Very keen on meeting a beautiful girl I've been emailing from near Cheboksary. Of course it is early days and we would like to meet up. She is willing to visit and I'm willing to share the cost. Any advice please. I'm in the UK.
That area is a hotspot for scammers and the biggest scam is 'I love you, I come to visit you, send me money'.
Exactly how is she going to get a visa for UK, she is going to need to travel to a British consulate of which there are 3 in Russia to attend an interview, who pays those costs? The 2 of you haven't met so you've got diddly squat chance of successfully supporting her visa application thus she'll need to apply as a tourist for which she will need confirmed accommodation in a recognised tourist area, i.e. the centre of London.
But the chances of a successful tourist application are minimal and if she applies as a tourist and the consulate even get a sniff that there is a man (you) involved then she'll be permanently blacklisted.
But don't tell us, she tells you that a visa is a piece of piss, a local agency organises it and it costs X amount.
For reading go to www.womenrussia.com/blacklist.htm and click on 'latest updates' or similar and reads hundreds of similar stories and for more reading 'google' a british consulate in either Moscow, St Petersburg or Ekaterinburg and read regarding visas.
Also try googling her name, name & city, email address, phone number, anything you have on her.
Martin,
Your advice for these new guys is spot on. Most of us come into this journey totally blind to the true situation. And if I may say so, you are a credit to this forum, and you have aquired some tact too.
I would like to echo everything that Martin has written, I would also like to add http://russiandetective.forumup.org and these guys really know there stuff.
Unfortunately you have to keep your enemies close to you.