Although my name is John, I have a nickname. I have been going by Zeke for over 15yrs.
If I should decide to write a letter to one of these beautiful young women, I always start out with " Hello, I realize that my name is John, but I go by the name of Zeke."
I ALWAYS sign the letter Zeke.
When I receive a response and it starts out with "Dear John" or the letter is filled with the "John" name....I know that she is either not really reading it, or it is a scam, therefore....I move on.
John,
And if a lady should write to me and tell me her name is Svetlana but she is known as Sveta, well I've got a 50/50 chance of addressing her by her preferred name.
FSU ladies can be very respectful and if John is your given name, rather than a name that sounds like it came from a bar and very late one evening, then they will address you by your given name.
Who the fock wants a man named Zeke? She can't even pronounce it, never mind admit to it!
What I recommend to a person in order to reduce the chances of a scam.... After your first positive response from a prospective woman, send to this woman some flowers ASAP. But send the flowers only with a service that provides the option of getting pictures of the woman as she is receiving the flowers. This accomplishes a few things right from the start. You will see that the woman is who she says she is. You will also see the woman in a more casual, and less professionally staged setting. To do this you, or the dating service will also need to get a real address from her, as well as a working phone number so that the flower delivery company can call her to schedule the delivery time and place. Many of the most important things will have been accomplished by successfully accomplishing this one flower delivery task. If the dating service cannot provide this service, or if the woman is not forthcoming with the photos or the information, I would look for another dating service and/or a different woman.
Well...I would say that this is not a very wise way to identify the scammer...nicknames is such a thing...usually people call each other that way when they are close enough, like close friends, or more...with calling a person with his nichname from the very start you can offend him...and also without knowing the origin of the nickname it is a very risky thing to call the person that way...:)
The flower delivery scam check is several years old and you think she isn't wise to the fact that she is being checked out?
On freepersonals an average looking lady will get 150 letters per day in the early days, I'm laughing when I think about 150 bunches of flowers arriving per working day, that's about a bunch of flowers every 3 minutes and for the next 8 hours, god help her and tomorrow will be the same again!
Martin, are you out of your mind? A woman getting 150 letters a day? There isn't any dating agency that averages 150 letters a day. LOL.. I am not trying to hurt your feelings, Martin. Obviously you have an emotional attachment to this subject, and you enjoy great exaggeration of information when reality doesn't work.
If a man ever does want to have a significant interaction with a FSU woman, the giving of flowers is a very fundamental part to their culture. If you worry that the photo of the girl receiving flowers may be dishonest as well,... order flowers other than roses. The delivery company will certainly have something other than roses available. And there are very, very, very, few FSU women indeed who have ever received more than 10 flower deliveries from 10 different men. There is nothing that can fully protect anyone from all possible scams. Nor can anything fully protect someone from having a possible bad marriage, or from making bad investments. The idea here is to create significant hardships and filters against the most common types of scams. da?
Martin, you seem to have very, very bad information as to the size and scope about just how many western men are sending messages to the thousands and thousands of FSU women.
Let's see, 10,000 ( very conservative estimate of your matching "average looking women" out of the more than estimated 120,000 FSU women who actively sign up annually with agencies)... 10,000 women receiving 150 letters a day = 1,500,000 letters a day to the various agencies. 7,500,000 letters a (5 work day) week? And how many of these are to be translated by live translators? Even if a translator could do 10 letters a day, that would require 150,000 full time english/ russian translators to be employed annually by the different agencies.... LOL
I am sure Martin will now have an even more cleaver response....
Martin, are you out of your mind? A woman getting 150 letters a day?
Martin, you seem to have very, very bad information as to the size and scope about just how many western men are sending messages to the thousands and thousands of FSU women.
Pempem,
Please, by all means, check back through some of my previous posts, particularly regarding the business that my wife works in, perhaps, just perhaps, I have some inside information regarding how many etters a lady might receive!
150 per day is for a reasonable looking lady on freepersonals, FACT!
I am aware of the fact that American ladies advertising on free sites (as Yahoo USED to be at least) can get 150 letters a day.
I started out WAY back when by placing an ad on Yahoo and looking for an American woman. I did it on the advice of a less-than-average-looking female friend who had received literally HUNDREDS of letters.
The first lady I dated who had also placed an ad on Yahoo showed me the listing of THREE HUNDRED responses she had received in a weekend. She wasn't bad looking. And I modestly report that I was one of two guys she selected to meet from that group. Of course they weren't all prime candidates. One guy from Arkansas in his intro letter asked her to move down to be a threesome with he and his girlfriend. (He was the other guy she agreed to meet. Just kidding.)
