From thousands of women from
East Europe who are subscribed to the dating or match-making agencies with the
purpose to meet the foreigner for a serious relationships or marriage, there
is a small percent which, using the anonymity given by the Internet, are deceiving
some men from Western Europe or USA.
This article will certainly not be pleasant for the rascals, but we hope that
the following information will cause reduction in the amount of deceptive practices,
which harm every day the reputation of the international marriage agencies each
and every day.
It is important to note one detail: anyone can fall for a scam! Even the most
brilliant businessman, who is able to catch many fraudulent acts can be tricked
as the debutant if he is not informed on tactics used by these scammers: when
business concerns, sentimental area and loneliness, borders and barriers are
reduced for great pleasure of some dishonest people.
Rule number one is obvious and effective, to be saved from a fraud: never
send money to the woman with whom you are in contact!!!
If you wish to invite the lady of your choice to your home country it is better
to buy the air plane ticket directly from the agency and be able to obtain a
refund in case of non-use of the ticket. Even if she writes to you, that the
air ticket would cost 2 or 3 times less if she would buy it in Russia herself,
do not send her money! Buy the ticket yourself!
The reputation and seriousness of our agency is based on a simple principle:
we clearly declare our intentions to the ladies, who want to join our agency:
no one from our men will send money to them on any occasion. We discourage these
swindlers, who however, prefer to try the chance at other agencies.
The
first stage: an establishment of the contact with the lady
If you wish to
create a family with the girl from the East Europe you have a few ways and opportunities
in getting in contact with Russian or Ukrainian girls with the help of marriage
or dating agencies. There are two main types of agencies:
1) Classical marriage agencies such as ours, which make the catalogues
of Russian and Ukrainian ladies with the help of partner agencies in Russia
and Ukraine. These partner agencies are responsible for checking the lady's
personal data and be convinced of her motivation: agencies offer a long-term
membership (maximum 1 year), cost of membership starts from several hundreds
up to several thousand dollars. Marriage agencies are imposed with law, the
contract guaranteeing the rights, if signed by two parties. The advantage of
this system is that to guarantee that the ladies who have joined the marriage
agency actually exist!
However, it is possible, that some of these ladies have dishonest intentions!
That is why the Inter-Marriage Agency works in close relations with independent
associations, whose purpose is to collect evidence on the deceived persons,
to create the black list of swindlers and dishonest agencies: these associations
visit our site a few times each week our site and supervise the data of our
new ladies laboriously.
2) Dating clubs which create their files from photos and questionnaires,
sent by e-mail on behalf of the ladies, who wish to marry a foreigner: they
sell individual addresses for the sums of 5 to 20 USD for each address. These
agencies are not following any rules because they are not considered marriage
agencies, but as dating clubs. In this case, any written contract is not signed,
payment is carried out by a credit card directly on a site. Inconvenience of
this system in difficulty to check the identity of the person, who was subscribed
on the site independently. Swindlers are in the majority on these types of sites
because the anonymity which they can use: the charming 20 years old Russian
girl with whom you are corresponding, could be a grumpy old man with the anonymous
electronic address in reality, who just sends e-mails with a photo of the beautiful
girl from a fashion magazine.
But, please, have in mind, that these cheaters are a very small percent of the
number of women whom are honest and sincere in their intentions, so do not become
paranoid.
The
second stage: correspondence
Let's now study
the mechanism of this type of a deceit: you purchase from an agency a few addresses
of the ladies from Eastern Europe and send them a letter - representing yourself
plus sending several photos; you get in contact with one of them and everything
seems to be normal in the beginning, and then, unexpectedly, after only 3 or
4 exchanges of letters the lady declares, that she is madly in love with you.
After the declaration of her love for you followed by 1 or 2 passionate letters,
the lady, suddenly asks you to send her money. Usually swindlers do not show
good imagination and will frequently use the same schemes.
The standard
scheme is a method of " milking the cow". The cheater asks
you about sending small amounts of money regularly to defray various charges-
such as access to the Internet, English language courses to manage a better
communication with you etc... Once you stop sending money, the lady is disappearing.
The average monthly salary in Russia is near $50USD, so such "small sums
" that you sent to her could be actually a financial godsend for "the
pour Russian woman".
The other
scheme is the money for the visa: in this type of scheme her letters
are more individual and also make an illusion, that strong feelings are created
between you and the lady. After approximately 10 letters the lady has the opportunity
to arrive in your home country and that a large sum of money is necessary to
receive the visa. She is burning with desire and she wants to meet with you
as soon as possible. After you send her the money, the lady disappears.
The scheme of the trip: similar to the scheme of the visa. The lady tells you,
that she has a girlfriend or the member of her family who works in a travel
agency and has an opportunity to buy the airplane below the competitions price
(sometimes there are some variations: the lady knows the civil pilot or agency
which suddenly makes improbable promotions on the tickets).
The scheme
of sickness: usually it is a seriously sick person in her family (mother,
father) and he or she can only be rescued, if you send a large amount of money
to pay for the necessary medical care.
