Question for the forum, I recently received an email from an agency (and then the girl) that the girl I was talking to by email, can no longer afford the service (translation, internet cafe), and I must pay for the services ($5/letter, $200 for English lessons). Has anyone had any experience with this? Are agencies for real or rip off? How would I know that the agency and the girls are not charging 10 guys at the same time for the same service? Thanks.
I guess it's down to your own gut instinct. Folk out in Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Romaina etc aren't rich and the women out there are especially vulnerable financially.
I have a Moldovan lady friend who isn't too badly off because she is able to come to the UK every few months and work as an entertainer. Her company make several million Lei from the work she and her colleagues do over here so they are probably paid reasonably (though despite this she was still very quick to slate her country's government and call them all theives - Then I told her we call it taxation!). This isn't typical though.
I would say most women simply do not have the opportunity to earn money and are really quite poor. I would say that if your woman was paying for translation to start with then she probably just spent her holiday money or something in the hope that she'd meet a western man who was finacially ok to take care of her.
My personal response to this would be to pay for at least 3 letter translations and see what happens. IF the responses continue and you get her home contact details then pursue her. If she still does not give you the contact details or the agency refuse it then threaten them with loss of contact.
$200 for english lessons probably isn't that much really. You'd pay more than that here in the UK for lessons in french, spanish, italian etc. I'm assuming your fairly financially stable otherwise you wouldn't be looking at communicating with a foreign woman so where's the deal over $200? - If your earning $50,000 a yr thats like pocket change surely? ($50,000 is just an assumption - several people here seem to be earning themselves small fortunes so I'm taking a rough guess - no offence intended).
IF it was me and I could afford it then I would go for it anyway. Sure you will get some scammers and you will also get those that are genuine. I wouldn't want to take the chance of loosing out on something genuine.
You could though dangle the carrot infront of the donkey. Pay for the letter translations with the POSSIBILITY of the $200 for english. See what happens - If she stays in touch and gives you her contact details (or the agency for that matter) or whether she just drops you when she realises that yor smart enough to protect yourself. Either way if you do it like this you can't really lose.
you cant say in general that all the agencies are for real or all the agencies are ripp off.And you will never know are you the only one who received this message from a girl or they asked 1000 other guys to pay for her english lessons/ Thats why we always tell our customers: dont send any money if you dont know this lady well enough and dont send any money if you havent met in person. At least, first get sure that it was she who asked you to do it, not her agency.
Never send money to a woman that you have not met in person. Period! End of Story! If she was surviving before, she will continue to survive. Once you meet her, if you start to date her, then she will probably expect for you to support her and her family. This is normal and it doesnt take much money. I am totally against sending money to a woman I have not met. Thius industry is riddled with scammers, theives and flat out BS and trust me, no Russian woman that is truly interested in you and not your pocket book would take money from you or ask you to pay for correspondence. If you must send money for correspondence, offer to send her 5 USD per month to go to a Internet cafe. She can send all the e-mails she wants for $5.00 per month. Sobering Thought!
I agree don't send money to anyone before you meet. Russian woman will not ask for money unless she's after your wallet. However, I don't agree you're expected to support her after you meet her (???) why? if she asks money after you meet her, then she's likely bogus just like she would be if she aksed for money prior to the meeting. You should pay for her transportation from and to the place of the meetings, food and accomodation during the meetings (at all times). You should also bring her a gift each time you see her. Send her flowers and other little gifts to show that you care about her. You may want to support her to learn English or subsidize her Internet cafe expense if you feel comfortable giving money to her. Support her by cutting her a salary for her and her family prior to them coming here??? no way, it would be big mistake!
Thanks for everyone who replied. As it turns out the girl (or agency) in question had asked severl guys for money and I also learned that a few guys were sending her money! Imagine that! I didnot confront her (hey, that is not my business as to what she does or what her agency does) but did express my desire that I don't feel comfotable sending her money not knowing her. She then stopped asking for money but wanted to continue our conversations. I do understand that she probably could not afford the internet and translations and she maynot have any choice but to raise the money somehow. I think she was serious about finding someone serious but this whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth and I wanted to stay away from her so I nicely discontinued our conversations. Since then I have met a really nice girl, honest, intelligent and caring. Pray for me that she is what she appears to be! All I can say is that if you keep on searching, you will find your love/soulmate/wife! You just have to be careful, know what you want and don't settle for anything else.
It wasn't through fiance.com. Actually, it was through loveaccess.com. Loveaccess.com had sent me an introductory offer and free access. Needless to say, I never joined them. As a matter of fact, it was after that experience, I found this site, and I must say, you are doing an excellent job! I don't think I have kept those email, but if I find them in my trash folder, I will send them to you. I never had any bad experience from anyone that I talked to from your site.
Hi, Sanfrancisco,
It looks I can help U. I am ready to translate your lady's letters into English for U & yours into Russian via E-mail FOR FREE (NO CHARGE WHATSOEVER!)to save your love.
Pls contact me at: thinker2004@land.ru
Yours Dakladylover
I was corresponding with a girl in Yoshkar-ola, and she wanted to learn english because she really didnt know much. She said her university had english classes, which cost $50.00 per month. I thought that was reasonable, so like a sucker I sent it. After she recieved that money, she came back with a sob story about how her flat was robbed, etc. so i put the brakes on that right there, thankful I only lost 50 bucks.
Chip most Universities in the FSU do not charge for classes.
There are private teachers of course,because the spirit of free enterprise is flourishing as we know!!!!,but NONE of the state uni's charge for education (one of the few things that was good about the old system).
Thankfully Chip you only got slightly burned!!!!