This Summer I was in Ukraine fore 3 weeks. I was in Kiev fore 1 week and in Kherson fore 2 weeks.
I Kherson hired a man called Valentyne Belan to translate and introduce me to many ladies.
He has a website called: "www.khersonangels.com.ua". (I did not meet any lady on the website)
It is a very long story, but I just want to warn everybody to not have anything to do with him. He has lied to me, deceived me and stolen from me. I have 100% proof of this. I have wasted a lot off money and time on him.
So if you are planning to go to Ukraine do not have anything to do with him.
I am glad that you have replied, because I wanted something good to come out of this. I sometime look on this forum site to check if anybody has replied my "post", but you are the first.
Yes I did meet Fatima. I have her phone number and so on. She is studying to become a lawyer right?
But I have been told different age. First I think Valentyne told me that she was 21, later he told me that she is 23.
I have pictures of her if you want to confirm if she is the same.
On Valentyne's web site "www.khersonangels.com.ua" you can see a picture of her on the main page, in the top right corner. She dos not have a profile on his web page.
You asked about his tactics. The main thing is that he makes you dependent on him. I can not speak russian, so I think one of his tactics is to only introduce you to ladies that do not speak so good english. He did introduce me to one lady that spoke english very good, but she did not really wanted to move from Ukraine. He called her Natasha Boss, because she was a boss of some oil company. She was amazing and I really liked her, but I did not chose her because she wanted to live in Ukraine.
I have told Fatima everything and she has promised to not have anything to do with Valentyne, but one person have told me that Valentyne and Fatima together are trying to deceive men. I can not be sure of this, I only know fore sure that Valentyne is trying to deceive men. You can not trust him.
I have not been communicating with Fatima since 21.09.2006 because I promised a girl this.
My advice is only to not have anything to do with him. He has stolen my laptop and camera, I have proof of this because he sent me a picture of Fatima with a phone I have paid fore. The picture was taken with my camera.
Well I can tell you many things, but please write back so I can see that you have read my text.
If you are sure you were scammed, why not tell more of your story?
Also, have you considered posting to the other RW forums and scam sites on the web? Scam reports often get archived and come up anytime someone googles the agency's name.
hello wanted to add something about kherson ,it seems that this city
have the highiest number of scamers,one lady from thier the last year i wrot to her after i saw her profil and she replied with her e mail and started to email each other and i called her many times and her mother as she claimed answer me also many times and was telling me that she likes me so much and really wanted to meetme,then for a reason she wanted me to send her some mont to improve the internet by making DSL line and i honstly sent more than she wanted coz i started to belive her,gess what ?she stoped to reply to my emails and never answer on the phon line again so BE CAREFUL FROM KHERSON AND ITS PEOPLE
hai agian the nick name of the woman as i belive she didnt use her real name was Anna Ermolenko,and her id number on the site was 52272,ofcourse this id anumber is not valid now but this is all my information and also i have the pic used in the additive upon the adminstrator request
Yes I think I have almost heard it all: My internet dos not work, I need money fore internet, My computer dos not work, I need money to upgrade my computer,
I have no money on my phone, please send me money fore english lesson.
I can off course not know fore sure what is the truth, but I think a good thing would be the list some demands on have the woman should be before communicating with her. And then not compromise with the demands. Try to think 1-2 years ahead. How would her life be in your country? Can she communicate in English now? What is her main priority? Dos she only want a more luxurious life? What is she not satisfied with in her life right now?
I have heard many things. Never mind how trustworthy the girl seems, there should always be a red flag when she asks for money. But every things cost money, she can not communicate without using any money. So it is not so easy. They earn something like 150-300 dollars pr. month. This is nothing, so they have a hard time and it is very easy fore them to be tempted to scam.
So I do not know how not to see a risk in this. I personally have stop trying to get a girlfriend in Ukraine. There are so many things that most go right fore it to work.
I am on this forum to help others not make the same mistakes i made. Maybe I will try again some years later, if I do not find a wife (I am only 31), one thing is sure, the girls are pretty and they are more interested in men then the girls are in my country. I think I had about 19 girls to chose from. But I think I again will try to find a wife in my country.
