Am I corresponding with Pro Dater or am I just paranoid?

[tim 360]

Tim, This translation scam has been running in Odessa and other cities for a very long time but under different "agency" names.  Even the "agency manager" is just a front for the guys who really own it.  You only lost $125 and you learned alot.  Just put it behind you and make it a learning experience.  Forget about this girl and the agency and use other methods to meet girls.  This site is designed to suck in the very inexperienced and I'm sure they do. 

[adriaanallers]

Hi to all, found your post in connection with Etoiles. I've been dealing with them since the 18th of August 2009 and actually went to meet my lovely to be wife in Odessa. I can assure you that they are certainly not scammers.

Believe me that I was also very skeptical about the whole idea, but found that they do exactly as I requested. And yes, my girl is busy learning English - as she was not able to speak to me without the means of translation.

You will also find that translating between Russian and English by the means of a translation application is just totally useless; go google it. Lastly you will find that the communication between you and your partner might be interpreted as rude some times. But again, this is just one of the difficulties between these two languages.

I wish you best of luck!
A

[facetrock]

  So Adrian you made one trip and became engaged to a girl that doesnt speak English?  Good luck if that is true.

[2tallbill]

Hello Everyone!
This is my first post. I'm glad that I found this site. The topic on Handycam's experience with pro-dating in Odessa was especially interesting and I hope never to come across something like that!

First, to tell a little about me, I'm a 3rd generation Ukrainian/American. Both my parents were born in U.S however and my mother has Polish extractions so basically I know only a little Ukrainian language. I am 41 years old and divorced with no children.
To get to the point:
I belonged to a dating agency called cityofbrides.com (Yes, I know-big time scammer site)
From that site, I received a nice introduction from a 25 year old woman from Odessa named Tanechka and I decided to write to her. Immediately I began to get letters from her but thru a translation service in Odessa called etoiles.com. Yes, I know that Odessa is a hotbed of scammer activity. Tanechka also seems to have a profile at Elena's agency. After I began to correspond with her a couple weeks, her profile on cityofbrides was taken off.

We have been corresponding for more than a month and although thru translation, Tenechka seems to be really nice and I would like to meet her. She is pretty,seems to have good values,and answers my letters with complete thoroughness while asking questions herself. I have spoken to her by phone also(in limited Ukrainian and English) and recently upon request she had given me her local address in Odessa.( I would like to send her a New Years card)

 Apparently,on weekends, she often goes home to her parents village in Vidpasoe.
The problem I seem to have and I wonder if it is related to something I've heard about lately called the duo pro dating scam. Whereas the interpreter works with client as two scammers.
Perhaps because of what I have read about scamming, I may be a little paranoid and this may amount to nothing but here are my reasons:

1) In letters, Tanechka says she has a graduate degree and works as a court clerk in Odessa. But she says that she has no knowledge of computers (doesn't know how to type on one) and relies on the dating(translation) agency to write and read letters. Since, I know some Ukrainian and can easily translate with a dictionary when needed, I had been trying to get her away from the agency since they charge her for translation. She has not asked me for money yet but I did on my own pay for her November translations ($100/month unlimited) at the time when I decided to send her flowers also.(thru their website)

2) Most of the time, she does not answer her cell phone when I call her on weekend nights(Odessa hours). She claimed this week that she gave her cell phone to her sister in the village to borrow for a couple weeks. Even before that, she would answer only on the third or fourth time. Of course we all miss calls however.

3) No photos for quite a while from her (2.5 weeks). We correspond about every other day. At first I was getting alot of photos from her and many of them were found on her profile for Elenas agency and bestdating.com. In other words, I am not sure if I ever received any current photos and now they have totally stopped coming. I asked her about this and she said that she did not have a camera and doesn't know how soon she will have access to one. She also stated that she is not photographed often. I didn't know it was so hard in Ukraine to get access to someone's camera if you don't own one. I have visited Ukraine before to see relatives in the village and it seemed to me, it was never a hard task to find someone who had a camera. I figured in 2009 Ukraine, most young people in Odessa would have one.

4) I sent Tanechka a letter Wednesday night(USA time) so that it would have arrived in her mailbox at 6:30AM Odessa time. I received a lengthy reply from her at 6:00PM USA time. Interesting that the translator translated my letter to Russian,gave to Tanechka and Tanechka wrote a lengthy reply the same day and gave to translator to reply back in English. How all this can be accomplished in less than 18 hours while Tanechka is working normal hours at her job is quite amazing to me. In other words, I got the feeling that the translator is herself writing the letters?

5) A letter I received a couple Mondays ago did not mention at all the phone conversation we had the previous Saturday. When I brought this up, she said that she had written the letter just before I called her.


Other than that. everything else seems up and up. She writes intelligently,in depth and I wouldn't have any doubts about her except for those 5 points I mentioned taken together. What I am trying to figure out is whether she has sincere intentions and not a pro dater. For example, she always writes 'how she feels so close to my soul' and she always thinks about me and that she is interested in a serious relationship. No words of love yet for which I am glad. We have already began discussing plans to meet sometime next Spring. After asking her about it, she is not against us living together in an apartment in Odessa (as long as it is nice enough-$80-$100/day). She states that she does not want me to live in her apartment because she shares with a girlfriend and it would be 'uncomfortable' for us.

 Because of what has recently transpired with the points mentioned above, I am at the stage now whether I am not sure to continue paying translation services for her (and wasting my time) although she has never asked me for money. I was just doing it to be a gentleman and because she does seem like a very nice woman.

About the age difference--I realize that I am 16 years older than her. Originally I was looking for 30 and over until her introductory email came.I'm a fairly decent looking person with average weight and height ,although with much less hair than I used to have (but not totally bald yet).
Has anyone had any experience with the translation company she uses---etoiles.com.ua? They have a website and it is written so as to be as legit as possible but of course anyone can post anything.

Thanks for your time!

Dump her, she is a liar

[Grumpy]

Has anyone else noticed the similarity between the words predator and pro-dater? 

[krimster2]

the battle hym of the homonym

predators, combined with western dating drop-outs,  who have a COMPLETE lack of experience, wisdom, or judgment, will end up with pay-per-letter with an imaginary girlfriend, like BeeFarmer did

[Grumpy]

http://cdn.prod.dailykos.com/images/1332118/large/Melania-with-shovel.jpg?1723211350