Quick sanity check please

[valence]

I have had a correspondence going on with a young woman in Ussulriysk, Russia.  It is semi-professional in nature (about custom artwork), and definitely non-romantic.  She is a down-to-earth sort and has no reason in the world to lie.

She's explained to me that she is engaged to a Brit and has been for almost two years, although they have never met.  She is convinced he is a millionaire with a vast estate in England and the owner of several factories.

They got engaged over the internet.

She relates that the first time he came over to marry her, he was turned back and refused entry in Moscow because in his distant youth he had stolen a laptop, and the Russian immigration agents saw it in the computer.

She explains that after about 6 months, that problem was fixed and he set out again to visit her in Ussulriysk and get married.  This time the airplane became damaged in flight and had to turn around and return to Heathrow.  By the time the plane returned to Heathrow, his business committments were so demanding that he could not return immediately on another flight.

So after about another 4 months he set out again yesterday.  And he has just today sent her an email stating that he landed in Moscow and went to a club.  And at the club he met a beautiful girl who he will now marry. 

She is, needless to say, devastated.  Heartbroken and distraught.  Her parents were expecting to meet him and the whole blah blah blah.

Since she's been explaining this to me over the course of about 2 or 3 months, I think she's absolutely telling it straight.

So assuming that she's telling the truth, then I suspect that her fiance is some sort of scammer who has designed an internet persona to romance a girl for a long time and then dump her in the most ignoble way possible. This would also suggest that the various trips to Russia were total fabrications.   He never tried to get money or to seduce her physically, so what's his angle?

Or alternatively, assuming that he's a millionaire living on a vast estate in England, then what is he doing in an internet relationship with a simple woman in a podunk village 11 time zones away?  Why didn't he just arrange for her to rendez-vous in Moscow?  Or even get her a visitors' visa to the UK?

The whole thing doesn't make any sense.  In fact the more I think about it, the more bizarre it becomes.  I am curious to find out if anyone has heard of a similar episode and/or what sort of dynamics are operating here.

[GoodOlBoy]

Millionaire....2 years and no meeting....internet engagement....?? 

No offense guy, but this FSUW doesn't sound like the sharpest knife in the drawer. 

In 2 years time, why didn't she meet this clown in Turkey or Thailand (neutral sites)?


GOB

[Ade]

So assuming that she's telling the truth, then I suspect that her fiance is some sort of scammer who has designed an internet persona to romance a girl for a long time and then dump her in the most ignoble way possible. This would also suggest that the various trips to Russia were total fabrications.   He never tried to get money or to seduce her physically, so what's his angle?

Yes, he's a keyboard Romeo. Lots of arseholes like this in the world that get some sick kick out of wanking over some internet fantasy with a young Russian girl. I'd bet my next salary that he is not a millionaire and that he never attempted or ever thought of attempting to visit her. What a dick. Makes me sick.

[Shadow]

First of all engaged over the internet seems already hard.
Next his stories do not add up at all. Any millionaire with a vast estate could afford more than three trips in two years, regardless of how busy he is.

Now for the questions to her :
Has she had communications by wecam to him (possibly erotic ones)?
Has she recently told him about converations with you ?

If she wants to find out if others had similar experiences she could check on Antidate.

[Faux Pas]

Dude is the epitome of "keyboard romeo". No doubt some 40 year old still living in his parents basement seeking cyber sex chat. Apparently, he is pretty good at if if this lady was going to marry and never met him. She would seem to me the one with the bigger problems.

[ScottinCrimea]

If he had claimed to be a middle income manager of some sort rather than a millionaire would she still have gotten engaged to him or hung on for two years?

 :usdeyes:

[valence]

Man oh man.  I knew there was something fishy about it.

"Keyboard Romeo" hits the nail on the head.  Many thanks for clueing me in to this term.

And a big tip of the hat for Antidate!  She's reading it as this moment.  The site is even in Russian. 

Thanks gents!

[Shadow]

Man oh man.  I knew there was something fishy about it.

"Keyboard Romeo" hits the nail on the head.  Many thanks for clueing me in to this term.

And a big tip of the hat for Antidate!  She's reading it as this moment.  The site is even in Russian. 