One thing more: You should never be dependent in a 3. person, like I was with Valentyne. By the way, Valentyne did make sure that I got my passport and visa-card back and he made sure that I came safely to the airport in Kiev so I could come home. But after I came home he continued to lie and try to get much money from me. It is a long crazy dramatic story.
This is a good forum, what other forums would you advice me to be on?
All scammers should be toosed into the lake of fire!!In areas of increased business and profits,scammers will prosper,multiply and adapt to change. BEWARE!!
Has there ever been a serious investigation into Anasatasia International? I have personal confirmation that this company is 50% a fraud. I say 50% because half the time the letters are really being written by the actual ladies. The other half are men and older women from the agency. This is a real slick operation. You have to tip your hat to how they have it all worked out. Since Anastasia International just over sees the operation of 350+ Agencies scattered throughout the FSU they can simply shrug their shoulders and "reprimand" each agencies for each individual case of fraud. They give each agencies 4 oppurtunities before they supposedly pull the plug on them. But think about it they would just turn around and open up another one under a different name, probably even use the same employees. They could also just blam it on the individual women as being the scammers. This is funny. What attractive woman with anything going for her at all is going to do this. Not many or none. But they could make valuable scapegoats for each agency. And each agency is a valuable scapegoat for Anastasa International. This really is an impressive hustle. They get girls to come in take pictures and write a brief description of themselves maybe pay them a little for this of maybe just give them the pictures, then they start (the agency) sending feeler letters out to hundreds of unsuspecting men in the US and Australia, playing with their egos and emotions to get them under the real impression that they have this unbelievably gorgeous 18 year old Ukranian girl who wants to start a correspondence with them to eventually get married and be a simple housewife attending to every need of their man. Thats precious!! Hey I fell for it for a while and Im no dummy. I have documented proof of my specific cases of fraud. The "translators" who are actually writing these letters, and Im really guessing that they write more like 80-90% of them, no how to write exactly what men want to hear. These men get hooked to the idea that there really is this "P.Y.T" dying to marry them and fulfill all their manly needs. These men do not want to beleive otherwise. Who would? Then they get the guy to call this girl through their agencies and this is whats suppose to confirm their authenticity. What a joke! You could put any girl on the phone, how are you going to know its the girl from the pictures? You could send flowers and get a picture of the girl and this is supposedly confirming their authenticity. Another joke! The agency could do 2 things to fake this. They could either find the girl and have her pose with your gifts or they could take several pictures when they first come in to the agency holding roses, teddy bears, etc... Thats really really slick. I mean what could you get that really confirms that this is the girl in the pictures, she wrote those letters, and she wrote them with true sincerity? This is totally impossible. Unless of course you actually go to Ukraine or Russia and track these girls down. You dont know if the addresses you get are real or not. You could just maybe hang out by the agencies and wait for the girls to go in. But thats really not a good solution because after these girls took the pictures and wrote a profile they probably never went there again. This is as perfect a scam as I have ever heard of. Then Anastasia International creates an Anti-Scam division to go after scammers? Thats just awesome! They now have the perfect cover. This company is really impressive. Then they also get to say "Well we've been around for 10 years so we must be legit, right?" Well, wrong. They are just smarter than all the other companies.Only 1% of all the men that use this kinds of website actually go to see the women they have been corresponding with. So Anastasia International is not worried about being seriously investigated. Most of the men that have gone, probably did correspond with a real girl, and if he thought he had but it turns out he hadnt then Im sure someone over there will smooth things out so he's not too upset and perhaps he finds a different one and is content with that and just goes on with his life. Im still using Anastasia. Why in my right mind would I do this? Well I have a couple correspondences that I do believe are real. There is just a certain way that these correspondences communicate that is believable. They arent talking about getting married and being housewifes and raising children They talk about their lives in real detail like any 22 year old attractive intelligent woman would. I also am keeping correspondences going with the obviously fake correspondences so that I can trap them into exposing themselves as frauds. Its really been entertaining. These arent your sharpest tools in the shed. A lot of times they just expose themselves on accident. They will say things like "Well you spoke on the phone with me so you know its really me". I have never called anyone. This was the funniest response Ive gotten. Eventually I will pile up a real case against this company and either get all my money back, which I can probably do anyways through my credit card company or I will get somekind of compensation, I havent figure that one out yet. I am actually going to Ukraine. I want to see what the real story is. I mean those pictures of gorgeous women are pictures of Ukranian women. They might not be writing me any letters. But they are so many smoking hot women, Ive got to at least check this country out. Anyways if anybody has input on this subject or is interested in filing a serious class action suit maybe we could put something together. I read about the other guy David Starsky or something like that. I dont think he knew how to put this together. He claims he was scammed out of $22,000 by Anastasia Web so I doubt he is bright enough to go after a very smart company like Anastasia. I might not be either, but I just might be too. Heres my email address- Chrstcyr@aol.com
When I first started this venture I stumbled upon Anastasia.web. I gave them $100-$200 and enjoyed the most amazing corresponce with one of their girls. I think they give the best script writers to the best looking. I did notice a year later she was one of their featured girls. Poor thing couldnt find a man.
