Russian dating scammers
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Russian Dating Scammer: Tatyana Sokolova / Татьяна Соколо́ва Kazan/ Cheboksary

Do any men actually fall for these international date scams?

I speaking in particular of those from Nigeria and Russia. I’ve been on Y Personals and it seems that is all I receive. I’ve played along with a few of them. The Nigerian scammers are really bad. They will want to marry you on the second letter. The Russians play the game a little longer. Both however ask for one thing in the end “Wire me $XXXX.00 so I can come to see you.” It so bleepin’ obvious that I can’t believe men fall for these but apparently it works.
Elite I think you answered my question. Have you personally met this “girl” ?(often the letters are written by posers whose real name is Boris sending pictures of his sister). How long have you two been corresponding before she asked you for the plane trip money? Have you verified this charity she heads up in Moscow and that she is part of it? I think you’ve been suckered.

Love scams target the lonely in society and such people may be open to a degree of flattery – while the majorirty of us may recognise the approaches as scams, it may not always be that obvious to others in a more vulnerable situation.
Love scammers are very good at what they do – they do it for a ‘living’ after all and it only need one person to to fall for their approach to make it worthwhile to them.

Nigerian scammers tend to be a little ‘gung-ho’ in their approach – they have to be as they are limited (in the main) to Internet cafe opening times and of course their potential victim may well tell their friends / family about their new beau and get warned off.

They will ask for various fees in order to meet their intended.
Usually these will be:
passport cost
visa cost
flight
arrested at airport, please post bail
ooops, I’ve had all the money stolen, please replace
Dear Mama has been run over by a car, bus, enraged elephant, please pay the hospital fees
Need security escort through airport – you know what happened last time!
… and so on

Russian scammers tend to play the long game and are more organised but will follow some or all of the above ‘blocking’ tactics.
They may miss out the ‘enraged elephant’ version….!

With the Russians, it’s either “come and meet me”
You have a week on your back having your brains shagged out of you and various trips to the shops where your credit card gets a thrashing.
The clothes are returned for cash before you have even left Moscow airspace and after sending your 5th “Where are you?” email, your wedding tackle starts to itch….

The other method is the simpler “send me the air fare to come to you”
Of course they never show.

Having said all this, there are some genuine ladies in both those parts of the world (I met a lovely Ukrainian lass in ’02), but they can be difficult to find among the scammers.

I have to agree with you that ‘Elite’ doesn’t really sound as he’s onto a winner… (making themselves out to be “little angels” is a scammer tactic) – although $250 is a low amount.
Elite, if you’re reading this:
www.russian-detective.com
*could* stop you being scammed

The problem with love scams is that they don’t just hurt the bank balance, they hurt the heart as well and so can do a lot more emotional damage to the victim.
It can also be much more difficult to break the love scammer / victim bond.