Like BC and Jet, I have not used the services of an agency either, so what I say is based solely on very limited personal experience, hearsay, and the opinions of others who have been used and abused.
AWeb has a terrible reputation for less than honest dealings. Their business model is the pattern for others who are in the "biz" only for the bucks. For example, at the prompting of Richard's posts when he was with BeHappyNow, I signed up to browse the BeHappy site in Tver. I was curious about how and what he was doing. My inbox was immediately covered up with e-mails from girls between the age of 20 - 25. The site clearly has been automated to spam any new e-mail contact with canned letters and photos of beautiful young girls. Naturally, to open any letter costs $5.00. I'm absolutely sure in my mind that none of the letters were written by anyone other than the BeHappy staff scammers.
What I see happening is a wave of paranoia building to the point where the honest and sincere girls are stymied and don't have a chance to find a decent husband. Decent guys with half a brain are not going to frequent sites like BeHappy and AWeb, rightly fearing the scam. The only men left in the chase are the Gomers, and not many girls are going to be willing to settle for that. Most women in the FSU already have a better lifestyle than a trailer house in the middle of No-Where, AK., and have little interest in attaching themselves to a sure loser.
Scammers and GC whores will be less picky about who they write to.