I don't wanna think that Anastasia-International is a scam agency but all of signs prove this case... I haven't paid money yet but I like some of their girls... They had closed my profile to recieve mail cuz i hadn't read any message... One day, they sent me a message which tells that they gave 2 free credits... I used to like one of girls and I spent credits to read and answer her mail... The mail was strange... It seemed fake or copy-paste...
By the way, I had created a fake account to prove for myself... and I've never put any photo to my profile...Altough this situation my fake porfile is still taking mail...
On the other hand, only Anastasiaweb(or their other sites) is praising themselves...
If you ask me; I would like to trust them, but it seems impossible...
Now, I wanna ask... Are Anastasia-International or just girls scammers?
I have had experience with this agency, and have experienced a variety of problems and some success.
There agencies have the independence to do these types of things you talk about. I have visited a couple of their agencies in Ukraine, and have seen their computer rooms, with a dozen girls, hired, writing and translating letters late into the night. Its big business. I have received such letters that could have been written by the agency to generate money for themselves, but it is hard to prove. You just have to go with you gut feeling, and experience. It does not matter what profile you create, you will still get letters sent to your account. The initial letters are always sent by the agency to dozens of men, hoping for some response to get the ball rolling, so to speak. I would guess that the initial letters are written in part by the girls, but probably not completely in all cases. And they certainly don't take the initiative to send them to as many as they do.
mhdj - First of all - search the forum here and you find more information about them.
Scam? Both yes and no. As BBpor say - all initial letters are not send by the woman her selves. Sometimes also not the second and so on. But if you find a girl there you badly want to get in contact with - you just have to jump into it. It is no half way - you must swim. Most likely she is real. Put in your picture and make your profile. Write her and ask for her address in first or second letter. If you not get it ask why in next letter and then forget her if you not get it. If you get it send her a postcard with your phone or email and take it from there. Take your time and learn to know her. If she is serious and truly want to leave Ukraine and live with you - you have to find out. I have good contact direct with a few woman from Anastasia before. So you just have to walk the line and see what happen. Wurst case scenario you lose a few dollar. If it is one special woman - search for her also on other agency pages. Some allow them to give their phone numbers.
Read also this tread: http://forum.fiance.com/forum2.asp?Main=ShowTopic&forumid=1&topicid=4396&page=1# 86453
anastasia is NOT an agency. It is a portal which small local agencies (and a small number of independent girls) use to attract attention to girls on their books. When you pay to correspond the agency gets about 1/3 of that money and anastasia get the rest. From my own experiences I would say that probably about half of the girls are serious and the remainder are a mixture of completely bogus "bait and switch" profiles, professional daters and scammers of various description.
generally speaking the younger and better looking a girl is the more likely she is not for real (you can pretty much discount any girl appearing in one of the "best of" galleries for example), and there are some well know hot spots of pro-dating activity (Odessa for example ...) you just have to use your common sense.
As someone has already pointed out, the ladies by and large do not initiate the "introduction" letters themselves so there really isn't any point in opening them. The only thing that you can infer from the receipt of a "first letter" is that its probably still an active profile rather than a dead one.
In summary anastasia isn't itself a scam and there are some quality serious women on there but it is a minefield especially if your new to this whole FSU dating game.
mhdj, the agency itself is scam. Now often times good women sign-up with bad agencies, this is what we hope for with Anastasia and then trying to get direct access to these women. You have to remove Anastasia from being in the middle of your corrosponding as soon as you can and then hope the woman you have interest in is real.
Have had an active profile with anastasiaweb for a few years. i believe, anastasiaweb was the agency where the original US owner got hinched with a russian wife who later took over the company (correct me if i am wrong!). if so, this agency has the potential of being in the circle of scams. i do receive letters from girls who thank me for my attention--when i have never contacted them! so i do think that they do their best to promote incognito cupid activities in order to get the ball rolling. However, i cannot say if they go beyond that.
i, however, asked them to please let me know which other agencies they were affiliated with, because i was planning a trip and wanted to see if i could invite one of the ladies from another agency. (i even mentioned the names of the agencies i was with!) they told me that they did not have affiliation with anyone else!
Same thing happened with Dream-marriage.net-who charges astronomically once you decidde to get someone's personal contact info.
maybe we should start a separate blog for each agency?