Victim Stories
Real cases · Real lossesI sold my family's land to pay for a UK visa that never existed
A care worker from Ghana paid £22,000 in stages to a man posing as an NHS trust recruiter. The CoS was forged. The employer was not on the UKVI register. She had no idea until she landed at Heathrow.
Based on BBC News investigation
3 min read
£18,500 gone: the IT engineer who thought he had a job at a London fintech
Ravi accepted what looked like a senior developer role at a legitimate London company. The CoS passed every surface check — Companies House, SOC code, salary. It was only when the UKVI portal rejected his reference number as non-existent that everything collapsed.
SponsorShield Case File
4 min read
The forged NHS Trust CoS that passed every check — except the one that matters
A healthcare worker from Lagos received a CoS bearing a real NHS Trust name, real address, and reference number in the correct format. The Trust had no idea its name was being used. She paid £9,000 before discovering it was a fabrication.
SponsorShield Case File
3 min read
A family borrowed against their home. The CoS was fake.
Maria's entire extended family contributed to the £14,000 needed for her UK care worker placement. Three months later, they discovered there was no job, no sponsor, and no way to recover the money.
SponsorShield Case File
4 min read
Essential Guides
What to check · How to protect yourselfThe anatomy of a fake CoS: how fraudsters make them look real
Fake CoS documents are no longer crude forgeries. Scammers register real UK companies on Companies House in hours, then issue forged sponsorship documents with correct-format reference numbers. Here is exactly how they build them — and where they always fail.
SponsorShield Research
5 min read
7 things every migrant must verify before trusting a Certificate of Sponsorship
The UKVI sponsor register is public and free. The CoS reference number has a specific 11-character format. The salary must meet a legal minimum. Most fraud victims would have been protected by checking even one of these.
SponsorShield Guide
4 min read
UK Skilled Worker salary thresholds explained: what your CoS must show
The April 2024 changes raised the general threshold to £38,700 per year. If your CoS shows a salary below this figure — or below the going rate for your SOC code — your visa application will be refused. Here is exactly what to check.
SponsorShield Guide
5 min read
How to verify your UK employer is a real, licensed sponsor before you pay anything
Before you trust a Certificate of Sponsorship, you need to verify the employer properly. This step-by-step guide covers every check — including the free UKVI register lookup, Companies House verification, and direct employer contact.
SponsorShield Guide
6 min read
You now know what fraud looks like.
Run a free check on your CoS before you take another step.