Is This a Scam or Not?

[rose]

My friend got the letter which is enclosed below. He is a Christian and would like to help this person, but he also heard a lot about the scammers.  What do you think about it?

Dear Friend,
My name is Valentin. I'm 25 years and I live with my mother in Russian small town. My mother cannot see and authorities pay her little indemnity what is not enough even for medicaments.

I work very hard to buy necessities and medicaments for my mother but my salary very small.

The situation hopeless in our region and we afraid what local boilerhouse can to stop heat our home. Winter come and temperature can become minus 30 degree in the near weeks. We are not know what to do and we very afraid.

Thanks to free internet in our library I finded different e-mail adresses and decide to appeal to you with pray in my heart for help.

If you have any old sleep-bag, warm blanket, warm clothes and shoe, portable heater, tin and dry food, vitamines, medicament against cold flu, gygien-products, I will be very happy if you can to send it to our address:
Valentin Michaylin,
Ulica Truda 24 - 8,
Kaluga. 248000,
Russia.

If it easier to you to help with some money please write to me back and I write to you how to send its safe. This way to help very good because in this case I will be able to buy portable stove and heat home all the winter.

I pray what you can help to us to survive this winter. I also pray what this hard situacion will become better very soon in our country.

God Bless You,
Valentin.

[Mishenka]

Rose, in a word,  YES.  I have also received such a letter more than a few times, only with a different name. I have recieved this type of letter from both men and women from different cities in FSU.This is a typical form letter often used by scammers in the last 10 years. My first one came in 98'

Misha

[Mishenka]

My case in pint is the same letter posted on a different forum here :

http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.russian/browse_thread/thread/28b3f871aeaaf4d9/d58d226d24cfc1c6

Forward message:
--------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Friend,

My name is Valentin. I'm 25 years and I live with my mother in Russian
small town. My mother cannot see and authorities pay her little
indemnity what is not enough even for medicaments.


I work very hard to buy necessities and medicaments for my mother but
my salary very small.


The situation hopeless in our region and we afraid what local
boilerhouse can to stop heat our home. Winter come and temperature can
become minus 30 degree in the near weeks. We are not know what to do
and we very afraid.


Thanks to free internet in our library I finded different e-mail
adresses and decide to appeal to you with pray in my heart for help.


If you have any old sleep-bag, warm blanket, warm clothes and shoe,
portable heater, tin and dry food, vitamines, medicament against cold
flu, gygien-products, I will be very happy if you can to send it to
our address:


Valentin Michaylin,
Ulica Truda 24 - 8,
Kaluga. 248000,
Russia.


If it easier to you to help with some money please write to me back
and I write to you how to send its safe. This way to help very good
because in this case I
will be able to buy portable stove and heat home all the winter.


I pray what you can help to us to survive this winter. I also pray
what this hard situacion will become better very soon in our country.


God Bless You,


Valentin.
------------------------------------------------

[Mir]

There are hundreds of such letters, emails, adverts, notices around the world from different countries.
Many are genuine, many are frauds no one knows and there is no way of finding out for sure.
If one wants to do charity and wants to be sure it will help deserving people then that is only possible to go there and give it away by hand.
If one can't do that then trusting establish charitable organizations might be the only way.
Still if someone wants to give to a person who sends such a letter and who is not known personally, then they can still do it, they will do it in good faith and although it may be a scam well they can still derive satisfaction and for a Christian hope of rewards in afterlife.

[Mishenka]

When I google this small town,, it is actually a very large city,, the internet is loaded with pages of this scammers posts.

here is the same letter posted Dec 2006

Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2006 19:16:45 +0300
From: Valentin <valentin.n.michailin@inbox.ru>
Subject: I wish you a Happy New Year 2007
To: Undisclosed recipients: ;

Dear Friends,

Please excuse me for this letter.
 
My name is Valentin. I'm student and I live with my mother in a small town
Kaluga, Russia. My mother cannot see and she receive pension very rare
which is not enought even for medications.
 
I work very hard every day to be able to buy necessities for my mother, but
my salary is very small, because my studies still not finished.
 
Due to deep crisis authorities stoped gas in our district and now we cannot
heat our home. I don't know what to do because the winter is coming and the
temperature becomes colder each day.
I am very afraid that the temperature inside our home will become very cold
and we will not be able to survive

[Christian]

While the Ten Commandments are a good advice indicator it should be remembered that some women get so many inquiries that in the initial stages of correspondence they in fact use "form" letters.  Once the initial stage is past, however, specific answers to specific inquiries is a sure fire indicator to the sincerity of the lady.

Christian

[Shadow]

Valentin and his mother have survived already 5 winters without aging.
This is a scam that maybe even older as the visa and tickets scam we see so often here.

And in many cases if the first letter is a form letter, chances are there women are using some invisible middle agency that they paid for but will not be disclosed to exist.

[BillyB]

My friend got the letter which is enclosed below. He is a Christian and would like to help this person, but he also heard a lot about the scammers.  What do you think about it?

Rose, after the floods in New Orleans and fires in San Diego, radio stations in my area of Seattle have warned citizens from giving out money to people who come to your door and claim they work for a charity helping the homeless and hungry Americans. There are many crooks that prey on people's emotions, especially in tragic situations.

Tell your Christian friend not to give money to the sender of that letter. If it is his goal to do God's work, then he needs to have a clear understanding what that work is. He does not know if the person writing that is truly suffering. But he does know there are orphans starving in the World and there are legitimate charities that feed children. If he feels a need to give, tell him to give to a charity and cause that he know's is legit and exists so that he may have peace of mind.

[atkin]

 Hi,
      You never send money on the internet thats the golden rule.
 Indeed an old scam. My Russian 'wife' got money this way she said it came from a charity run by Americans.
 Do I believe her NO .

  Atkin