another suspicious website: elenasmodels.com

[parsley89]

Take a look at the passage taken from the main page of the website elenasmodels.com

We accept credit cards and use third party services for billing purposes so you don't have to worry what your banker or accountant may think about your purchases - the words "Elena's Models" will NOT appear on your credit card statement. [/font][/size]
[/i]
It is a curious fact that back in 2004 Elena Petrova tried to get a direct merchant account (DMA) for the website site elenasmodels.com

The fact that you have a DMA implies that ViSa, MasterCard and AMEX have found your service credible enough to have a trade id descriptor TID ( a proper name which will appear on the customer's credit card statement).

In the antiscam.net forum (site run by Elena Petrova) it had been announced that Elena was going to open a DMA. Recently, however, the thread has been removed from the forum. This, along with the fact that Elena is still carrying out the processing through the aggregated account, suggests that Elena's company has failed to get a DMA

In order to get a TID, it is necessary to provide in-depth information about the company and its owners. The fact is that only a company that does not have any chargeback problems can get a TID which makes it an essential quality criterion. And though Elena Petrova failed to get a DMA, she was quick-minded enough to take advantage of this situation.

 

[BC]

Parsley,

Don't see how this relates to scam..  Plenty of companies use CC clearing companies and another name appears on your bill.

Any personal experiences you can share with us?

[viking]

Parsley,

 

I found this site to be one of the most honest around. She takes great pride, or so it seems, to run things honestly and professionally. Have you had a bad experience here to bring this subject up?

[Bruno]

I found this site to be one of the most honest around.

Not me

She was a sponsor of my dead site... after several e-mail where they promise to pay me my commission, i am always waiting my money from december 2005 ( +/- 300$ )...

So, for me, they are scam... like my previous sponsor aprettywomen ( never pay but it was my fault : i have publish post who show bad practice of the agency )

[al-c]

I am a client of Elena's Models and have had absolutely no problem with them.  They always come through with the things they promise, and I would not hesitate to recomment EM to anybody.

 

[Turboguy]

I would also recommend them highly

[Rvrwind]

Although Elena & her agency are well known & well regarded, I would caution you to be aware that there are many scammers in her program. I know as during my search I met 3 of them. One cheeky little muffin I met for coffee one day didn't even wait till I finished my Exspresso & was asking me for money. Taught her a lesson quickly however & got up & walked away, leaving her to pay for the coffee!!:P

In any agency that has large amounts of ladies that they never meet & interview one must be aware that scammers will slip in. You cannot fault the agency for this for there model of buisness is in such a way that it is bound to happen, even in mine, but we do do our best.

Good luck with your search & keep your eyes wide open.

RVR-Canadian Cowboy/Agency Owner

[Louie]

I would not recommend her agency, alot of the girls did not have active email accounts, and its geared towards there platinum members, if you don't have a platinum membership, your at the bottom of there search engines, also you will not hear from very many woman, I think i got only 3 letters in one year, another "show me the money" agency! IMHO

[Jack]

Glad Turbo and al-c had good results. But I have to agree with several others here and based on my perspective from the results I have seen from a lot of clients, your just as well off with using Anastasiascamweb.

[Turboguy]

I would not recommend her agency, alot of the girls did not have active email accounts, and its geared towards there platinum members, if you don't have a platinum membership, your at the bottom of there search engines, also you will not hear from very many woman, I think i got only 3 letters in one year, another "show me the money" agency! IMHO

I am a platinum member so that may make a difference.   They changed their set up from what it was when I first joined.   The first time I joined I got 80 to 100 letters a day for the first week or two and then it slowed up to about 20 a week.   With my newest membership it is much slower.  I get maybe 3-5 letters a week but about 95% are gals I am not interested in.  (too old, only 10 years younger than me or so)

From my standpoint, I am more interested in the ladies I can contact.  I get a good rate of response to my letters, a good selection of attractive women to choose from and there is no cost other than my membership.   As far as the comment about the e-mail addresses not working I have that problem with perhaps 3% and it is almost always with gals who use  MAIL.RU for their host,  Mail.ru must really suck.   Also when it does happen Elena's puts a warning on the gals page so you don't waste your time.   I have one friend who was spending $ 800.00 a month corresponding on global ladies, my cost is a couple of hundred for 6 months.  I can write all the e-mails I want at no cost.   To me it is a great deal.   I would have a lot of hesitation with a $$$$ per letter communication program. 

I think we all have different ideas and different strenghs.   Some guys are better off with more hand holding, some are better of with a pay per letter deal, some are better off with tours and socials and others can just go and walk the streets and hit a few discos.  One way or the other,  My experience would in no way indicate that Elenas site is a rip off.

[Albert]

These sort of contradictory comments show up in a lot of our discussions.  One guy will tell his bad experience with something or somebody.  Then this caution is overcome when somebody else comes on to say they never had any problem at all.

It seems that many do not understand that not getting burned is not the same as claiming that there is no flame.

A guy jumps out of a 5 story building and just happens to land in a big truck bed filled with rubber mattresses.  When he hears good advice being told others that is it not a good idea to jump out of 5 story buildings, he pipes up and says, 'that's not true, I did it and suffered no consequences.'

