using our name to post false statements about the CFTU. One informant has suggested that Mr. Hill is/was business partners with a certain Chinese ESL Teacher Recruiter and has a criminal record in Australia. We cannot accept this as fact just yet, but we are following up on the information. Again, if anyone has any information about Mr. Hill or The China Daily Mail, we ask that you forward it to us in confidence.

There is a possibility that a hacker is at play in this matter, but so far Mr. Hill has not denied posting the erroneous statements on his blog about us. The comments made by other posters at the following link http://craighillchinadailymail.blogspot.ca/ mirror two emails we received as follows:

From Jerry_D@______.net: “I have been a CFTU member since 2011 and I tried to post an argument at the The China Daily Mail blog in defense of the CFTU but my post was rejected without any explanation”

From: Whisper@______.com: Something very strange is going on here and I ask that you investigate the ChinaDailyMail.com. I asked the author (Mr. Hill) to explain where and how he knew the accusations he was making, but my post was deleted the next day. Maybe about 8 months ago I sent an email to the CFTU asking about membership and they told me there was no charge for membership but that I would be required to do some volunteer work. I checked their website yesterday and see that membership is still free along with most other things they offer teachers in China. So why is this guy Hill saying there are fees? Can you please investigate and let me know the truth? Thank you.”

China Scam Patrol attempted to post this post you are now reading today at the ChinaDailyMail.com website and it was not accepted for posting. We have also discovered that we have been blocked from posting at Echinacities.com where we have learned that Craig Hill is one of the moderators in the “Answers” section.

China Scam Patrol also made a formal inquiry to the CFTU and the response we received from one of the CFTU’s co-administrators Greg F***** says in part:

“For the record the CFTU wishes to emphatically state that:

* We have never charged any membership fees since our inception
* We do not collect any monies or fees from anyone
* The CFTU does not sell any product, service nor accepts advertisements
* The CFTU web site has made no deletions of any sort and the only edits have been additions
* The CFTU has had no past or present dealings with Mr. Craig Hill nor The China Daily Mail
* The CFTU was recently blocked from defending itself at both the China Daily Mail and Echinacities.com where our posts were deleted without any explanation”

We have received information from an employee at China ESL that “Mr. Hill is being paid a lot of money by my boss to attack and smear the CFTU” This China ESL reference may have something to do with the very negative posts about China ESL at thebeijinger.com and elsewhere.

http://www.thebeijinger.com/node/1592803 and http://www.thebeijinger.com/forum/2013/01/31/beware-chinaesl-scam-alert-rebecca-tang-will-rip-you

Another one of our regular blog visitors “Patrick” sent us the following links which may also have some relation to this matter: http://www.tefl.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=5805 and he said that posts made by user “Shining_Brow” at Echinacities.com was rearranged from a post to a comment at this link: http://answers.echinacities.com/node/126507. Patrick admitted that he was a user named “Pegasus” at Echinacities.com and that he was banned after making this post: http://answers.echinacities.com/node/115523

If the CFTU’s reference to China ESL does have something to with Mr. Hill (a real possibility), then this link may also help explain why this China Daily Mail blog suddenly pounced upon the CFTU out of the blue: http://eslwatch.info/china-2/bad-recruiters-review-in-china/7150-webb-international

It is a sad day when foreigners in China have to edit and censor opposing points of view – just like the Chinese government has been doing for years. If Mr. Hill is going to ban our comments and arguments at his blog as well as Echinacities.com, then he should at least tell readers there why they see no rebuttals from those he accuses and falsifies statements.

Mr. Hill does speak the truth when he says (many times) that China’s government does not allow nor embrace labor unions. However, we believe that if Mr. Hill is going to falsify posts made by China Scam Patrol and accuse the CFTU of charging monies he should explain himself fully. We will surely get to the bottom this fiasco one way or another. Stay tuned and we will post updates as they develop. Hopefully with the help of our readers we will find the party(ies) pulling the strings of Mr. Hill and his China Daily Mail. For now all we know is that Mr. Hill is a man who refuses to answer questions, and one who resorts to fabricating and repeatedly editing posts to cover his ass.

UPDATE (May 15, 2013) We have just received confirmation that Editir “Craig Hill” is actually “Kenneth Craig Hill” who has aparently been using aliases and was once officially deemed to be “suffering from mental disorders” by a Queensland court in Australia after he submitted a workers compensation claim. Details can be found by Googling key words of “Kenneth Craig Hill, QLD” which will produce the Austrlian government court records.
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