Posted on June 04th, 2003 06:38 PM by admin

Written by Alexei Kovalev webmaster of Mail Order Brides Mail Order Brides @ Alina Marriage Agency

You have probably come across the fact, that Your correspondence partner asked You to send "a bit" of money for correspondence, translations, tickets, visa, passport, health and so on and so forth. Perhaps, You sent the money, and perhaps, everything was all right.

However, sincerity and generosity of men, even towards the women they have never seen, have caused appearance of such people, for whom it became the source of getting money. Unfortunately, we are living in the world, in which there are not only people, sincerely willing to find their partner in another country, but also those, who hide themselves behind the mask of such people, getting money in such a way. If to use juridical language, we have the corpus delicti called -fraud. And fraud, as it's know, has the corpus delicti, which is the most difficult to prove, for its victims give their money of their own free will and it can be distinguished from an ordinary transfer only by the intention of cheater to commit a crime. And that is why such cases are better and easier to prevent, rather than to correct later. Besides very often one comes across such a situation, when a man is so much afraid of being deceived, that he has no trust to an honest woman and constantly suspects her - and such relations can never bring to mutual understanding and sincere relations. That's why I would like to clearly state who the scammers in this field are and how to identify them, and which rules to follow so that not to become a victim of the fraud of the kind.

Who are they?
I would divide them in 3 categories:

Those can be also single women, who are searching for their partner and at the same time earn their living in such a way.

Those can be organized groups of people (or even one person), and on the behalf of women, who do not really exist, they correspond and then get money from men.

Those can be agencies, putting on a mask of respectable and reliable ones, having their own websites in the Internet.

How to recognize them

1. Single women, who are seeking their partner and at the same time, earn their living. It's the most frequently met group. In men they are mainly interested because of their money and they keep drawing attention to that all the time. And if You, in Your turn, pay too much attention to Your wealth, tell about having lots of houses, cars, a plane, a helicopter, then such a girl will seize Your in a death grip. Please, do not pay too much attention to that and she will pass You by. Besides, such a woman, right after a couple of letters will (definitely) think out a very convincing reason, out of which she will need money very much. For instance:

• her mother (father, sister) were taken to hospital and she urgently needs some money for the operation;
• her tooth broke and she urgently needs to have it cured;
• she came across an opportunity to purchase a computer at a very low price, and in this case your correspondence may be continued;
• she doesn't have the money to pay for her correspondence at the agency or the translation service; You send her flowers, but she tells You, that it'd be better if You could send her simply money, for she is in financial straits. This kind of correspondence may last for some time and you will decide for a meeting. In this case she would insist that it should definitely be her to come (but not Your coming to her), and she will also ask You about 200-300 Dollars to make a passport (a visa, ect.) transferring her the money for a ticket through Western Union (or may be to the name of her "female friend").

There are lots of possible variants, however, all of them are easy to prevent, if to follow one rule - Never send money to a person, You have never seen in person. You may pay for her correspondence at the agency, find a translator, who will translate Your letters, to pay her attention by sending her flowers and presents. Moreover, the majority of agencies take pictures of ladies at the moment of delivery, which will serve a kind of control of real existence and checking of the address. If everything is OK and You decided to meet with her not in her city (town) and she needs a flight ticket, then You may buy it for her and she will receive it at the nearest office of the airline company. If she doesn't have a passport, then it doesn't cost 200-300 Dollars. Officially, it would cost about 200 Rubbles in Russia (about 7 Dollars) and is ready in a month time. Besides, it's possible to have it ready faster, however, it's not more than 1500 Rubbles (50 Dollars) for one or two weeks. So, that's the very first rule: one should trust a person, since the majority are still honest and decent, but as for sending money to somebody You have never met, one should not.