A dishonest business is a dishonest business.  If it is dishonest in some way, then those who have used it in the past and those who use it in the future are just plain lucky if they don't get burned.

Only when people stick together and refuse to do business with anyone who screws over ANYBODY,  will the business have any incentive to clean up their act.

It is unfortunate that many cannot separate good common sense logical methods and procedures from lucky happenings.  No matter how much logic some try to provide, there is always someone who chimes in with their opposite story that is based entirely on luck even though they refuse to admit it.

[catzenmouse]

So if an agency does everything right and some idiot comes and uses  their services does everything wrong and is a total @hole then it is  the agency who is at fault. Nice logic there.

Ken

[Turboguy]

I have to agree with Ken on this one.  No matter how well you run your business you are going to have a few dissatisfied customers.   I run a business of my own and quite honestly we do more than 99 out of 100 companies do to treat our customers well and to do anything possible to solve their problems.   You would have to hunt hard to find unhappy customers of ours but there are a few.  If those few meant we did not run a good business we and every other business would be in trouble. 

Elena's has a lot of customers and a lot of the people here use them with enough satisfaction they come back.   For the few hundred dollars I spend with them I sure get my moneys worth.   I think there are a lot of other good businesses as well.  I think Jack runs one, I think Rvrwind does, I think Kevin does and lots more.  Yes there are a lot of bad business in that industry.  I don't consider Elena's to be one of those.      Most of the people I have talked to feel the same way.

[Bruno]

So if an agency does everything right and some idiot comes and uses their services does everything wrong and is a total @hole then it is the agency who is at fault. Nice logic there.

Ken

I think that all is a problem of size... Elenasmodels is a big agency... let say that maybe 1 woman on 20 is a scammer...

If a site have 100 women, they have 5 scammer... but if a other site have 1000 women, they have 50 scammer...

Of course, the site with 50 scammer and more report will seem more bad but the proportion is the same...

I have never hear clain about elenasmodels for the customer i have send her... the only clain i have is about my business relation with them... they don't pay the associate... this is really something different...

You will find scammer in every place... more big is the place, more scammer... same with personal interview, you cannot be sure at 100% since nobody is mind reader... some women can lie very good ( and some men too )

[Louie]

I just want to clear the air about my comments, I said I would not RECCOMEND the agency, I didn't say they ripped me off or that they scammed me, I had a lower tiered membership, and got practically no responses, 3 in a whole year, I cant fathom 80 to 100 letters in a day, I think the agency is geared toward the men who spend a lot of money, hence my comment a "show me the money " agency. that's why I wouldn't recommend it, That's just my opinion!

[dragonfly]

Elanasmodels agency is in the list of BAD agencies of Russian Antidate.

Yes, they are weel-known...

 

[Turboguy]

I have also seen Elena's on scam sites listed as one of the recommended agencys as well.  I am not a big fan of Anti-date and would likly not take their thoughts too seriously.  I know a lot of the gals are big fans of Anti-date, to each their own.  I do realize that some of the positive comments on anti-scam sights are influenced by ownership and sponsorship.

Louie, your posts sound like you relied on the gals writing you rather than you writing them.  Truthfully, if I judged it only on the gals who wrote me, I would consider it a big bust too, except for my first Platinum membership when I was getting 80 to 100 letters a day for a few weeks.   I have had perhaps 30 women write me from my listing at Elenas.  Out of the 30 about 28 of them are gals I would not ask out here in America even if I was desperate. 

Each week I get a list of my "matches" which may include 18 year old gals looking for guys under 25 so it is not much of a match.  I think it is really their new gals for the week.   From this weeks matches which came on Tuesday, out of the 200 or so they sent, I found 3 I wanted to write and have heard back from 2 of them.   Right now I am using them and free personals and I get a much higher rate of response from their gals than I do from free personals and the quality is a little better.   

[Louie]

Turboguy I didn't so much rely on them to write to me, I was just stating a fact of what happened to me, The ones that wrote to me sound like the same that wrote to you!!I had the, write a couple of letters and not hear back syndrome at Elena's and felt like I was wasting my time. I was using A Slavic Bridge and was having the same luck, but the support that SB gave was fantastic, particularly A staff member named Lina, she went so out of her way to help me. I had gotten so frustrated, that i was giving up and trowing in the towel, i had my profile removed from Slavic Bridge, when I get an email from Lina about 2 weeks later, from one of the girls that I was writing to, the girl asking her to send this letter to me asking why I just left all of a sudden, I didn't think she was that interested, but i wrote her back and explained, she then wrote to me again and gave me her phone number(all this email forwarding Lina is doing on her own time,  from the agency, just to help a former client out)So I called this gal, and we hit it off in the first 5 minutes of talking, and we have been talking every Saturday ever since, and I have been growing fonder of her with every call, and it looks like I might go and see her, her English is very good and she has a great sense of humor, and actually get most of my jokes!!! So only time will tell.

