If you saw my earlier post about my new friend Mr. B you would have learned about some of his insights during his travels around the world. I’m going to forward another one of Mr. B’s interesting stories to you and it is something that I’m going to call the “Boiler Room”.
During his last visit to the Ukraine Mr. B decided to check out a particular introduction agency that was listed on the Internet. After locating the address he went un-announced and was greeted by a woman who was nervously surprised by his arrival. He said that he wanted to get a chance to meet one of the girls he had seen on their website. The woman began to guide him towards a room in the back of the building where they could talk. One of the rooms that they passed along the way was filled with rows of computers occupied by mostly younger women typing into them.
Mr. B was briefly able to get a closer look and then realized that these girls were hired by this “agency” to lure unsuspecting men with fabricated messages of interest and love. This agency was a full-scale fraud factory and it’s main product was an assembly line of fake love letters that were used to lure vulnerable men into advancing more money in any number of ways. Translation fees, contact information access fees, travel arrangements, you name it.. it was all part of this very bad deal.
Once Mr. B realized what this was all about he thanked the girl for her time and quickly left which was smart since one never knows what type of criminal gang is behind this operation. It was obvious that he had just stumbled upon a classic front operation that had not the slightest intention of helping men and women find love.
Years ago when I was back in California I was sure that a friend of mine was also getting bullsh*t emails like this when he was communicating with an attractive girl whose photo was listed on one of these agencies. He took my advice and quickly stopped emailing this girl since something clearly did not seem right.
The most obvious red flag that all you guys should be aware of is to immediately drop any girl who makes any kind of request about needing money. The main point of this post is to be careful gentlemen. There are many scam sights out there that i’m sure are based both out of the Ukraine and Russia to lure you into their net.
The most important question I want you to ask yourself is this. Does the agency you deal with have any financial incentive to see you fail in your quest to find a wife? Or to put it another way. Will they make more money if you can’t find a wife with their help? Finding the answer to this is key. If you arrive and the girl you wanted to meet with suddenly “decided to take a vacation” but “oh by the way we have this OTHER pretty girl to introduce you to instead” you’ve been scammed big time with the classic Bait and Switch and unfortunately this happens all the time.
I’ve personally seen some agencies go so far as to secretly sabotaging a real relationship between an engaged couple so that the man would be forced to come back and spend more money trying to meet other girls. Yes these are real horror stories and I don’t want you guys to get stuck being the next victim so keeping a good dose of skepticism is very healthy especially if your heart is starting to take over your mind because you want a particular girl to be yours so badly.
Now I’m sure there are plenty of good sites out there but for starters I myself wouldn’t think of starting any real dialogue with them unless I had access to a personal reference or happy customer that I could physically meet with. An operation like this Boiler Room confirms the worst fears that many American and International men have about Russian Women agencies. Much of this bad reputation is well deserved and some of it is not. But either way navigating through this can be a real challenge.
The bottom line is this.. One of the most valuable commodities in the world is TRUST. Trust in business, relationships and in knowing what’s real and what’s not. Do everything you can to verify before you begin to trust. And this process doesn’t stop when you come here.. nor should it stop even if you are walking down the aisle to say “I do”. Trust has to be renewed all the time and unfortunately in this part of the world common trust that we take for granted in the US is often sorely lacking.
Obviously don’t let this deter you from finding your future wife over here but just be smart and listen to my well formed advice.
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July 31, 2006 at 6:22 am
I’m interested in founding that special person and i thought I had. Now I’m not sure what angency to trust. Can you give me some advice or help me to found one.I dealt with Anastasia web are they honest or dishonest.
Thank you
August 1, 2006 at 4:25 pm
Hi Paul.. I don’t know any details about the Agency you mentioned but what I want to tell you is this. Read my posts and focus on the girl as opposed to the agency. You cannot rely on anyone but yourself to know the truth. If you are suspcious of something the agency or this girl did then just comment it here so that maybe we can all benefit from this info.
Good Luck
GL
August 6, 2006 at 4:11 am
I just found this on Google News.. VERY RELEVANT obviously..
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article1215975.ece
August 6, 2006 at 4:26 am
And here’s another with the following quote..
“Russian marriage agency websites insist there are many genuine Russian women looking for love, although experts contend that up to 50% of such sites are elaborate frauds.”
http://www.sundayherald.com/57096
August 16, 2006 at 7:38 pm
[...] We all know that the traditional way of meeting girls is to sign up with one of the many agencies that you see on-line. Some are legitimate and some are outright frauds. I would make sure you get some references from people that you can talk to directly if you decide to deal with them. What I would personally recommend is another tact all together. But first let me give you some background. [...]
August 26, 2006 at 8:59 pm
I had to do about 3 months of research on the internet, pouring through dating sites after dating sites. I finally concentrated on 2 that I liked because of their anti-scam policies and the fact that they encourage men to contact their clients i.e. happily married men. I decided on a relatively small agency and I was rewarded with my lovely wife. I have since referred several men and they are happy with their services.
Bottom line: Just do your reseach and read everything regarding Russian dating sites. It’s dangerous out there. Gotta have plenty of ammo to use against the sharks.
April 27, 2007 at 9:50 pm
Hi
) I am ukrainian woman and I am here because my canadian friend asked me to read this blog and to leave a comment. So here am I. I worked in such an agency and I can give to all western men one advice: DO NOT APPLY TO AGENCIES. Even if it tries to be fair it has a lot of branch-offices that just make money. I can explain you how it is done. For example, a girl applies to the agency as she wants to find a husband. She is not 18 or 20. She is older than 25, maybe it is a woman of 30-35. She takes a look at all men and choose 5, maybe 10. But! There is 10% chance that these men will answer to her letter. And her translator sends her greeting letter to all men whose age seems to be suitable for her (not appearance, not country, not social position, not education, etc.). The translator sends letters to 1000-1500 men, 100 answers (for example). None of them can be among those whom she has chosen. The translator shows these men to her. She can chose 5. She is personaly interested in corresponding with these 5 lucky men. But the 95 remain. And the translator corresponds with them herself. She writes letters and just tells the girl what she has written and what the man has answered. It is done because head offices check if the girls are real because they worry about their reputation. So you can understand that you have only 5% chance to correspond with the girl herself and 95% chance to correcpond with the translator. They girl does exist but she is not interested in you.
)
So what makes that lucky percent of marriages? 99% make translators themselves. Who are they? Students or young women who hasn’t found better job or want to work part-time. Their photos you can see on the sites as well as it is almost obligatory. So she likes a man she is writing to. She knows him and he knows her as their letters are not a fake. They can marry. I know a lot of girls from the agency I was working in that married and were happy. There is no way to check if you are corresponding with a girl personally or you are talking to the translator only. So I advice you to find girls in ICQ, MSN and so on or just come here and find her on the spot
April 28, 2007 at 8:27 am
Hi Anna,
I really appreciate your honesty on this subject. It’s such a tragedy when so many heart are played like this.
Your inside information on how another type of scam works I’m sure will do much to help another deserving man and women to find each other without being used.
Again thank you so much and please continue to make comments
GL
April 28, 2007 at 11:03 am
Our friend Wonderlander is creating her own agency, I trust it won’t be like this.
March 25, 2008 at 8:55 pm
[...] I posted an article about this this earlier about how this “boiler room” operation works… But it’s worth taking an additional look as to what the UK Daily Mail is reporting here.. In this case, the gang used a team of female students, fluent in English, to write to him and even chat on the phone, pretending to be besotted with him… [...]