Thanks gents!

For those who do not know them, the site is a Russian alternative for the scammer/blacklists.

[Daveman]

Man what another weird story from the East/West connector.  There are Jerry Springer candidates in every country, eh?

[BillyB]

 so what's his angle?

The guy was playing a lot of women on the internet obviously getting a few them to make a commitment. If he did fly to Moscow and married a girl from there, he's not a keyboard romeo, but he probably was flying to various women over time and she was not at the top of his list.

Valence, be careful with this lady. She may not be emotionally ready to meet another man and one has to question why she even would get engaged to a man she never met. My guess is $$$$ is the answer to that question.

[Shadow]

The guy was playing a lot of women on the internet obviously getting a few them to make a commitment. If he did fly to Moscow and married a girl from there, he's not a keyboard romeo, but he probably was flying to various women over time and she was not at the top of his list.

You can write a mail that you are in Moscow and marrying another girl from your home. I doubt she would check the IP on the messages to verify.

[valence]

Debrief. 

Thanks to the leads given on this thread, we had a lengthy exchange of emails wherein it became apparent that the whole keyboard romeo scenario was operating in spades.

The photos he sent to her looked to me like a collection of shots of a single minor league football player in the UK that he had just lifted from various sites and used for this purpose.

And she further disclosed that when he called her on the phone and they 'blew kisses to each other' that he became very excited and breathless (Jesus!!!), which would indicate to me - and now to her - that he had been importing the poor girl into his  masturbation fantasies. 

I have no romantic interest in the girl, so there's no chance me getting caught up in some sort of 'wheels-within-wheels' scam.  I think on face value it was just a keyboard romeo anyway. 

Most importantly, she's got the message, and this can be best encapsulated by a quote lifted directly from one of her emails...

"...OMG! What the silly girl I am!!!  I MUST FORGOT THAT IDIOT on WHICH i spent 19 month!!!..."

To the other comments in this very helpful thread, I would probably agree that she is not a bastion of cosmopolitan and urbane splendor.  But this does not bestow the right for someone to implant her into their masturbation fantasies.  Anyway, she has now fixed her mind on marrying a Russian boy who lives in the next village.  I have explained to her that this means she will probably be single again by the time she's 30, but I suppose that's a story for a different time.

Now you've been debriefed.  Thanks again!

[ECOCKS]

Quick sanity check ----> Insane

[Gator]

Valence, 

What is your story?  I quickly reviewed your RWD posts and all touch on scams.

How did you and this Ussulriysk RW first start corresponding?

Fishy, very fishy!

Yes, there are keyboard romeos.  However, engagement without ever having met?  Do keyboard romeos push it this far?

And what RW would promise to marry a man she never met?  Either she is setting up a bizarre scam, or she is some combination of stupidity-insanity.

[valence]

My story.

Despite my posting history, fortunately my story is not a litany of scams.  I am quite ok on all the basics and would not bore everyone with the various peaks and valleys of each encounter.  But rather my posting history here is a list of things brought to this forum for consultation. 

For my own self, I use http://www.beauty-for-you.w-ru.com/ because the administrators permit the uncensored exchange of information in their messaging service, and I cannot possibly imagine a scammer lasting very long at that site. 

Based on encounters at that site I have a small number of RW in daily exchanges of private messages which could lead to escalation.  All of them are absolutely 100% genuine.  I more or less have a specific RW in mind already, and we have met in person; but I have been procrastinating for reasons I am not quite sure of and much less able to expose to the forum.

I also encountered the girl that started this thread on the same site.  It was just a stupid encounter in the chat room which I initiated because she was the only person online at that time (11PM London time).  There was no commonality whatever because she is 30 years my junior, she is a 9 in appearance and I am just barely a 3 (actually about a 2.5), she reports that she expects to have sex 3 times a day and I am lucky to muster that much in a week!  She has virtually no English, and a very bucholic, conservative view of the world.  She explained that she and her fiance used the chatroom at the site to stay in touch, and that he had been delinquint in the appointment they made for that evening.

Additionally, she is an associate professor at the local university in an area of some interest to me and she made some very insightful observations about some artwork I had commissioned.  Also when one of the older women I was in regular contact with used a word or expression I could not understand, I sent it to her for interpretation.  It was all very harmless and stupid stuff like that.

