Thanks for the agency information Martin. This is why I like Fiance.com! They are liberal with their forum. I think it is the best one on the Net. Actully I plan on upgrading to their platinum memebership in January to begin my new search in 2006. The best deal on the net!
Van, screw the clubs. The guys in Ukraine hate us foriegners. When i went on my 8 day tour, i went to the club twice with the guys from the tour. Both times there was trouble. From what i also heard most of the guys from the tours went nightly and had to be bailed out of trouble every time. Another American who is living in Ukraine got beaten really bad coming out of a club. Avoid the clubs at all costs.
My friend`s nephew was murdered this past early summer in Odessa towards the end of his three month stay visiting women and hanging out in bars alone. He had the shit beat out of him twice. Had a beautiful woman in a bar put a pill in his drink and rob him of one thousand dollars.He was finally found beaten to death in his rented apartment. This was all in a previous post i had written some time ago. But , i knew him and his social antics, if he carried on there as he did here i could see it coming.He was a true arrogant loudmouth especially with people he did not know. You first time travelers better watch your own ass. Just because the women are hot doesn`t mean the society is kind.The slavic mind can still has a good barbarian twist. Especially to overly kind smiling westerners thinking kindness wins hearts and minds looking for action written on their faces.The people there are still poor and necessity breeds survival. A life is only a life.
What city were you in Vegas? I've done clubs in Yalta, Kiev, Odessa, and Kharkov with other guys or with my girl and interpreter. Never once seen or had a problem. Again I keep a low profile and try not to act like a fool and I never get drunk. Just a few drinks.
Deano and JMO's advice are good. I haven't had any problem in Ukraine. Actually I find the Ukrainians to be rather friendly, but there are certain areas you don't want to travel without an escort. Staying sober is probably one of the best recomendations you can get. You still need to stay alert, don't flash money etc. Also, I don't think it's just the slavic mind, I've been to many poor countries in my life and it's relatively the same there. Poor countries have their own crime which is poverty.
My friend is also searching for a future bride in the FSU. He found a girl from Lugansk on a free website. They wrote letters for about 3 weeks and then the other day he got this response from her.
Dear Sir.
Unfortunately, Natasha can't reply to your letter because her account is over. She used our firm as the access to the Internet and our translator. If you're interested in the girl, we can send you information about our service and payment. We hope for our future cooperation.
Sincerely Yours
Principal "Connection"
Tatyana Olekseenko
Just another example of scamming using the email forwarding or translation. It would seem that postal letters or just flying over there or using something like Fiance.com is the only way to go.
Brilliant series of posts! Guys, if you're at the newbie or even intermediate stage of your search you need absorb what he has written. I've made eight trips and spent close to a year in Ukraine, Russia, Latvia. I've been married to an Odessa woman and even owned a small hobby agency (started as a tax write off). Essentially, I've long since reached his same conclusions, and his approach which I will detail in a moment. There's so many important points to detail that I may break this post up into several.
I will try to address most of the most important things Deano covered. However, first you guys need to understand the MOST IMPORTANT determining factor in real versus fraudulent profiles: BABES vs. NON-BABES
If you are writing non-babes you've probably experienced a near 100% ratio in responses. A non-attractive woman posted on any intro site is almost certainly legit. Therefore, you're probably reading all these posts about scams and saying to yourself "Golly, what are these guys talking about?"
Deano's approach to correspondence is exactly the correct method: Direct the women you write to contact your own FEMALE friend / interpreter in Ukraine (or Russia, etc.) DON'T PLAY THE LETTER WRITING GAME!!
Your focus should be on arranging meeting these women, not exchanging letters. Deano has the right approach in gathering a portfolio of the women he wants to meet and going directly to their city / agency. This way, the agencies either have to produce the women or not, end of story. I've even succesfully utilized the services of an Odessa agency that is run by one of the most notorious scammers on the Internet. I walked in her office and had her arrange meetings with ladies: No meetings, No Pay.
Even more imporatantly, Deano talked about going out and meeting ladies outside the agencies: Discos, restaurants, on the street, etc.. This is the most important method and is likely to be ultimately the most productive method. I will go into more details in a subsequent post on other subjects.
Hello Naples! It seems like you and I should get together and write a book! :) It feels good to get some affirmation from someone who has been there. I'm looking forward to more input from you. I have some questions for you myself but have to run to work. I'll be back!
The babes vs the Non-babes topic is right on the nail. It would seem most of these men on this forum are going for the 30 and up with children. These women are 99% legit and the success ratio with them will be very high. I go after the young babes with no children. The odds are against me but I still believe it can happen. It may not last as many on this forum have warned because of the age difference. But maybe it will. I'm willing to take that chance. High risk = High rewards. I will also continue to meet ladies by chance on the street or clubs but there is a problem with them. These ladies have never considered living abroad. I've dated many of them and the relationship was moving in the right direction but then reality hit them. The thought of leaving their country, family, friends was just too much and many of them bailed on me. They told me if I will stay in Ukraine they would love to have serious relations with me. On the other hand many of them were ready to take the plunge. All I had to do is ask. But I bailed on them for my own personal reasons. Alas my search continues with all the tools at my disposal.
Deano,
You say High risk = High rewards, how do you define High rewards?
As I mentioned previously, I lived with a 22 y/o 4 years ago, before I sent her home that was! My memories, particularly such unpleasant ones, have faded but believe me when I say that it was far from a rewarding experience.
