by Oksana Boichenko
Much has been said about online dating advantages, as it is a great way to meet a possible life partner or to make friends. But online communication can also hold potential dangers of scammers, con-artists, or plain not nice people. You can easily protect yourself by following a few simple rules and make the most of your online experience at the same time.
Things NOT TO DO:
Getting personal has a limit - it is possible to give too much personal information, for example, your address, your work place, bank account, or credit card information. It is never a good idea to share this type of data, especially, if you are communicating with a person, whom you have not met face-to-face. If you are using free online chats, you could easily be talking to a man, who is a hacker or a thief, while you might be under the impression that you are chatting to a sweet lady, who is interested in you. Such people normally gain your trust, and when you least expect it use this information to appropriate your savings, credit, or even identity.
The type of theft mentioned above is more spread in the US and Europe, but Russia and some CIS countries have a different type of danger - scammers. The latter work in a different manner: they will also gain your trust, but instead of stealing your money through your credit cards or bank accounts, they will do everything possible to have you send the money yourself. A typical scenario is for your "lady" (many of whom turn out to be men half the time!) is to start coming up with the reasons as to why she will not be able to continue communicating with you: she won't have the money to pay agency fees, she will no longer have access to a computer, one of her relatives will get sick and she has to move to take care of him/her, etc. In order to avoid being tricked in this way, we suggest that you always use trusted reputable agencies to find brides from overseas, have enough information about your lady to make sure she is real (i.e. talk to her over phone, have some of her real-life photos, etc), and notify agencies if you feel suspicious about your sweetheart asking for money. It is also advisable to do a background check if you are seriously interested in someone from overseas - some agencies will perform this service by visiting and interviewing a lady you are corresponding with to see if she is real, and how interested she is in communicating with you.
If you are communicating online with people from your community or nearby, it is a good idea not to tell them where your house is located. Unless you have met them and know a person well, you are better off not to share this kind of information. We suggest you are certain of who a person is and his/her intentions before inviting them to your home to avoid unwanted trouble.
Things TO DO:
Make sure that your friends and family are aware of your online communication, and have as much information about the person you are talking to as possible. It is advisable to let them know when you are planning your first date/meeting with your online sweetheart. Let them know how you met online, what you know about this person, where you will be meeting, and when you plan to be home. It is also a good idea to have one of your friends or relatives give you a call during the date - this will give you a great excuse to leave sooner if you do not feel comfortable with your new acquaintance.
Always plan your first meetings in a public place to make sure there are plenty of people around. Should your new acquaintance have any malicious intent, it will be difficult for him/her to carry it out, and give you plenty of time to keep a safe distance.
You can also plan your first meeting as group gathering - aside from it being a safe option for a first time meeting, it can also help both of you avoid awkward silences should the date not go as smooth as planned.
About the Author
Oksana Boichenko
OksanaLove, Inc.
http://www.oksanalove.com
The matchmaker with 12 years of experience in the online dating business. You can find your second half - just visit our dating site and meet your Russian bride among the thousands of beautiful Russian women.
Search for single pretty Russian and Ukrainian brides at e-RussianWoman.com
Showing posts with label Russian dating scams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Russian dating scams. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
How to recognize a scammer? - Easy!
by ewgeny
Scammers usually give their emails in first letters and try to make further communication not on the site (probably he will not notice when their profiles are getting stamped with a scammer sign).
Scammers do not give their telephone numbers (according to their words, russian brides do not have telephones). Scammers usually prefer to call themselves or to give a phone number of "relative or girl-friend" and agree on phone call time.