So for about a month or so, about every 3 or 4 days we would exchange a one line message of no valuable content, like "I saw the cinema last night", "how are you?", "how is your new gf in Samara?", "how are things?", and silly little one-liners like that.

Then one night she sent me a message that she was uneasy about her fiance, who was one of my countrymen.  I enquired further and started to get the whole story.  I was not suspicious about the guy because I am also not in a position to zip off to siberia at the drop of a hat.  And getting engaged on the internet is not all that weird to me because thousands of UK/US couples do it all the time, and the forum is not really in touch with what's happening in that arena.  While I would rapidly agree that the people who do that are not the brightest, to lay the whole thing on Russian women only is just not realistic.

And then everything came to a head two days ago when he jilted her.  And that's when I started to think the whole situation between her and her fiance did not flush.  So I brought it here for a quick sanity check.

Finally back to my story.  The lesson I learned with Anna (re my previous posts) is as follows: don't punch above your weight.  So I stick to my own age bracket within about 10 years.  And I don't go for beauty queens, but just the normal looking women who are about 5 out of 10.  And unlike a few on this site, I do not try to construe each and every RW into a scammer of some sort.  Aside from a few obvious blips like Anna, the vast majority are genuine.  PAINFULLY genuine in fact.

There ya go, Gator!

[tim 360]

I think it is a virtual engagement.  Like virtual food, virtual love and virtual sex.

[Daveman]

I think it is a virtual engagement.  Like virtual food, virtual love and virtual sex.

Virtually three times a day.. no less 

[tim 360]

...or virtual life.

[Gator]

Valence, Thank you for the explanation.  You sound very sensible.  This story does not.

She has virtually no English

You first mentioned that she and her English chap had become engaged without ever having met.  Now you reveal she does not speak English.  Just proves that nothing can stop true love!

And getting engaged on the internet is not all that weird to me because thousands of UK/US couples do it all the time, and the forum is not really in touch with what's happening in that arena.  

Too weird for me.

While I would rapidly agree that the people who do that are not the brightest, to lay the whole thing on Russian women only is just not realistic.

Yet she is a professor.

The lesson I learned with Anna (re my previous posts) is as follows: don't punch above your weight.  So I stick to my own age bracket within about 10 years.  And I don't go for beauty queens, but just the normal looking women who are about 5 out of 10.

Smart.  You will discover that a "5" has a valence of -4 with plenty of extra electrons to share and combine with you, while a "9" is at the other end.

[valence]

Thought provoking.

Insightful!

I wonder what it feels like to be so far over my head?  

[SANDRO43]

Smart.  You will discover that a "5" has a valence of -4 with plenty of extra electrons to share and combine with you

An entirely new (electron) spin on Carbon Dating .

[docetae]

An entirely new (electron) spin on Carbon Dating .

probably bipolar too

[valence]

I thought this thread was done, but there's an epilog

It's best conveyed by simply cutting and pasting directly from her email...

PS when i wrote that englishman about using in sexual purpose - he desapered...))
I did not confirm, but have doubtfully asked questions after which it has disappeared. I
have asked: "And you can not in Russia with Inna, and in Great Britain? Also there can
be all it was only in the virtual purposes, for example, for your satisfaction, and
after that dead silence. And even if there would be it not so any person would take offence, but at least
was indignant. And he has disappeared. i know exact was taking his pleasure! i respect you for all and help me too )))

I know the Obsessive–compulsive types that inhabit here who see a scam behind every tree and under the bed, but my bank account is intact and my emotional solvency is undisturbed.  So where's the scam? 

I think the keyboard Romeo is the scam!  Some of you guys could do with some prozac...

[Shadow]

As a conspiracy theory I would say you are working with a scammer to pick unsuspecting victims from this forum who will want to help out the poor girl by sending her some gifts.

Time for my medication. 

[RussianWind]

Valence, be careful with this lady. She may not be emotionally ready to meet another man

Just on the contrary she is ready as never to meet a REAL guy now

Keyboard Romeo, a nice nickname for them. No doubt he never left the UK. I would give them a Master degree in faking women out.