[Turboguy]

Louie,  It is easy to get discouraged in this endever and important not to.  I hate to take this thead off course, but I will.  I have had times I got discouraged too.  I actually threw in the towel on FSU women for a year a while back.   I just seemed to meet nothing but gals who where out for what was in my left rear pocket and just decided it was not worth it.  

Then I had a gal contact me who I had written a couple of years earlier and tried to meet.  She had married a guy from San Francisco and was getting divorced.  I saw her a few times.  She ended up going back with her husband which was good.  She was still head over heals in love with him when I saw her.  The whole conversation was Steve this and Steve that.  But in meeting her I saw that there really were woman like I hoped to find and I started again.   I am glad I did even though I am still looking.  A lot of my problems are my own fault. 

It really is a numbers game.  You write enough and meet enough you will meet the right one sooner or later.   I think a lot of us hit the problem that we want to write enough letters to know the gal is really interested.  The gals want to meet without a lot of letters.  About the time we start to feel she is interested, she quits writing.  Until I am sure I have the right one, I keep trying to broaden the number of gals I write.  Right now I am writing about 30 gals but this months 30 might be different from last months.   I plan to keep going and meeting gals until lightning strikes or I find one I want to settle down with.  I am heading back fairly soon and just added one to my meet list and dropped one today.   

[Todd]

I don't have much experience with other agencies, so I can't say much about how it compares.  However, I e-mailed 5 girls at Elena's models prior to getting about 400 hundred responses.  One of those 5 girls is now my wife; she did it because her friend urged her to try it.  She too is married to an American, and they met via elena's models.

I would recommend this site to anyone here...provided it is under the same ownership.  Also, I think the segmentation makes sense.  Platinum members should be put at the top of the list as they are paying more money and are likely to be more serious in their search.  One thing that we might lose sight of is that yes 5% of the women are likely scammers...that still means that 95% aren't.  In comparison, how many men who begin a search actually travel to the FSU.  Clearly, the risk isn't all one sided.

[Rvrwind]

Now this is an incorrect statement-to a point:

Clearly, the risk isn't all one sided.

In the beginning, yes, it is all one sided. It is the man who pays for everything, the woman puts out nothing. Other than guys who write & don't show, what has she got to lose, nothing. The man until they become a couple & even then in a lot of cases is the one footin' the bill, not the woman. If the women were paying their own frieght then I could agree, but as it stands now, sorry but you are incorrect.

What risk is there for the woman until she immigrates, none. She gets letters from a few losers, so what, it costs her nothing. A little emotional trauma perhaps if she is thin skinned, which is doubtful knowing Russian women as I do. But other than that she risks nothing. Her risk starts after a relationship developes & only then & she moves to his country where now she is at his mercy, but up until then her risk is 0.

RVR-Canadian Cowboy/Agency Owner

[dragonfly]

What risk is there for the woman until she immigrates, none. She gets letters from a few losers, so what, it costs her nothing. A little emotional trauma perhaps if she is thin skinned, which is doubtful knowing Russian women as I do. But other than that she risks nothing. Her risk starts after a relationship developes & only then & she moves to his country where now she is at his mercy, but up until then her risk is 0.

RVR-Canadian Cowboy/Agency Owner

 

Sometimes it can be not so little emotional trauma. For example, I had BIG trauma because I had relationship with German man who forgot to tell me about the fact he is MARRIED. He visited me a lot of times, he knows my family, my friends from Kiev and town where I live now, my colleagues... I had deep depression after I knew he played games with me...with my life. I loved him very much. But it become a thing of the past. Generally, I think you are correct about woman's risk starts AFTER she moves to new country. Yes, you are right.

[ConnerVT]

If you read what Rvrwind wrote, it fits exactly what you said:

Her risk starts after a relationship developes & only then & she moves to his country where now she is at his mercy, but up until then her risk is 0.

Your trauma began after you met and developed a relationship with this person.  At that point, HOW you met is of little consequence.  He could of been the same loser if he was Russian, and you met him at the supermarket or at church...

[dragonfly]

Yes, you are correct. But if I meet any man at the nearest supermarket (it means he lives in my town), I will be able to CHECK who is he. And to knew about his martial status too. If I meet a man on internet, all information I have about him is HIS OWN words. So there are exist degree of rick to be scammed. For most part of foreign men scammers are women who are interested in the money but not in a relationship. For women scammers are men who create illusion of real good relationship but play games only. I have the only life! So I suffer losses too. My losses are my time, nerves and money too. In my opinion, both men and women have a rick using internet to look for a partner. And women have high-rick situation because they know almost nothing about partner's real behaviour and personality before moving to his country. And don't forget about problem of adoption in a new country. Have you ever heared about so-called CULTURE SHOCK?  

[Louie]

Todd, that tiered system is why I wouldn't recommend that agency, The owners know the lower tier member is not going to get the response rate, I don't understand why they even offer one,  to me thats what makes it somewhat of a rip off, unfortunately when you buy one it is for a hole year, and your only alternative is to spend more money! Dragonfly sorry to hear about your ordeal, I just hate a liar or a thief, but how well do you really know someone? it either takes a very long time or a tremendous amount of trust, on both sides. Dragonfly are you in a relationship now?