Actually all russian women (as everybody) have home and mobile phones. Preference of scammers is to write a first letter by themselves (accordingly in this way they have communication with much more potential victims). And also scammers if they put on the site that they are a girl of age of 23-30, in her questionary usually will be written that she wants to find a man from 25 to 60, even 65. Anyway they are not going to have a relationship with a man, their aim is to get his money. Scammers are "falling in love" in a very short period of time with the men they are having communication. They are very expressive and persuasive in expressing their feelings. Usually they write a lot about her feelings, her love, her plans about common happy and full of love future. They create a dream for a man, a dream he was dreaming about and make him lose his mind. Scammers use fraudulent credit cards, they have many of them, to join such sites as yahoo, match, American singles, date. Sometimes their profiles are getting blocked, because of fraud, but by that time they already gather some men to work with. In their long letters, scammers, they write about honesty, about seriousness, that they are looking for a honest man and true love, and nothing more is important for them. But real ladies prefer to build communication firstly on site, then to give their email addresses, or to write to email address given by man. Wife from Russia are not agents of FBI, they do have mobile phones, and do not need to make agreements on call time and so on. It's really stupid to believe in this. The nature of russian women is that they are much more conservative. Most of them prefer a man to make a first step towards them. May be they can send wink or a postcard to a man, very rarely a letter. In reality, russian brides usually prefer the age difference to be maximum 10-15 years. Their aim is to build a family for long years, to have common children, they want to live with somebody close to them by age. Real russian girls are more restrained in such things. They, like everybody, realize that Internet communication is an internet communication and people can not fall in love without meeting each other. Russian girls are trying to be honest with a man, telling him about their worries on virtual communication, not making blabla about how she loves him without a meeting. And one more thing, russian women usually don't have credit cards to pay on such type of sites. They can join these sites as free members, but not as paying. Check our scammers list. Some russian women answer very eloquently, originally, some of them answer with standard phrases, dully. In the first group you will want to find some honesty (a person who is honest and has not met any cases of dishonesty yet, he will not think about that). The second type of women will write about such things like reliability, faith, stability, kindness but never about love(because they are feeling just shy to speak about deep feelings by Internet).
About the Author
Russian wife - Dating and Matchmaking inc., CEO. single russian woman, single russian girls. http://www.wife-of-russia.w-ru.com/
Search for real serious single Russian and Ukrainian ladies
Scammers usually give their emails in first letters and try to make further communication not on the site (probably he will not notice when their profiles are getting stamped with a scammer sign).
Scammers do not give their telephone numbers (according to their words, russian brides do not have telephones). Scammers usually prefer to call themselves or to give a phone number of "relative or girl-friend" and agree on phone call time.
Actually all russian women (as everybody) have home and mobile phones. Preference of scammers is to write a first letter by themselves (accordingly in this way they have communication with much more potential victims). And also scammers if they put on the site that they are a girl of age of 23-30, in her questionary usually will be written that she wants to find a man from 25 to 60, even 65. Anyway they are not going to have a relationship with a man, their aim is to get his money. Scammers are "falling in love" in a very short period of time with the men they are having communication. They are very expressive and persuasive in expressing their feelings. Usually they write a lot about her feelings, her love, her plans about common happy and full of love future. They create a dream for a man, a dream he was dreaming about and make him lose his mind. Scammers use fraudulent credit cards, they have many of them, to join such sites as yahoo, match, American singles, date. Sometimes their profiles are getting blocked, because of fraud, but by that time they already gather some men to work with. In their long letters, scammers, they write about honesty, about seriousness, that they are looking for a honest man and true love, and nothing more is important for them. But real ladies prefer to build communication firstly on site, then to give their email addresses, or to write to email address given by man. Wife from Russia are not agents of FBI, they do have mobile phones, and do not need to make agreements on call time and so on. It's really stupid to believe in this. The nature of russian women is that they are much more conservative. Most of them prefer a man to make a first step towards them. May be they can send wink or a postcard to a man, very rarely a letter. In reality, russian brides usually prefer the age difference to be maximum 10-15 years. Their aim is to build a family for long years, to have common children, they want to live with somebody close to them by age. Real russian girls are more restrained in such things. They, like everybody, realize that Internet communication is an internet communication and people can not fall in love without meeting each other. Russian girls are trying to be honest with a man, telling him about their worries on virtual communication, not making blabla about how she loves him without a meeting. And one more thing, russian women usually don't have credit cards to pay on such type of sites. They can join these sites as free members, but not as paying. Check our scammers list. Some russian women answer very eloquently, originally, some of them answer with standard phrases, dully. In the first group you will want to find some honesty (a person who is honest and has not met any cases of dishonesty yet, he will not think about that). The second type of women will write about such things like reliability, faith, stability, kindness but never about love(because they are feeling just shy to speak about deep feelings by Internet).
About the Author
Russian wife - Dating and Matchmaking inc., CEO. single russian woman, single russian girls. http://www.wife-of-russia.w-ru.com/
Search for real serious single Russian and Ukrainian ladies
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Online Dating Scams - Red Flags and Signs
by Oksana Boichenko
Having someone you trust (an interpreter you know, a reputable agency representative, etc) meet your lady in person is the best option to knowing how genuine and real she is. But even when that is not an option, there are some other red flags to watch for and make sure you are not being fooled.
