Russian bride scams – What you need to know to stay safe
Finding a bride online is, like most activities that involve interacting with people, somewhat precarious. It requires you to keep a level head, to be sensible, and stay alert about how potential partners – Russian and Ukrainian women – are interacting with you.
For anyone new to online dating, of course, the stories about Russian dating scams and the handful of successful scam artists are quite alarming. Yes, Russian dating and mail order brides have received a lot of bad publicity over the last decade or two. Since they came into being, in fact, with the stories abound about bogus candidates, the fake profiles built up using the photos of models and actresses, Russian celebrities who are little known in the Western world.
The standard process for scamming in this way involves these fake profiles and attracting men to them, exchanging messages and sometimes even a phone call or two. Somewhere down the line, however, the gorgeous and highly sympathetic Russian woman asks her foreign friend for money or gifts. The money could be to pay for travel arrangements or it could be for something as simple as an evening out to dinner. Who knows? The fact of the matter is that every online dating scam involves money at some point and it is therefore money of which you should beware first, last, and forever.
If any women you are corresponding with happens to ask you for money, no matter how close you feel to them, do not send any and end the relationship there. Genuine Russian and Ukrainian women understand that it is not appropriate to ask a man for money while dating online. Even if they are experiencing financial hardships, a potential husband, under these circumstances, is not the person to go to, either directly or indirectly.
Most victims of online dating scams are lured into believing that they are sending money to their Ukrainian and Russian bride so that she can travel to meet them. On that basis, they shell out money for travel visas, tickets, hotels, and transportation, often amounting to thousands of dollars. Once they send out this money, however, they rarely hear from their Russian bride again and the scammer disappears, money in hand, and is virtually impossible to track down thereafter.
Some scammers in fact, operate in groups and are highly organized. This is one of the reasons that they are particularly difficult to track down. Some groups have developed systems for communicating for several months before instigating the actual scam. Sometimes, the financial transactions themselves are even made to appear genuine because there are fake travel agents involved and fake agencies supporting the visa applications.
If you ever come across a situation in which you are being asked to send cash or Western Union, a money order of any sort, do not participate. If you find yourself being asked to send money to an organization – whether it’s a travel agency, a visa processing service, or any other type of service provider – and they don’t accept credit cards or have a physical address, back away immediately.
Ukraine and Russia is not the backwards nation that many people are lead to believe by old-fashioned propaganda efforts. Moscow for example is one of the most expensive cities in the world when it comes to the cost of living; Kiev, St Petersburg and Moscow are both phenomenal centers of commerce and culture – if you are not getting messages even from a woman who claims to be in the countryside, starving in the hedgerows, back away and use your common sense.
The single best way to combat online dating scams is to use your common sense and trust your instinct. If something doesn't make sense or doesn't feel right, chances are it is very wrong. Don't let stories of scams put you off, though, because for the most part, they are easy to spot if, as many of our readers and clients have suggested, you remain practical and level headed in your dealings.
Here is a bit of practical advice for you, though. First, as you navigate the online dating world, do try and avoid those websites that claim to be dedicating themselves to fighting Russian scams while not actually functioning as a dating service. First of all, most such sites are operated by dating services; the information posted is necessarily biased.
Such sites, more often than not, are built and designed by an online dating company specifically to discredit competitors. If the site makes claims that certain scammers have been spotted on the site of a particular dating service provider, and particularly if you see multiple negative references to a particular dating site, while some other site gets unusually positive reviews, you are probably looking at a fake anti-scam site, if you catch out meaning.
Second of all, remember that no dating service site can ever be 100% scam-free. It is really simple. You are dealing with individuals and, no matter how good the screening process, some will always get through the cracks a€“ not many, but a few. This depends on how good the anti-scam policies are.
On our dating site, for instance, there were 1472 female applications from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova last year. We accepted only 326 as only this number could be proven legitimate by our screening process.
Considering the high instance of illegitimate or potentially illegitimate applications, it is pretty clear that only a select number of women are genuine about their intentions in the first place. Because we screen so heavily, however, your chances of establishing a relationship with a very honest and well-intentioned Russian, Ukraine or Eastern European woman are exceptionally high. We’ve also armed you with the information you need to spot scammers among the number we approve, whose intentions do turn out to be less than exemplary. There will not be many but you are better safe than sorry and we are here to protect your interests first and foremost.
Keep in mind that our marriage agency, and other selective online dating agencies, heavily screen clients to ensure, to the fullest extent possible, that motives on both sides are genuine. Even if you have had a bad experience with a Russian mail order bride or an online candidate, there are many more fish in the sea worth of your attention. If you are genuinely determined to find a beautiful, loving bride, you will soon discover you are that much closer with our company.
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