The experience was invaluable and I wouldnt take back a dollar.
Christopher - All I got to say is WTF? I actually met women using Anastasia - only wrote 1 or 2 letters while I was there. No problems - so are you speaking from experience?
Oh its not too much a problem from girls in poorer countries to go out with older men... So WTF are you saying? That every single girl on every website is a fraud? I met some of the women on this website too -- just dont want to write them, does that make them a fraud too?
I am currently writing to a few girls on anastasia, and as far as I can make out they are real. I will be going to Ukraine in a few weeks so I'll report what I find. Its impossible to know unless you go, but I've learnt alot reading comments on this forum and have changed my letter writing and asked more searching questions. I also get them to provide a picture of them holding a card with my name on. Its not foolproof but its better than nothing.
Hi, helioplis,PaulSouth,apal,Adman and christopher.
Nice to see that this chat is continuing.
I went to Ukraine without having used any money on agencies. I bought a ticket to Kiev and found an appartment.
I went to Kiev-connection (an agency) an started dating 2 girls. So this Kiev agency does not seem to be a fraud. But I was not so used to date girls, so it did not go so well. I only paid fore introduction and than I dated the first girls about 4 times.
I went to Kherson because a friend of mine also went there. It was through him that I was introduced to this Valentyne. I have allready wrote about this above.
I do not think that every of the 17 ladies I dated in Kherson was frauds, but it is very difficult to know. As I have wrote before, if they ask fore money, they probably are frauds.
I would say, do only date girls that speek e.g.English well. So you will not be dependant in a 3.person.
Valentyne did arrange it so that my backpack was stolen the day before I went home. And I got my backpack back from the local police through Valentyne. So the police probably where in on it (bad-cops). So I must say that be very carefull if you go too Ukraine, because it seems like the police are curroped. But in my case did they only get the camera and laptop. It seems like Valentyne got the camera(read above) and the police got the laptop. But they got me safely home, that is the most inportant thing.
To "christopher": It seems like you do not really belive that young pretty girls can be interresed in older men. I saw many older men together with really young girls, when I was in Ukraine. To me it seemed very strange, but thats what I saw, so I think this is possible.
I think you are very right in beeing carefull in trusting these agencies, because they only think about getting money.
I could see that every thing that Valentyne was dooing made him get more money. This is also a way to discover frauds.
I was 31 yo. and the girls I dated was from 19yo. to 27 yo..
I will advice you all to not trust anything in Ukraine, before you are sattisfied with the proofes. And you should write these hard demands of proof down before you go to Ukraine and stick to them, because when you are together with all these pretty girls it is easy to forget about any demands of proof.
faroeman
your mistake was bad advice
yes your advice is realistic, don't trust anything in Ukraine, i got that advice all the way to Kiev strangely.
someone has to be trusted otherwise why do we go, hopefully not to look like idiots and a easy ride for these dodgy agencies.
that comment wasnt pointed at you but...
after my first run through this world to see if this is for me.
i felt there is a need to trust someone if the women has bad english, its a need for a trusting interpreter, this is a must for some of us that miss some signs of users.
they know themselves better the games that are played, better then anyone, like any country, foreigners are always fish out of water.
a friend there is priceless.
