A New Twist on an Old Scam ......

[jone]

I was reading, this morning, of Nastia Zaichenko.  And it brought to mind an experience I had, and is now confirmed by a friend of mine in Kharkiv.  There is a new twist from the agencies that were promoting young women, previously, to A-Date or HRB or other such Amalgamators:

A young woman comes in to an agency and establishes a profile.  Rather than ship her off, immediatley, to a PPL or PPC site (I am told that the money these sites are no longer raking in the dough they used to be) a more modest profile is created and shipped off to the Subscription Sites.

The profile looks and acts exactly as a normal subscription site profile would act.  Contact with the woman.  Exchange some messages on the website.  Then graduate to electronic mail. 

Note that this is the key:  Electronic mail.  Not WhatsApp.  Not Skype.  Not Viber.  Why?  Because the person that is communicating is still the agency employee.  The target is similar to the activity done to our new member today, Simmons.  Bait to meet, without ever talking on Skype or Viber.  Or, possibly, have a single conversation or two on Skype to establish credentials if the woman whose profile is used is collaborating.

I did not believe this until I talked to one of my friends that experienced this new targeting:  I read his email from the 'gal'.  He had just written her explaining that he was uncomfortable carrying on a relationship that didn't include direct online communication.   The response that he received was right out of the scammers handbook.

1.  I no longer have a smart phone.  My son dropped it in the river.

2.  I am happy to come meet you, where ever you would choose.

3.  I will be happy to correspond via email.

4.  Email is much more detailed, anyway, and I don't wish to share myself on Skype.  I don't look good on Skype.

When my friend shared, again, that he was uncomfortable not seeing a woman he was communicating with, the correspondence immediately ceased. 

After reading the post regarding Nastya this morning, I could not help but think that such was the end game of such an email chain. 

[Yogomonoyanaka]

I want to know the way to go from the heart of the incident.

[Mappy]

This was basically what happened to me.  The correspondence is personal and, allowing for language difficulties etc., at least initially doesn't seem implausible.  Looking back I can see the flags that were there, with the conversation moving inexorably towards *her* visit despite very little effort on my part (my being somewhat suspicious from the outset).

The early giveaway was that - as with Geoffrey's more recent thread - the emails always came in once a day, typically sent late afternoon Russian time.  Even when I managed a quick one line reply sent within minutes of receiving her latest, I never got a same day response. 

The 'test' was my suggestion that I visit and we meet in Russia - which was met with no joy and then turned down flat.

I am guessing that someone comes into the 'office' daily and works through responding to all the correspondence each profile has received since the day before?

[msmob]

Depends on the lady, but most will happily go to Skype if email correspondence is going well.

I found that it was the lady who suggested it ...