Am I in love, or being scammed? (what a question)

[Michael Blue]

I am a 31 year old American, seperated and going through a divorce. I recieved a lovely little invitation to correspond with a young woman from Russia, so I wrote her back.
3 weeks and nearly 25 letters later, I have some concerns.

Her name is Anna, 24, from Ulyanovsk. If anyone wants to run her surname or email address through a scamlist, email or PM me for it, I do not want to post it publicly. Also, if anyone lives in Uly, or has access to a database such as a phone list, I would like to see how many listings there are for her surname in that town. I can provide a picture as well, if anyone is that familiar with the active scammers right now. I would love to prove myself wrong on this one.

She has sent me several beautiful pictures and her letters are very romantic and well written. My concerns are this...She does not use my name except in the heading, she is the one who turned the conversation romantic, she does not answer many of the questions I ask, and my letters do not seem to impact the content of hers. Most recently, she agreed we should meet by asking me to Western Union her basically $1,100 US for her trip here.

If my Anna is really the person I thought she was, I have very deep feelings for her, and would love to fund her trip to see me. However, there are too many red flags to ignore, so I am asking for serious help. I would love to be proven wrong on this.

Thank you!

~Michael

[spamer]

You have stated all of the normal signs of a scamer. Think about it, she answers none of your questions. Use common sense. (which you seem to have done) You can post it on a anti-scam site or delete the email address.

A simple question, can I have $1000.00 to come see you? (I can send you pretty pictures too) What! no way? Then why would you send it to a person you have no idea who there are.

[Peter Burns]

Mike , trust me -she's a scammer - why waste time on her ?
The person who's writing to you ( lets assume it is " Anna ") is only after your dollars - once youve sent them she will disappper. Even if her name , email address or photo never appear on a scam alert site, this has all the classic hallmarks of a scam- letters which quickly tell you that you are the only one in her life and that she has fallen in love with you ( without having met ?) , the absence of specific answers to specific questions and the request to send money quickly to her. Check out these sites .

http://agencyscams.com/Advice.htm

http://www.russian-scam.org/message.htm



:)

[spamer]

"Most recently, she agreed we should meet by asking me to Western Union her basically $1,100 US for her trip here. "

There is no way, she will ever get a tourist visa here.
(there are ways but only the rich can do it, if she was rich why would she be asking you for money)

[Michael Blue]

Consider me educated.

Wow...

As they say in the sales business...

"NEXT!"

:( :mad: :confused:

Thanks for the links...they were exactly the wake-up call I needed.

[Castlestormer]

Michael, forgive me for being the turd in the punchbowl here...but:

You aren't even divorced yet and you are already looking for another relationship???? Maybe you should take a "time out" and ask "what the hell happened" to your last one.

Trust me, Russian scammers can smell vulnerable men from a mile away.

[Michael Blue]

That is a good point, but my situation (as they all are) is very complex. My marriage has been dead for years, we were staying together for child reasons. Also, I did not initiate this, and wasn't planning on it progressing this quickly.

Anyways...thanks guys!

[Laters]

Better to have found out now then later. Did the right thing getting some feedback. Good luck with your search.

[Pin Boy]

Let's say the unofficial prime piece of advice. Ready? one, two, three

NEVER SEND MONEY TO A PERSON YOU HAVE NEVER MET!!!!

Hey, that was good everyone!

By the way, when I was in Odessa my fiancee's close friend who is in the know said that about 99.9% of tourist visa requests are rejected.

[Yozhik]

Hi Michael,

I'm sorry to hear about your situation. As everyone has pointed out in this thread, NO honest and trustworthy RW would ever ask you for such finance in aiding her to visit you in America. I vividly remember when Anna (my former girlfriend in Ukraine) and I had started to arrange for her trip to visit me in England. At that time I had no need to worry about transferring silly amounts of money via Western Union (and I wonder, the name of the beneficiary for the transfer?) just the visa concerns, which is another story altogether.

As Pin 'Boy has said, NEVER send any money to someone you have never met!

Si :)