It is true that many Russian brides do not give much consideration to the age difference. However, we suggest that you analyze all pros and cons, as well as your communication when your birth dates are too far apart.
It seems that most men get excited at the prospect of having a wife, much younger than them. Of course, having an 18 year old beauty with brains as your partner when you are over 45 can boost any ego. But no matter how robust or energetic you are, we suggest that you take a step back, quiet your racing heart, and think of what your relationship will be like 5 or 10 years down the road. You will most likely be more interested in having more family time and a more relaxed lifestyle, while your wife (by now at her prime age) will still want to go out, visit crowded places, and be on the go most of the time. Such a difference is likely to put a strain on any relationship, no matter how emotional and connected the partners are.
This doesn't mean that you should give up the idea of having a young beautiful wife all together, of course. But we suggest that you raise your age limit by a few years to ensure that a woman you choose to build a relationship with not only has life experience, but also is mature enough to understand all implications of a long-distance, age-difference relationship with a person from overseas.
Another important thing to consider is the start and style of your relationship. Once I got a call from a good friend of mine, an American, saying he received a message from a gorgeous 18 year old girl saying she is dying to get to know him. As dear friend as he is, I would certainly admit that he is no Brad Pitt - quite an ordinary guy in appearance, in his early 50s, a bit on the heavy side - you get the picture. Lucky for him, being a pragmatic person and knowing all his best and worst features, he didn't rush to write her back with I-love-you's. As a curious experiment, he decided to write to her for some time and see the outcome - after the third letter he became the man of her life, after the seventh he was asked for money, and after he stopped writing to her, he received an exact copy of her first letter… but under a different name!
All this said, it doesn't mean you should get suspicious when your Russian bride is open about expressing her emotions. But we do suggest exercising some common sense and not basing any decisions on your emotional attachment alone.
Another sure way for scammers to easily fool you for a long time is to avoid communication THROUGH DIFFERENT MEDIA. It is easy to conceal information through an email address, which can not be tracked or checked.
Long-distance calls are expensive, but are a good measure to keep in touch from time to time. It is a great sign of a woman's genuine intentions if she shares her home as well as cell phone number with you - a good proof that she is not hiding who she really is. More often than not, scammers will give a cell phone number only, as it is something that is hard to track and easy to replace. We also recommend that you pay attention to her snail mail address - most scammers will use P.O. box addresses, instead of actual street/house information.
Naturally, common sense says that you can not expect a lady to share all of her contact information with someone she does not know. Even with most serious intentions, it might take time for her to be certain of your interest and intentions as well before she gives you her full contact information. But if your lady has to make frequent excuses about her phone being switched off or stolen, her not being home, etc. we would caution you to proceed with your communication carefully.
Another simple way to check how real your lady is could be by simply asking her to send you some personal photos. The pictures of beautiful women commonly used by scammers are easily downloaded from the Internet, but will most likely have little variety in setting, style, etc. They will normally look like studio photos (most scammers are "models in the past"), and will not have anyone except "the lady" in them. Having your lady refuse (or make excuses) to send you photographs with family and friends is a great guarantee that she is a scammer. Most photo studios and internet cafes allow to scan and mail information (or will do it for inexperienced users) with ease.
But even if you discard every piece of advice mentioned above, there is still one main rule to remember - NEVER SEND ANY MONEY TO SOMEONE YOU HAVE NOT MET IN PERSON. Just because you are using a trusted service, it doesn't mean that you can be sure the real person gets the money. For example, many Western Union agents are bribed and share the profits of transfers, received by scammers: a person with a completely different name can receive the money, and the Western Union agent will simply overlook the incoherency in the documents for a commission.
We strongly encourage you to conduct your own investigation and research when you have any doubts about the person you are writing to, or even when you decide to correspond with someone from abroad (especially if you are not using an agency). Many sites will share the names of the existing scammers, finding information about your lady's home country can also give you helpful insights, etc. Knowledge is power, and our agency is always ready to provide you with it.
About the Author
Oksana Boichenko
OksanaLove, Inc.
http://www.oksanalove.com
The matchmaker with 12 years of experience in the online dating business. You can find your second half - just visit our dating site and meet your Russian bride among the thousands of beautiful Russian women.