I have no idea how many guys write to Russian women when they are listed on a free service - but it would not amaze me if there is some service that can draw 150 letters for the right Russian lady.
Of course, a much smaller number of those guys will be serious, willing or able to travel internationally, or will perhaps even be SINGLE.
The bizarre notion (and I think Martin intended it to be bizarre) is that each would send flowers. In reality, only a tiny, tiny percentage would do that.
I have no idea what "freepersonals" are. But I do know the agencies, and the translators that work in them, and NO woman with any agency receives anything like 150 letters per day. No one receives even 150 letters in week. Martin, I think you have also been providing information to the British government on valid reasons for the invasion of Iraq. yes?
Pempem,
www.freepersonals.ru is a free site whereas a man can write as many FREE letters as he likes, had you checked this before your 2 refutal responses then perhaps you would understand that 150 would not be an across the spectrum average, but of a free site, yes.
Not all letters are translated by hand, some ladies speak English, many translate electronically etc etc. etc.
If you were to check back over this site of the past few days, before opening your gob, you would see that something of a transatlantic slanging match developed. Now I'm not entering into another such debate but, as you mention it, I think you might find that a country other than Britain decided upon and led the invasion of Iraq .....twice!
Another erudite Political Science post by our resident foreign affairs manager.
Martin, just what is it that pisses you off about Americans? Just thank God you had Winston Churchill or you would have the latest edition of Mein Kampf next to your night stand. Funny things Many Brits hated Winston except when the shit hit the fan.
We invaded Iraq, you bet, at least Americans have the balls to grab the bull by the horns. Along with exponentially creating greenhouse gases. What a farce! North Korea is next.
Nasfan,
I never mentioned USA/America, I was merely refuting 'crap' posted by another. If I were to accuse the USA of fighting in the Battle of Trafalgar 200 years ago what would you say, 'Yes Martin of course you're right' or would you say 'not us sunshine'?
Stop being so frigid, this forum is not for politics but try telling him, not me!
And the mere fact that pempem has returned to this site, without answering his incorrect and political propanganda, defines that he is the one without balls to back up his bullshit!
This is not a transatlantic thing, come on pempem, where are you from to decide, imagine, that the British decided to invade Iraq?
Martin, my sincere apologies for confusing you with such obvious conflicting words like intelligence and British all in the same sentence. I thought you would maybe prefer my humble description of the way you so "deftly" defended your argument against using practical ways to screen out possible scams, over the outrageous way that others here describe you as being a pathetic American lap puppy, who follows Bush around licking up his constant flow of swine feces. Really Martin, they seem to know you much better than myself, but I would never describe you that way. I happen to believe I described you and your position quite correctly. But then they do maybe know you much better than I do. da?
"Martin, my sincere apologies for confusing you with such obvious conflicting words like intelligence and British all in the same sentence."
might I suggest putting the brain into gear before opening mouth,you may find the scattergun approach to insults doesn't go down too well here.And just for the record when I first set out on the search for a wife,"Freepersonals" was one of the sites I used and the first weekend provided me (no oil painting!!) with over 80 replies!
For an average looking lady 150 letters is by no means over the top.
Getting back on topic, you may wish to do some research of russian customs. They have a way of addressing friends, a way of addressing new persons they have met, and a way of addressing older persons and a way of addressing children.
They have a formal way of saying hello and a casual hello, a formal form of "you" and a casual form of "you", and so on. Their language and customs are much different than ours. Not for a second am I saying their customs or language is wrong, just different. It makes the communication so much more interesting.
It would be considered very improper to address you by your nickname until they are very aquainted with you and have been specifically requested to address you by you nickname. Maybe it would be a good way to identify a scammer, because most any FSU lady that addresses you at first by your nickname would be very westernized and could be scammer.
Dear... Zeke! (Although personally I would prefer John)
Perhaps, your idea with nickname is good for identifying scammers, yet, for the FSU please get another nick name. Zeke in the Russian ear sounds too... agressive. I'd be ashamed to tell my female friends or my Mom that I'm writing to a guy named Zeke. Best thing they might do is laugh, worst - poison my mind towards a guy with such name.
PS Zeke in Russian is not simply a Convict, it's a criminal slang word of abusive implication and is rarely used by the majority of people...
or perhaps you don't mind to have a GF with criminal record? :)