Crashnsplash gave a reasonable peice of advice! In my turn I could add that there are means to check if this or that woman really exists. 1) You can ask for her postal address and if she is interested she should give it to you. 2) Why not call her and talk to her, to hear her voice? Correspondence is a good tool but it is the question of trust, ant to talk to a person it's the horse from another garage.
I have been corresponding with a young lady I met through bride.ru and am beginning to have some concerns. Nothing concrete but little things are beginning to not add up. I have looked at many of the sites out there and am cautious about ALL of them. If it's to good to be true then it probably isn't.
Has anyone used BrideRU and what were your opinions?
Well after reading many of the comments on the forum, I have approached my communications with some degree of caution so it might be something of my own creation and I am being way to paranoid.
I did a Google search and found her on 4 different services. With her first profile being added 4/04. (she is far to pretty to be unattached for over a year - she claims to have a good education and a "management" job indicating she would be great catch. Why would she still be single.)
All of your pictures are professionally done and there seem to have been multiple shoots. (Seems expensive for a divorced mother raising a child).
One site she is on is owned by a group called ABC Internet - Tjenester in Norway. They operate another half dozen sites and have loaded the same profile and pictures to all their sites. Again giving her allot of exposure for over the past year.
She has sent roughly a dozen e-mails over the past month from an Internet cafe. I received an e-mail from her today that according to the e-mail data suggests she sent it at midnight on Sunday. She has never asked for money and has not put on any type of pressure.
Her letters often are typed with odd usage of all caps the an unexplained change to lower case. To me it looks like a cut and paste job gone wrong.
She answers roughly half of my questions so I'm not sure if she is just missing things in translation or not. Her letters can be repetitive but seem to correlate to my letters to some degree. I am sending to her personal e-mail with a .mail.ru address. (Not sure that if that means anything.)
I good friend of mine is just coming out of a bad relationship with a women in Moldova and after reading the forum I am more than a little scared about the scammers out there. The women I am communicating with is 31, divorced with a young daughter living in Krygystan. Mother and father deceased, sharing a flat with a cousin while she works to support her and her daughter.
I really like her and enjoy the communications. I hate to be so cynical but so much of what is going on fits some of the scam profiles that it alarms me. Am I being to paranoid?
There are agencies that are parasites and compromise pictures of ladies from other agencies. Or she may have used an agency before that did not remove her pictures from their site. This is not unusual.
And a bit annoying to the ladies. Check Scam Alert and see if she is listed on that site, along with her email address. Doing prudent research is good. Ask for her address and phone number, send flowers
and request a picture be taken when she receives them. You can only be scammed if you let yourself be scammed. Don't send money! There are many good women to found in Ukraine and Russia, common sense will help you find a great one.
Ask for photos and direct phone conversation.
Does she speak any of the languages you speak?
If not, why not narrow the search to women who do?
I took my sweet time over the last 18 months (see my other post in "how to find a nice man") and did not have any qualms about being picky
It worked out for me.
good luck
"I really like her and enjoy the communications. I hate to be so cynical but so much of what is going on fits some of the scam profiles that it alarms me. Am I being to paranoid?"
DJ,
you've basically answered all yourself, but hey, let's rip the above apart for a mo. If you stick to the not golden but platinum rule Nas mentions, and you know it, simply never send or give her a dime before you've met. This way any scammer eventually will give up and look elsewhere for greener pastures.
So, stop being cynical, ditch the paranoid attitude, and communicate your heart out.
However, that bit is, although entirely up to you, there for a purpose. You want to know things, she does too (you have to assume this) hence you ask her, direct or indirect. Ever thought of querying WHY she mixes upper- and lower-case? You just might get a surprisingly simple answer, and all those answers add up to a certain impression of her. THIS is what you're after, not induvidual things but the larger picture. And only when something starts not to all this, more subconcious than blatant, then you will start to be wary and feel something's not right, a reflex kind of. When it all keeps fitting, and when you keep liking her (more?), you will have to go & see her. When you do and still like her you'll also know if she's fond of you, and then act accordingly.
So do your homework properly, drop any overly suspicious attitude and take it from there.
Now to her. By what you describe she's not overly interested in you, and neither not uninterested either for she answers some of your questions. Bear in mind that she's got no PC at home, has more working hours than you plus does the householding chores for a family, walks her butt off by way of 'transport', earns mediocre (I bet) but spends serious (fer her) money on I-cafe & agency costs, and conclude with me that whatever she mails to you you should appreciate - even when she also sends to others.
It's up to you to work yourself up her ranks of 'interesting', and you just may get to the top of her list.
Just know that if you don't like competition never get involved with women, any. Also know that those who visit wipe mailing romeo's off the table, for the simple reason that they show to be serious.
Its all up to you to juggle all this, and do indeed speak to her by phone, not once but regularly. Bugger the (interpretor?) cost, you will know if she thinks on her feet, and lyers normally don't consistently.
Since you mentioned the Norwegian company, ABC, I got a little curious, It is situated not so far aqay from where I live, just a couple hours with car. I have done a check through Norwegian business registration files. It seems like this company is a registered business, they also have their adress, phone number and business number written on their site. Also the owner of the sites name is written. I found out this guy is also behind one of the most used websites people use as their "homesite" in Norway, the ABC startsiden. What bugs me is that I cannot find a company at the adress they are informing about, but a private house. He might run this business from home, for all I know. They have several sites for dating russian women, and I think that alone is quite suspicious.. Why not have one big site instead of several containing almost the same? I guess it is what they call business.. I would say this was a rather unserious firm, but at the same time they have their business number and phone number written so you can call directly and ask questions.. It bugs me a little actually, would someone not serious do that? Their own name, business number and phone number along with the adress where you probably sleep every night? To tell you the truth I was not feeling any more clever after looking into this, why not try to call the number and ask about your girl? It is written that it is possible to do just that..
Scam agency or not? I really don't have a clue... One thing I know is that I read about a Norwegian agence that was into the scam business, but if it is the same agency I really don't know.