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Scammers
Beat Scam Artists in Three Easy Steps

Scam Dating Agencies

Did you know that 2006 report by the UK Sunday Herald stated that nearly 50% of marriage agencies on the Internet may be scams run by organized crime and criminal gangs?

We can afford to be not as politically correct as a prominent UK newspaper and we can safely drop this "may be" part.

The majority of marriage agencies on the Internet are scams run by organized crime and criminal gangs. Full stop.

Read more on Agencies scams before you chose any online introduction service.

Three Easy Rules to Beat Scam Artists

The wide spread of Internet dating in the last 10 years has created a new kind of scam artists - people who make Internet dating scams their profession. If you are new to the world of Internet Introduction it is easy to fall for the scams. However, it is equally easy to avoid them if you know about typical ways these scams are usually performed.

RUSSIAN BRIDES has a very clear and simple policy on scammers. We run compulsory verification security checks on all women who apply to be included in our Photo Catalogue. We consequently publish only about 15% of all applications we receive. (Learn more in our FAQ section).

RUSSIAN BRIDES also offers Phone Verification of specific women. This is a paid service and it is available for practically any women published in ourPhoto Catalogue. While phone verification cannot give you 100% guarantee that the particular person is not a scammer, in most cases it is very effective in determining whether a specific woman is legitimate.

Of course, there is only few scammers out of 100 honest and genuine women who using Internet Introduction to find a true love however, you still need to know about their dirty tricks as those scammers could be (and often are) very, very active...

Here is a three simple steps which can defeat 99.9% of scam artist.

Too Good to be True - These women are trying to correspond with as many men as they can. Because of that their letters are often surprisingly impersonal and vague when it comes to specific questions. If women avoids using your name or worth still - uses a wrong one, if she is not answering your questions or gives very general answers than it is a first RED FLAG.

They also do not have time to waste!

They will reply with enormous joy and happiness that you wrote to them. After a few more e-mails they are completely head over heels in love with you! The photographs they use (which are not necessarily their photographs) are of a very beautiful women. Being realistic (unless of course you are Brad Pitt or Sean Connery) - does not this instant “love at first sight” sound a bit unusual to you? This is a second RED FLAG.

This brisk set up serves as a jumping point to the real thing.

RULE#1: If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Money, money, money... - OK, mutual love has been established. Now they are starting to explain how hard it is for them to keep in touch with you via e-mail as the costs of the Internet (translator, telephone, photographs...) are high and if you wish to continue this correspondence could you please help them with these costs.

Or her computer has suddenly crashed and to fix it she needs just ridiculous $70 which she does not have. Just send some money by Western Union to keep a romance alive. Not much (from your point of view) only 50 (70, 100) dollars. However, to a very pretty lady who is weekly getting 100's of letters from dozens of men it might be a very healthy income, taking into account that the average wage in Russia is around $300 - $500 a month.

Another favourite trick of the scammers is to go quiet for a while keeping your guessing - what could possibly happened over there? Then, out of the blue, they will write to you about a horrible accident happened (or about to happen) to them (family member, friend...). Mother who needs urgent surgery in a hospital is an undisputed winner. And yes, you are, of course, the only one who can help them out. This time you will be looking at $300 - $1000 depending on the set up and her greed.

Any, and we wish to stress this in the strongest words possible, ANY AT ALL request for money is the most red flag out of all RED FLAGS.

RULE#2: If you are being asked for money (under whatever circumstances) before you have personally met the lady - run!

Air Tickets, Visa, Customs duty - This is an ultimate goal for every scammer - to clean man on an airfare. The Holy Grail of all introduction scams. Latest scammers' trend is to ask for only part of airfare. Here is a part from a real e-mail: “To come to you I need only tickets and if you'll help me with part of cost of my tickets I can come to you.”

Ironically, this is the easiest scam for you to avoid. In order to visit you in Australian or US, woman has to have a valid Australian, US, UK or NZ entry visa. And this is a hard thing to get for a young and single Russian lady. We wish to make the following point absolutely clear - it is a very common misconception that you can just buy an Australian or US entry visa in Russia. No! It is a complicated and some times long process and the very last thing it depends upon - is money. Remember - your money can not get visa for her. Don't be fooled.

There is a very simple way to see whether she is genuine. To be on the safe side you should:

Offer her to buy air ticket in Australia yourself and then send it over to her with a courier.
Ask her to send you a fax or e-mail with a scanned copy of her passport page with attached valid entry visa in her name.

If her intention is really to visit you and she has a valid entry visa to do so then she should be only too happy to delegate the whole thing to you. But if she insists on money versus ticket, becomes offended, refuses to give her visa details, then it does not look too good...

Some other common fishing tricks scammers use:

Needs money to show on Russian border to Russian customs. RED FLAG

Needs money to show to Australian (US, UK...) Embasy.RED FLAG

Needs money to give to travel agency (employer, customs, police...) as a guarantee of return to Russia. RED FLAG

RULE#3: Never send money for airfare. Never send money for visa support. Always check for a valid entry visa first. If valid visa does exist and you really need to send a large amount of money - at least ASK US TO VERIFY THE PERSON for you before you do so.

If you do the right things - such as following the above steps and do not hesitate to ask us every time you have your doubts (and we are ALWAYS there for our customers)- we will not allow you to get into these traps.

“Thank you for the prompt attention- your fast service is a credit to your company.”

Chris Andrews

“Great web site first off - after being scammed many times this is refreshing... thanks and keep up good work.”

Richard Bray

“It truly is a pleasure to have such great service.”

Nicholas Harrow

Report about scam!

If you have a suspect in the scam please let us know - specify girl profile number and the message caused this suspicion in the boxes below.