Search for pretty single Russian and Ukrainian ladies
Having someone you trust (an interpreter you know, a reputable agency representative, etc) meet your lady in person is the best option to knowing how genuine and real she is. But even when that is not an option, there are some other red flags to watch for and make sure you are not being fooled.
It is true that many Russian brides do not give much consideration to the age difference. However, we suggest that you analyze all pros and cons, as well as your communication when your birth dates are too far apart.
It seems that most men get excited at the prospect of having a wife, much younger than them. Of course, having an 18 year old beauty with brains as your partner when you are over 45 can boost any ego. But no matter how robust or energetic you are, we suggest that you take a step back, quiet your racing heart, and think of what your relationship will be like 5 or 10 years down the road. You will most likely be more interested in having more family time and a more relaxed lifestyle, while your wife (by now at her prime age) will still want to go out, visit crowded places, and be on the go most of the time. Such a difference is likely to put a strain on any relationship, no matter how emotional and connected the partners are.
This doesn't mean that you should give up the idea of having a young beautiful wife all together, of course. But we suggest that you raise your age limit by a few years to ensure that a woman you choose to build a relationship with not only has life experience, but also is mature enough to understand all implications of a long-distance, age-difference relationship with a person from overseas.
Another important thing to consider is the start and style of your relationship. Once I got a call from a good friend of mine, an American, saying he received a message from a gorgeous 18 year old girl saying she is dying to get to know him. As dear friend as he is, I would certainly admit that he is no Brad Pitt - quite an ordinary guy in appearance, in his early 50s, a bit on the heavy side - you get the picture. Lucky for him, being a pragmatic person and knowing all his best and worst features, he didn't rush to write her back with I-love-you's. As a curious experiment, he decided to write to her for some time and see the outcome - after the third letter he became the man of her life, after the seventh he was asked for money, and after he stopped writing to her, he received an exact copy of her first letter… but under a different name!
All this said, it doesn't mean you should get suspicious when your Russian bride is open about expressing her emotions. But we do suggest exercising some common sense and not basing any decisions on your emotional attachment alone.
Another sure way for scammers to easily fool you for a long time is to avoid communication THROUGH DIFFERENT MEDIA. It is easy to conceal information through an email address, which can not be tracked or checked.
Long-distance calls are expensive, but are a good measure to keep in touch from time to time. It is a great sign of a woman's genuine intentions if she shares her home as well as cell phone number with you - a good proof that she is not hiding who she really is. More often than not, scammers will give a cell phone number only, as it is something that is hard to track and easy to replace. We also recommend that you pay attention to her snail mail address - most scammers will use P.O. box addresses, instead of actual street/house information.
Naturally, common sense says that you can not expect a lady to share all of her contact information with someone she does not know. Even with most serious intentions, it might take time for her to be certain of your interest and intentions as well before she gives you her full contact information. But if your lady has to make frequent excuses about her phone being switched off or stolen, her not being home, etc. we would caution you to proceed with your communication carefully.
Another simple way to check how real your lady is could be by simply asking her to send you some personal photos. The pictures of beautiful women commonly used by scammers are easily downloaded from the Internet, but will most likely have little variety in setting, style, etc. They will normally look like studio photos (most scammers are "models in the past"), and will not have anyone except "the lady" in them. Having your lady refuse (or make excuses) to send you photographs with family and friends is a great guarantee that she is a scammer. Most photo studios and internet cafes allow to scan and mail information (or will do it for inexperienced users) with ease.
But even if you discard every piece of advice mentioned above, there is still one main rule to remember - NEVER SEND ANY MONEY TO SOMEONE YOU HAVE NOT MET IN PERSON. Just because you are using a trusted service, it doesn't mean that you can be sure the real person gets the money. For example, many Western Union agents are bribed and share the profits of transfers, received by scammers: a person with a completely different name can receive the money, and the Western Union agent will simply overlook the incoherency in the documents for a commission.
We strongly encourage you to conduct your own investigation and research when you have any doubts about the person you are writing to, or even when you decide to correspond with someone from abroad (especially if you are not using an agency). Many sites will share the names of the existing scammers, finding information about your lady's home country can also give you helpful insights, etc. Knowledge is power, and our agency is always ready to provide you with it.
About the Author
Oksana Boichenko
OksanaLove, Inc.
http://www.oksanalove.com
The matchmaker with 12 years of experience in the online dating business. You can find your second half - just visit our dating site and meet your Russian bride among the thousands of beautiful Russian women.
Search for pretty single Russian and Ukrainian ladies
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