there are many good people there that do not like whats going on but when you have i society where tourist are fear game even for small amounts of $ what more can you say.
its just normal for them to take people for a ride.
i think they call it corruption.
all i can say to anyone going there for the first time, do not think or believe you will find her, not your first trip.
make that trip a holiday for knowledge, use agencies lightly but get a feel for some of there bullshit, its not wasted money.
use this trip to find good people you can trust, keep a good eye out for honest interpreters, if you befriend one they will be more of a help then anything or anyone in there world.
basically get a feel of this world and check out there cold war stuff, don't take anything to serious first time around.
i went over with a few questions, coming home i had so many more, that place is addictive.
your trip sounds like a bad film.
we have a place for mongrels down the back, its almost free to many.
go forth mate
Hi Faroe -- Sorry to hear you bad experiences. I would say the agency came in and stole your backpack, they do have they key to your place. How convenient that the police found it and that girl knew where to look to get it.
I agreee that there is rampant local agency corruption, but it is not just in Ukraine, it is all over and with so many of these agencies.
I had an idea to create a website independent of ANY marriage agency website, so guys like you and the rest of us, can have a place where we can share and trust the information from us other travellers.
I still have to think about putting it up. So much bad information could really destroy the marriage industry or make them do better about correcting their own corrupt ways or be put out of business with all the bad publicity.
Faroe - If you had read a website forum where men post all their bad travel experiences, would you have been so eager to try to go to Ukraine for first time? I know I wouldn't have even tried writing an FSU girl let alone meet her after all the 'real story' posts I have read, like yours (and mine).
You imagine you write the girl of your dreams, who writes wonderful things. You decide to meet her and make your dreams come true. Unfortunately, it is more common that your dream girl becomes a real-life nightmare when you do finally meet her in person...
I had thought that agencies will definately take advantage of you and do everything short of robbing you. But in your case, I have a feeling they actually did.
Christopher - Seriously doubt anyone could get scammed for $22,000 USD - Guess the guy went first class round trip ($10,000). Then rented a $1,000/day apartment for 12 days.
Again, I actually met women from Anastasiaweb. I also met girls from Army of brides who should up. Cost of meeting? $7.95 for letter, $20.00 for 2-hour translation $32.00 for dinner with girl. Total approx $60.00 for the date and letter writing with a girl that I wasn't that attracted to - but had a super knock out body that would make you cry. :)'
Girls receive dozens of letters from men every time they go to the agency. Well atleast the very pretty ones do. It would be very easy to get things mixed up about who called whom.
Not defending these sites, because simply put, they have not been 100% honest in all accounts, but far from outright fraud.
I must say there are many thousands of very pretty young things in Ukraine. I will just go write one, if chemistry happens - stick with her, if not, brush it off, go off the beaten track and meet girls in shopping markets, malls and clubs (with a translator/taxi $10/hr).
I had more fun with translator chauffers going off the beaten track than I did on a formal date. I don't trust agency girls in the slightest - especially the abnormally pretty ones. Let alone the agency is making money per letter off of her.
surely all these web sites should be policed the same way gaming sites are. They have become such big business and everyone is open to scams and scammers. If these companies wish to advertise in a country then do you think your service provider should help protect you. one thing i have noticed is the cost and its strange how these women dont seem to have anyother way but through the agency to comunicate with them.
For those of you who are painting a town and its women with a VERY LARGE brush WTF crying sour grapes. You sent the money, you didnt spend enough time with the person. I have know now for 9 months a wonderfull woman from Kherson and have had the pleasure or spending around 2 months on the ground there. With her family and friends and all of their frends also and all are good people. This town is called the City of Brides for goodness sakes, if you can not find a woman in a town called the City of Brides pack your shit and go home, stop using agencies and sending e-mails and go put the time in. I bet if it was an AW you had given money to we wouldn't hear you bitching.
I am sorry this Valetyne person was such a turd but it was you who put your EGG'S in that basket. I am defending this city and it's people because I have more experience with many more people there than you do my friend and as far as im concerned I will be spending summer in that reagion for many years to come.
This is exactly why I have not posted here in a while. I get tired of hearing about all the sob stories about some dude that knew better but did it anyway. My adventure to this place has been nothing but excellent.