I have received an email from a young lady I have been writing to. She is telling me that she has been to see her grandmother in hospital. She claims that she needs money for medicine. She says that she has asked her parents but they do not have any money. Now she is asking me if I can help in sending 5000 Roubles is it. Anyway she says it's about 200 dollars.
This really smells to me. Does anyone know if the medicine will be refused if not paid for. I don't know how the medical side of things operate in Russia.
You don't NEED to know medicine to smell an obvious SCAM here.
It is true that medicine must be purchased by the sick person or the family of the sick person. But that doesn't really matter here. This one smells from miles away.
Just tell her that although you are between paychecks right now,you will send her grandmother all your best wishes and prayers too. See if she ever writes you back.
OKAY this is a LITTLE of the subject I admit - but it seems EVERYBODY is out for a scam lately. Just takes a little common sense to recognize.
A friend of mine was recently looking for a special edition Ipod for her daughter. Couldn't find it anyplace. Finally found one on eBay - sold by a Chinese seller. The guy asked for $200 plus $45 shipping either through Western Union OR PREFERABLY (he said) she could furnish all of her banking information including routing number and he would draw it from her account.
IMMEDIATELY red flags should have gone up - and when she asked me I told her to STAY AWAY FROM THE DEAL. She didn't and instead figured a way to wire the $245 to him.
Two days later I saw her she advised me the eBay had told her that the guy was a scammer and any money sent so far would be hard to recover.
She's out $245.
People - PAY attention to ANY red flags you see. If you think you MIGHT be scammed you probably will be.
And if you still insist - I have some great land to sell you at the bottom of Lake Michigan. Comes complet with THREE.... er no actually maybe FOUR beautiful Russian women. Who will gladly cook and clean for you and don't mind sharing you with the other three. What do they look like? I'll send you their personal photos. Just a minute while I look for a scissors and some kind of a nice magazine.
I do not understand how these women can repeat this same tired scam after so many years!!However,if you do send money anywhere from the US,and I will say this again--send Moneygrams through Walmart. I am amazed at how many foreign banks accept this. It is much much less than Western Union.
EVERY respectable FSU lady will tell you that any self respecting lady will never ask money from a man she has never met.
Why are western men so fucking gullable?
Or is it the americans men only?
Maybe it's that proportionately to the amount of interested american men there are more of them being scammed on these stories, uh?
Birdie,
unless you are the kind of philantropist that has endless pockets do yourself and everyone else a favor and simply ignore the scammer entirely.
do not send any money via WU or MG unless you know the person who is getting it.you might as well stand on a street corner on a windy day, pull banknotes from your wallet and let them fly in the wind. you`ll have just as much idea who is getting your money, and as much chance of getting it back.
Toad,
If you read RWG's 'American' tablets of stone they say NEVER to send any money to a lady you have not met but then, on RWG, they insist that it is the man's responsibility to pay for her, who you haven't yet met, correspondence expenses. Contradictory or what?
Just for the record the biggest scams are:
1. Money for correspondence.
2. Ticket & Visa scenario.
3. Sick relations, the wheel has fallen off the car, etc. etc. etc.
4. (A new one) I have a friend with an apartment at a good price but you need to send an advance payment.
1. Many girls usually budget and buy special Internet Cards which provide them with certain hours on the net. If a Man wants more communication he's supposed to pay for it. Fair enough, isn't it?
2. Ticket&Visa thing is not always scam. Once I remember I got a letter for a man form Switzerland. He invited me to visit him but suggested Me to pay for the tickets for the honour to get his passport in time. Not more not less. I told him 1/Im too honoured to get an offer:)) and from my side suggested him to put the passport into his asshole (sorry)
2/ he should try to be more polite next time he wants to make friends.
3/ as long as I have a child I would rather spend my money on her.
4/ if a MAN wants to see a GIRL he's expected to deal with travel expenses. Same goes about visas.
In my humble opinion.
FSU Female,
Yes, it is unreasonable for a man to send money to a lady whom he has not met. A man, in early correspondence, should understand that the lady cannot afford to write as often as he/she would like and, if she has a knowledge of his language, he can always telephone her to communicate that way.
Ticket & visa, if the two people have not yet met, and depending on the country, there is about a 1% chance that her visa will be approved. I'm not suggesting this scenario when the man invites the lady, the scam scenario I refer to, and other guys here will have come across this also, is whereas after a minimal amount of letters she has declared her love for him and she tells him that he needs to send money for her ticket & visa to come to him, it was her idea, not his.
At the end of the day he can book her ticket via the internet and if he books it then she cannot cash it in, a visa costs approx USD50 but some ladies claim it cost USD200-300 and so it goes on.
And on a tourist visa the lady needs to arrange for her own hotels, she cannot say that she will be staying with the man because that is a dfferent application method for a UK visa and the UK authorities, more often than not, will refuse such a tourist application for fear that the lady may work or get married illegally. Why the hell would a young single lady be visiting the UK by herself the authorities will ask themselves?
However, this is very far from the ticket & visa scenario as I mentioned a few posts back, other guys will know exactly the scenario that I made reference to.
I was starting get to like this lady from Phillipine and she just jump to me and said she is in love with me and her parent is dead when she was young and her aunt is in the hospital, she is deaf and live with her sister who got lost her job. Asking me if I can bring her to USA and need to have about 850 US dollars for the visa and medical fee so she can fly to USA. I asked her for account number from visa dept. so I can send the transfering money to visa dept but she said no it has to be cash or through the western union is it true that visa dept doesnt accept the transfering money from my bank?
Goodoleboy,
Don't be a fool, if you send money, by whatever method, you will never see or hear from her again. If money is transferred by a recognised method then the recipient can be traced, by Western Union she simply arrives at the colletion place, with a mere proof of her name, and she walks away with the cash.
Goodoleboy--this is the Nigerian scam letter,which has been adopted by other countries.I still get these letters from pretty American women "stranded" in southwest Africa.
I would like to thank everyone for their replies. I started this topic and of course I have totally ignored the request for money.
Another lady has told me that her mother says it is not the russian way for a man to come over to Russia and stay with a woman before visiting his country. I would have thought it should be the other way round is any.
I have today received the following from this lady. This time I would like to respond because I feel that this person she be aware that what she is asking is ridiculas and that her request is way over the top. Anyone got any ideas on how to proceed? Here is her letter:
I very much love you and would like to see you more soon!!! I need
time for official registration of papers. And it is necessary for me
for this purpose $650 . I understand, that it is very expensive, but I
can not pay this trip. I went to travel agency and have learned, that
the visa will cost 185 $. As to me it will be necessary to go on honey
survey to cost 112 $. The passport - 225 $. As to me it will be
necessary to cost services of the lawyer of 127 $. I very much wait
for our meeting. I want you to kiss and be contain with you on
holidays!!! I LOVE YOU. With impatience I wait for your answer.