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Too
Good to be True-
These women are trying
to correspond with as many men as they can.
Because of that their letters are often surprisingly
impersonal and vague when it comes to specific
questions. If women avoids using your name or
worth still - uses a wrong one, if she is not
answering your questions or gives very general
answers than it is a first RED
FLAG.
They also do not have
time to waste!
They will reply with enormous
joy and happiness that you wrote to them. After
a few more e-mails they are completely head
over heels in love with you! The photographs
they use (which are not necessarily their
photographs) are of a very beautiful women.
Being realistic (unless of course you are Brad
Pitt or Sean Connery) - does not this instant
love at first sight sound a bit
unusual to you? This is a second RED
FLAG.
This brisk set up serves
as a jumping point to the real thing.
RULE#1:
If something sounds too good to be true, it
probably is.
Money,
money, money...
- OK, mutual love
has been established. Now they are starting
to explain how hard it is for them to keep in
touch with you via e-mail as the costs of
the Internet (translator, telephone, photographs...)
are high and if you wish to continue this correspondence
could you please help them with these costs.
Or her computer has suddenly
crashed and to fix it she needs just ridiculous
$70 which she does not have. Just send some
money by Western Union to keep a romance alive.
Not much (from your point of view) only 50 (70,
100) dollars. However, to a very pretty lady
who is weekly getting 100's of letters from
dozens of men it might be a very healthy income,
taking into account that the average wage in
Russia is around $300 - $500 a month.
Another favourite trick
of the scammers is to go quiet for a while keeping
your guessing - what could possibly happened
over there? Then, out of the blue, they will
write to you about a horrible accident happened
(or about to happen) to them (family member,
friend...). Mother who needs urgent surgery
in a hospital is an undisputed winner. And yes,
you are, of course, the only one who can help
them out. This time you will be looking at $300
- $1000 depending on the set up and her greed.
Any, and we wish to stress
this in the strongest words possible, ANY AT
ALL request for money is the most red flag out
of all RED FLAGS.
RULE#2:
If you are being asked for money (under whatever
circumstances) before you have personally met
the lady - run!
Air
Tickets, Visa, Customs duty
- This is an
ultimate goal for every scammer - to clean man
on an airfare. The Holy Grail of all
introduction scams. Latest scammers' trend is
to ask for only part of airfare. Here is a part
from a real e-mail: To come to you
I need only tickets and if you'll help me with
part of cost of my tickets I can come to you.
Ironically, this is the
easiest scam for you to avoid. In order to visit
you in Australian or US, woman has to have a
valid Australian, US, UK or NZ entry visa.
And this is a hard thing to get for a young
and single Russian lady. We wish to make the
following point absolutely clear - it is a very
common misconception that you can just buy an
Australian or US entry visa in Russia. No!
It is a complicated and some times long process
and the very last thing it depends upon - is
money. Remember - your money can not
get visa for her. Don't be fooled.
There is a very simple way
to see whether she is genuine. To be on the
safe side you should:
Offer her to buy air ticket in Australia
yourself and then send it over to her with
a courier.
Ask her to send you a fax or e-mail with
a scanned copy of her passport page with attached
valid entry visa in her name.
If her intention is really
to visit you and she has a valid entry visa
to do so then she should be only too happy to
delegate the whole thing to you. But if she
insists on money versus ticket, becomes offended,
refuses to give her visa details, then it does
not look too good...
Some other common fishing tricks scammers use:
Needs money to show on Russian border to Russian
customs. RED FLAG
Needs money to show to Australian (US,
UK...) customs officers. RED
FLAG
Needs money to show to Australian (US,
UK...) Embasy.RED FLAG
Needs money to give to travel agency
(employer, customs, police...) as a guarantee
of return to Russia. RED
FLAG
RULE#3:
Never send money for airfare. Never send money
for visa support. Always check for a valid entry
visa first. If valid visa does exist and you
really need to send a large amount of money
- at least ASK US TO VERIFY THE PERSON for you
before you do so.
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