I'm not going to say too much about it here, you'll understand ' that idiot' factor that is present but it was just a very unpleasant experience and if you think the bedroom was at least rewarding, well it wasn't, there's a difference between sex and making love!
Well an interesting twist has come to my experiment. One of my ladies I was writing to in Amazing-women is now on Fiance.com so I will now write to her using Fiance.com which for $30 a month is a lot cheaper. I just sent her a letter tonight and I'm very curious if the response will be different in anyway. Regardless I'm hoping I will be knocking on her agency door in 6 weeks. To be continued......
The below comment is the reason why I believe every Russian girl- Western Man relationship will eventually fail. the cultures are way too different. And I have yet to see one that has stood the test of time.... 5 years plus... sure there mite be a handful of older Russian woman with kids. But i believe young russian girls will never stay abroad. And this is the main reason I dont get involved with one despite the fact im in ukraine regularly
"These ladies have never considered living abroad. I've dated many of them and the relationship was moving in the right direction but then reality hit them. The thought of leaving their country, family, friends was just too much and many of them bailed on me"
Deano, I have a question! I have been talking to some girls at this site and Elena's Models. After reading through your writeups, I decided to scan through the list of girls at Amazing-Women and discovered that some of the girls I am talking to are also listed there!
From my communications though I have had no problems and not noticed the smell of any scams. Just wondering if anyone can explain to me about this, and whether I should be wary or only if I had used the Amazing-Women email forwarding??
Having heard many positive things for the most part on this forum about Cindy Agency, I registered my profile a few days ago and have not been spammed at all as of yet. Last night I decided to write to one lady and I actually received a reply from her this morning...about twelve hours later. That was pretty fast to me and some on here have mentioned that is a red flag. Her letter was informative and addressed everything I wrote in my intro letter, and then went on to describe herself, asked a few questions of me, and looks forward to my reply. Common, get to know you stuff in the beginning. I personally don't think that is a problem for the first couple of letters. However, if a trend develops to hook me into the email scam, I am learning great stuff from you all on this forum. I did ask her for any contact info she may feel comfortable giving to me, but that was not addressed in her letter, and I probably should wait to ask that of people in the second letter or so. Any feedback? Thanks everybody for taking the time to write such good, informative threads and replies...my head is on overload from reading and learning so much here!
RK, Although I cannot speak to this particular agency it is not uncommom for the agency to call the girl and read the letter to her over the phone. She will then dictate her answer to the interpeter. I personaly would look more to her responses than how fast she answers. Also even if she answers your questions about her personal contact info, that doesn't mean the agency will not delete it before the letter is sent.
RK,
We all have/had the standard intro letter, it should only be a few letters in when you should start to become suspicious!
Now let me take a wild shot here, was the letter transmitted from Cindy Agency Dnepr office before 10 a.m. Ukrainian time? Does the lady claim to have a profession, why was she not at work at this hour, and is she actually from Dnepr or Krivoy Rog or Zaporozhye, regardless I would like to bet that her letter was transmitted from the Dnepr office, a 'full header' check of the IP originator should clarify this?
How do you know that the lady and not the agency responded to you?
The letter was transmitted at 1740 Ukraine time. She does have a profession, but I think it would not be unusual for her to be finished for the day by 1740. She is from Dnepr, and I don't know which office it was transmitted from. As of now, I have no idea if it was the lady or agency responding, but based on the times, it sounds like there is a chance it was the lady. Your feedback would be appreciated.
I'm not real computer smart when it comes to IP addresses, etc. How do you check the "full header" and see where the IP originator is?
I see you have an earthlink address which I have no idea of, with Yahoo mail you simply click on 'full header'.
1740 is just perhaps a little too much on the button, let us say she finishes work at 1700, has to walk to the agency, read your letter, compose a reply, have it interpreted (if her English is not that good) and then have someone type it in to the computer, all in 40 minutes!
Give it time, of course each letter will cost you between USD3.98 and USD5.00 to give it time!
P.S. If you feel you are serious about her then register again with Cindy, as Joe Bloggs, download a guy's pic from the internet, and then write to this lady again and as the other guy. Of course it is expected that she will respond but worth comparing letters!
I assume this is all the header info...here it is from that email. Can you decipher/translate what it all means? If you have time...thanks!
Status: U
Return-Path: <www@star.dp.ukrtel.net>
Received: from star.dp.ukrtel.net ([195.5.61.67])
by mx-dipper.atl.sa.earthlink.net (EarthLink SMTP Server) with ESMTP id 1eTOg1HH3Nl36u0
for <rk8818@earthlink.net>; Tue, 3 Jan 2006 10:39:29 -0500 (EST)
Received: from star.dp.ukrtel.net (localhost [127.0.0.1])
by star.dp.ukrtel.net (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id k03FeMkB058352
for <rk8818@earthlink.net>; Tue, 3 Jan 2006 17:40:22 +0200 (EET)
(envelope-from www@star.dp.ukrtel.net)
Received: (from www@localhost)
by star.dp.ukrtel.net (8.13.1/8.13.1/Submit) id k03FeMXb058351;
Tue, 3 Jan 2006 17:40:22 +0200 (EET)
(envelope-from www)
Date: Tue, 3 Jan 2006 17:40:22 +0200 (EET)
Message-Id: <200601031540.k03FeMXb058351@star.dp.ukrtel.net>
To: rk8818@earthlink.net
Subject: new e-letter on cindyagency.com
From: office@cindyagency.net
Reply-To: office@cindyagency.net
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=00e23b155bc6a217dca027e4ac02c2ff
X-ELNK-AV: 0