What to do?
1. agencies are not all bad and some of them are good value for money and are really necessary to help you find your feet when you go to a foreign country. Trust me the FSU countries are more foreign than anything else you will have experienced.
2. Keep your wits about yourself and bear in mind that there will always be a vested interest to have you come over even if their isn't the slightest chance of your lady being serious about you.
3. Try and find out whether you are really talking to the lady and not just to a translator! Ask key questions unlikely known by the translator
4. insist on video sessions before you even think about buying a ticket. You will get an idea whether your lady is serious. Also bear in mind that video sessions are very strange and people get easily self conscious so if the first session isn't too good don't worry and have more sessions. Your lady should get at ease lateron and be more natural.
The key is to look for the way she reacts on camera, you will easily be able to tell whether she is interested or not. So have several video sessions on the go.
5. If you go through the expense to fly all the way over there have plan B ready. Make sure if the agency is bad that you are not left alone or you end up wasting a lot of money on the flight. Have a program may be sightseeing or something else.
6. Try and find out as much as you can about the agency. Some of them keep their own website and you can tell a lot from the way it is set up. Also if you develop a good relationship with them before you go there you will find that they will look after you very well in the end you are the paying customer and not the girls.
7. Just keep your wits about you and keep in the back of your mind that you may be taken for a ride either by the agency and sometimes even by the girl you are looking forward to date. There are bad people everywhere but then again don't be too paranoid there are also many good and sincere people.
In my case the worst agency run by Stalin's daughter got me the love of my life and the good agencies with a sense of integrity and honesty failed to deliver - which is ok but just an irony.
So my friend good luck in your search and I hope that you will find a good lady!
I am about to close my membership soon since there is no need for me on this site but I will do a few more postings and answer questions for some time. So feel free to comment