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A scammer or not ?
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Posted by: povlhp

I am writing with a woman, which seems a bit too eager to come to the west. Considering that she does not speak english, her letters are very well written - I would say some of them too well - i.e. written in a way that indicates they are not translated. Supposedly she knows very little english. And she has mentioned she loves gifts among other things - not asked for any yet. So I have had the warning bells ringing in the back of my head, and even told her so.

Now she wants to hear my voice, and gave me the e-mail address of her agency: ruspearls@alt.ru which is listed here:
http://agencyscams.com/Emails.htm

The agency will be able to set up a conversation with an interpreter. Probably costing some money.

So, what shall I do here ? Voice my concerns again ? Dump her ?

Her "desperation" of coming to the west is a warning signal. She will probably not say no even if she decides I might not be the right guy.

Posted by: AkMike

Don't get in a rush. She's probably having the letters written by somone else in english. That alone is no big deal IMHO. I'd play it by ear and get to know her alot better. Tanya had to have our letters translated, and it's working out quite well for us. She has taken alot of english lessons so now we can talk on the phone easily.
The languge barrier isn't a reason to dump her. She's probably a great gal. Just keep your guard up until you know her alot better.
If she's a scammer she'll ask for money fairly soon.

Posted by: ConnerVT

Women aren't the only ones who may scam you. Agencies can do a great job of it as well.

Ask her for her telephone number, and tell her you will arrange to call her with your own interpreter. If she gives you a song and dance that she doesn't have a telephone, don't buy it. She is certain to know someone who has a telephone where she could receive a call from you.

Trust your intuition. If something doesn't seem right, it probably isn't.

Posted by: James Riske

That is great advice Conner.

Get your own interpreter and ask for her number. Even if she does't have a phone, she surely knows someone who does and can be there at a certain time.

If she balks at this, it's an agency scam.

I've run across a few agency scams. They make money by charging you to interpret emails, deliver flowers, and interpret calls. I was writing to one woman a while back and paying ten bucks per interpreted email. Well, it just so happened that a friend of mine was in Bishkek at the time and went knocking on 'her' door. Turned out to be the 55 year old agency owner after all.

The girl did exist, she lived nearby but was unaware of the letters. And she did admit that she took phone calls from time to time for a cut of the fee.

James

Posted by: FlashingEyes

one thing that is very suspicious - the e-mail address is just an "alt.ru" account, while most agencies have their web address as their agency website. If someone borrowed your car and told you that a tire went flat and a guy from goodyear tire company had to change all four tires because they were all bad and it cost the guy who borrowed your car $440 and he wanted reimbursement and you could e-mail the guy from goodyear for confirmation, you would probably feel a lot better if the address was "john.smith@goodyear.net" than if it was j.smith@yahoo.com. Do you have the agency website? It is possible that this agency is one of the small ones that is not on the web at all, but I'd be suspicious.

Posted by: ConnerVT

I agree the email addy is suspicious as well. I did a bit of Goggling around the 'net, and all the things I came up with weren't good. That addy is mentioned once on the agencyscams website (only hit). One would think that the addy name stands for Russian Pearl or Russian Pearls , and much that comes up on these searches (relating to marriage agencies, and not actual pearls or animal breeds

) are either links that take you to porn sites, or comments about scam agencies.

Posted by: povlhp

I got the address through elenas models, which is not a scammer. Maybe I should contact her as well.

So the agency is most likely not having a website. The other girl I am writing also uses a shared e-mail address (multiple girls uses the same). That girl (which is still higher on my list) answered my russian mails in russian, and tol me to tell her if she should have the agency translate mails. I said no problem, and are reading them using machine translation. She also said she has a contract, and can't contact me directly - Contacts must go through the agency. But I got her physical mail address, and has sent her a letter.

Long term plan is to have first meeting in Russia at her home. If that fails, go to agency and see if I can meet someone else. And then just enjoy the holiday.

I have decided to tell her I will arrange a translator, and it will have to go directly and not involve the agency, as they are on a blacklist as a scammer agency. I will also make her clear, that I will not send her money/pay for services to her or her agency before we have met. Then let us see what happens.

Posted by: povlhp

OK did some more checks looking ofr russian pearls etc. I was also told the owner of the agency was Tatyana.
Agencyscams.com has her listed as Pearl in Novosibirsk, together with a mikhail.

That same mikhail is listed twice on the blacklist on womenrussiacom.

So all doubt is now ower. It is either a scamming agency, and a girl fallen victim, or she is part in it.

I contacted Elena as Elenas Models to ask her advice, and are considering having fun with the good game of "Scam the scammer". But also just aborting contact, and write a letter to her real postal address which I got - warning her of the scammer agency.