"But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also."
Matthew 5 v 39
"Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven."
Matthew 6 v 1
"“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."
Matthew 7 v 3-5
"These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me."
Mark 7 v 6
Thanks deeply for the apposite gospel verses. A breath of fresh air!
@Ivor:
Yes, scammers usually demand some round number of foreign (to them) currency. But this is another case for durak's law (almost everything scammers do, honest people might do in some circumstances). I have a friend in Ukraine who borrowed money from a relative to help pay an attorney, and the loan was ... a round number of dollars. In Ukraine's crazy and dysfunctional economy, it is not unusual for loans to be in Euros, or even US dollars. The national currency isn't always the one available for the transaction. In fact, I know another Ukrainian whose home mortgage (for a flat in Kyiv) was also in dollars (go figure). Both of these loans were made before the crisis, so the debtors are stuck having to pay about 60% more in Hrynia than they expected.
Of course, the collapse of the UAH helps explain why Ukrainians want to hold currencies more stable than their own.
1. How many banks, or similar, will loan to people who have little or no security?
2. How many banks, or similar, loan money whereas not a single damn cent is repaid?
3. How many mothers-in-law just happen to have a spare $10,000 to dish out?
4. How many lenders (M-I-L's) will lend, and then wait for, knowing that they will not recoup a cent for at least 10 years?
5. Why should M-I-L try to prevent her shacking up with a 'wealthy' westerner, what better chance has she got of recouping her money, keep the D-I-L in Ukraine and wait another 10 or 20 years without a single damn cent being repaid?
6. And the electric/gas providers bill in USD's also? She claims to owe these $800 and I can guarantee you that, if, she owes them it is Hrivnias and not Dollars! This verifies that she is opting to speak in USD's but any monies referred to are in local currency.
I'm sorry but "THIS STINKS" ..... and I've got the tee shirt!
have to admit, its a lot for a gas bill for Ukraine if thats US$.
whats a monthly or yearly bill worth?
judging without facts, nasty lot.
and the question is still to be answered, have people been stopped leaving Ukraine with a debt?
Ivor, your bit on banks..
thats exactly what America was doing and why they are in the shit now, from what i understand these people were never held accountable for their mortgages, wicked scams of inflated prices on these property's to fool banks, people living in homes they refuse to pay mortgages on.
i had heard of people who have made millions because of the poor criteria needed for its mortgages and accountability.
wish our banks here were that stupid.
In my judgment, the odds are worse than 20:1 that something is seriously wrong with Coop's lady.
The point of my post, was that while borrowing a round number in dollars seems suspicious, it can really happen with ordinary honest Ukrainians.
In my profession, I am exceptionally competent at making deductions from evidence ... in fact, I haven't met anyone (yet) who's better at this than I am. But all the same, I often get it wrong. So I have learned to be very careful in distinguishing suspicion from proof.
By crook, do you mean she might be intending to keep the money and not marry? Is she just lying about not being able to leave Ukraine so she could pay the debt? Can that "something" seriously wrong be loosely narrowed down?
My fiancee is due to intereview with the American Consulate in Kiev within the next 30 days.
She told me two years agao that durign her divorce from her exhusband that she owed 1/2 of theelectric/gas/heat and at that time it was approximately 800 USD since she hgas not had the money to pay it she now owes about 8000 UAH for the electric/gas/heat bill.
She also told me that ten years ago she and her husband received a gift of money (loan?) from her mother-in -law of $10,000 USD to pay a business loan off. She did not sign any papers to acklnowlede the loan or gift of money from her mother-in-law but now she is worried because her monther-in-law has threatened to take her to court to stop her from leaving the country before she pays her back 1/2 ($5000) of the loan.
With only 6 months for her to leave Ukraine "after" her Fiancee visa is approved (this month)this is a viable worry. She could concievabily be held in Ukraine by the court system and miss the 6 month window the fiancee visa gives her to leave and come to America.
I'm thinking of flying her to Turkey then to the USA to avoid any problems with customs/security in Ukraine. The year before last we vacationed in Turkey and she had no problems leaving the country. But she mentioned that shingrin (spelling) to travel to eastern europe or America would be monitored and she would be stopped at the airport. She said this law came into effect last year in UJkraine.
Ivor
Its a Yes/will do - to all 4 points above, believe it or not !! (only in Ukraine :-)
My wife said that any debt (even personal family one)can stop you leaving Ukraine. Providing the proper court channels have been followed by the lender/pursuer
Well under 'our' legal systems if there's no loan agreement in writing then it would be laughed out of any court, worth checking out if the Ukraine system is the same and/or if it is corrupt as everything else in Ukraine.
As for a business loan, well they say never mix business with pleasure, if a business borrowed the money then the business pays it back, if the business that borrowed the money no longer exists then boo hoo!
But it all sounds very fishy, loans and money from 10 or more years ago and not a single cent being repaid, M-I-L must have realised, when lending it, that the chances of it being repaid were about zero.
She hasn't paid the electric/gas for years? Is she wearing nice clothes, nice cosmetics etc. If the answer to this might be "yes" then she's not so good a person!
I've no idea what this new law is that she/you refers to but all she needs to do is keep her plans secret from her ex M-I-L and I think you'll find it's easier, more convenient, to fly her via Moscow, just do it as 2 seperate bookings whereas the Ukrainians will not see that she is travelling UA-RU-US, they'll only see that she is travelling UA-RU.
Mini, PM me and I can hook you up with a real US/UKR couple who are very business experienced and who can give you real advice.
It all sounds fishy to me also. I have seen a couple of instances where the fiancee makes it to the interview stage but because of unique circumstances doesn't go to it but wants to "try again". Of course in these two instances, he was sending her money. Both were vetted out as scams.
He wasn't sending her a lot of money each time but the assumption was that she was doing this scam to more than one guy and all added up making a good buck.