The scheme
of accident: identical to the scheme of illness, but this time a member
of the family is a victim of some terrible accident, and he can not survive
without an expensive surgery and urgent hospitalization.
The scheme
of a mirage: is more seldom. In this case the agencies are selling addresses:
questionnaires and photos of Russian girls that do not exist. This scheme functions
by the amount of addresses sold by the agencies: the false address which costs
$10 USD could be sold hundreds of times to Americans and Europeans, paying by
credit cards!! Internet sites of these agencies are exposed and closed by their
Internet provider sometimes, but they reopen several weeks later under another
Internet address, with other names and with a different web design! These agencies,
Russian or Ukrainian in the majority, also use free-of-charge space for their
sites. These sites have similar design, very little information, the exact amount
of photos of the beautiful Russian girls and an online system of credit card
payment. It is a well-known " HIT AND RUN ", in other words to sell
a maximum number of false addresses in a minimum amount of time, to close the
site and to disappear, only to reopen later under another site and under another
name.
Outside
of these schemes there are some signs, which should alert you: but meanwhile
do not leave in paranoia!
1. After
your payment the agency refuses to provide you with the post address of the
lady and gives you only the electronic address: this is the characteristic of
the dishonest agencies, which have the counterfeit files of unreal announcements.
The agency has no basis to not give you the post address of the lady.
2. The lady
herself does not wish to give her post address and corresponds with you by free-of-charge
electronic mail: the most popular in Russia are mail.ru, yandex.ru, hotbox.ru,
ukr.net and others...The lady writes to you, that she is using this free-of-charge
service on the computer from her work or the cyber cafe. If the lady changes
the electronic address often, it is because there was a complaint against her
because of her scheming and consequently the Internet provider removes her ?-mail
address. It should convince you to the bigger concern: send the electronic letter
to her Internet provider to find out, if her e-mail address was closed because
of a complaint. A problem with these electronic addresses is that it is impossible
to identify the person: be prepared - your correspondent will disappear without
leaving any traces.
3. Lady
gives you the address, specifying the P.O. Box, instead of her personal address:
be very cautious, the lady can disappear without leaving any traces.
4. Photos
sent by the lady look really professional and the lady looks like a model: you
will probably be surprised to find out she really is a model! Many swindlers
will not hesitate just copy the photos published in fashion magazines!!
5. The lady
does not personalize the letters and is not interested in your character. The
typical tactics of the scammer, which sends a maximum of standard letters to
all of men who have bought her electronic address from the site, and hopes that
the man will bite on her hook.
6. The lady
sends one or several erotic photos of herself in each message: an effective
method to some men who put physical criteria first and who did not contact this
lady because she has written in the questionnaire that she likes to bake cakes
or to read Dostoevsky. Do not forget, that an average Russian lady usually does
not have a financial opportunity to make highly professional photo and to pay
for their scanning. But swindlers do!! They have many photos of the same girl
and are ready to send you them over and over again.
7. Lady
mentions persistently the fact, that she has a small income and big financial
difficulties, but she does not ask for money directly: be very vigilant, because
it is a classical tactic. Remember that the Russian ladies are very proud and
modest and they will never begin such conversation themselves.
8. The lady
wishes to meet you only after several exchanges of letters!! A classical method
by creation a sense of promptness: remind yourself, that time is the main enemy
of the cheater. It is totally opposed to the serious ladies who will decide
to meet only after deep thoughts and reflections (especially when we consider
a trip). The sensation of promptness created by the cheater can be compared
with the fox, which is setting the fire to a henhouse. Our advice-do not hasten
and very patient during your correspondence: the cheater will disappear and
she will try to catch another man.
9. The lady
is absolutely not interested in your work or your incomes. It can seem paradoxical
firstly: you tell yourself, that she is interested only in your character and
not in your standard of living, but actually, a knave just does not wish certain
serious relations with you and wants only to draw a maximum amount of money
in a minimum amount of time. Opposite to the serious lady who will not leave
her country and her family not being sure, that the man with whom she is going
to live, will manage the financial security of their future family.
Third
stage: reaction - what to do if you were a victim of deceit?
Unfortunately there
is very little chance, that you can get your money back. You can meanwhile help
other men to avoid the fraud:
a) To contact the marriage agency or club of acquaintances, which has
given you the addresses of the girls: serious agencies will remove immediately
the data of this girl from their files; it will help to avoid other swindlers.
b) To contact the Internet provider of this girl and ask him to remove
her e-mail address.
c) If you sent money on Western Union, send them a letter to this address:
Western
Union 13022 Hollenberg Drive; Bridgeton, MO 63044; USA
Send a copy of
your receipt of the payment you made (unfortunately it does not mean that you
can ask them about compensation of money), this letter will help to place the
address of the girl in the black list and to avoid a deceit of other people.
If you
were a victim of deceit, send us an electronic letter (antiscam@inter-marriage.com);
detailing your case, we are ready to publish your evidence in this heading.
To see
the list of the scammers click here:
The
BLACK LIST
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