A Russian Bride Guide

Avoiding Russian Scams:

OK, for those of you who are overly concerned about whether the Russian Woman you are corresponding with is real or not here is some advice.

Recently many verification services are appearing to do verifications and even identity or background checks on potential Russian Brides. One such agency available on the internet offers the delivery of a single rose in order to verify for you that the woman you are corresponding with indeed exists at the address she has given you. This measure is actually a very useful means of detecting a Russian scammer. Normally, someone who might be attempting to scam you will not use their actual address info or perhaps will not use their actual name to avoid being caught.

The agency delivers the rose to the address and lady by the name given. For an additional small fee they can verify the woman’s identity by passport during delivery. This added verification will decrease the likelihood of a scam and give positive identification. There are detective services that get more involved and will tend to cost more.

Want the web address of the agency offering this service?

Visit: Russian Scam Check
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Russian Bride Forum

We are going to begin the process of writing a comprehensive Russian Women Guide. Please join our Russian Bride Forum and give some input on what questions you would like to see answered and what information would be most helpful to you in your Russian Bride Search. Many men seeking a Russian Wife may be aprehensive to seek the advice of other men. This is very understandable but no matter how much of a romeo you may think you are -Russian Women and more importantly, Russian Culture are both very different than what you are acustomed to. Try not to think of it as “love advice” but more like a cultural and language indoctrination. Before business men visit another country for their company it is perfectly normal for them to go through a week or two training course to get some basics on local customs, language basics, popular culture and etiquette. Joining our Russian Bride Forum will be no different. The best thing is that it is totally free! Where else can you get a free cultural, language and etiquette lesson.
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Agency Interview:

A Russian Bride Guide recently interviewed Sergey Polianichevski of St. Petersburg’s Arcadia marriage agency. The interview follows this brief overview of the company:

Arcadia marriage agency of St. Petersburg, Russia has been matching Russian brides with Western men since 1997 and stands out among the numerous Russian dating agencies because of Sergey’s more intimate approach. The agency offers 100′s of profiles of attractive single Russian ladies who seek a loving marriage. What is unique about Arcadia is that Sergey knows all the women listed on his site personally and keeps the listing up to date by removing ladies who are no longer interested. Visitors to Arcadia will also find 200 recorded video introductions of some women listed there and can browse the listings and videos freely with no need to sign up or join. Sergey only charges for services based on the matchmaking process, if a gentleman wishes to visit the beautiful city of St. Petersburg, known affectionately to locals as Peter. The total cost of this process will include your round trip flight to St. Petersburg, lodging, local meals and transport, and the agencies charge of 500 Euros for the first week of arranged meetings with the women of your chosing. Various other services are offered based upon client wishes and needs. As you can see here your whole visit may end up costing little more than around $2,400 if you are able to find your match in a one week trip. Sergey promises that your datebook will be full the entire week.

Interview:
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Russian Dating Agencies?

I will be dealing with this topic for the next few posts because unless you plan to just fly to Russia on your own and meet women on the street you are going to need to work with some sort of an agency or dating site to make contact with women in Russia.  At first glance the idea of choosing which agency to go with or what approach to take in beginning your search for a Russian Wife can be overwhelming. There are well over 300 websites claiming to offer services ranging from simple contact information to full fledged “romance tours”. Your investment in this search can range anywhere from a couple thousand dollars up to $50,000 or more. Finding the right mate in your own town can be difficult but taking your search overseas adds a possible language barrier, an ocean, new customs and different culture. These factors which make seeking a Russian Bride seem more challenging are also part of the allure. Armed with the right information and the right attitude a man can successfully complete his search without breaking the bank.
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Who is to blame for scams?

One topic that receives much attention on discussion boards and anti-scam sites is about dating scams. Especially agency scams but also individual people -Russian women that is. True, you have to use a good measure of caution when dealing with agencies and women. The reality is that on the issue of scams the blame is split 30/30/30 between agencies, women and men. A 50-something Western guy marries his dream girl -a 24 year old Russian beauty. A few years later we hear a sob story about how she had his child, brought her parents to the U.S. and proceeded to divorce him.
 
All I can say is…..what did you expect! Guys, you have to be realistic. Turn the situation around and imagine yourself 23, are you really going to have an interest in a woman twice your age? Maybe one out of a million people in this situation is going to be truly in love, even then it would take alot of effort to make it work. As you age this large difference becomes even larger. Her: age 35  You: age 62  ….get the picture? The moral of this story is follow the wise advice of keeping the age difference to around 10 years or less, you will have more in common this way.
 
So, about those scams? Visit Jim’s Lists and get yourself an education on how to spot them and how to avoid them. I will post once in a while about scams but for now I will leave the investigating to the experts in that area. Be careful about the many Jim’s List impostors out there as they are plenty.
 
Scams pretty much fit into these categories:
 

Agency scam:

Agency lists multiple profiles that are fake, no longer available or no longer active. You pay for full access. They (the agency) sends phony emails from those bad profiles thus charging you for communications that are not genuine. The more they email you with phony profiles, the more money they get from your wallet. Seems like the fewer real marriages they create, the more money they make.

Russian Girls scam:

The girls may be pro-daters (meaning they never intend to marry you, just have a good time on your dime), they may be professional letter writers and players who work for the agencies taking a cut of revenue they generate, or they may simply be looking for someone to roll ie. get to U.S., have a child, take half of your stuff and get child support. This last one I must say is very often the accusation but in my opinion is very, very seldom a premeditated event in reality. If a woman  to conduct this last scam she can do it almost as easily in Russia or Ukraine without having to uproot her whole life and move to another country. Generally, the girl scammers are encouraged and enabled by the bad agencies that are overwhelmingly patronized by gullible Western men.

Western men scam:

Yes! They scam too. Mainly by leading women on by simply playing their fantasy out online with letters, chats and sending gifts with never intending to commit to a cross-cultural marriage. It is like a game to these men. There are also the men who only want to go on some sort of a sex tour. Yes, an exciting jaunt half way across the globe to taste the fruit of Eastern lands. There are even tour operators that more than willingly accommodate such men’s desires.