Actual Scam Victims?

[aikorob]

N. was looking over my shoulder Saturday as I was cleaning out my junk email folder; and she noticed a message from a lovely lass from Russia who had noticed my (nonexistant) profile.

This evolved into a general discussion of scams; and she said that it was common knowledge on the RW forums about small scams---money for internet, etc.

BUT she (and her online friends) did not believe in the stories of several thousand dollar scams---money for plane tickets, visa processing, etc. She insists that those stories are just urban legends. Any suggestions on where she can see verified stories?

[BillyB]

BUT she (and her online friends) did not believe in the stories of several thousand dollar scams---money for plane tickets, visa processing, etc. She insists that those stories are just urban legends. Any suggestions on where she can see verified stories?

Some men have come to the forums and told they lost thousands and even tens of thousands of dollars to a scam. One guy on the Tyra Banks show got scammed for tens of thousands of dollars. Here's a scammer that collected about 1.5 million dollars in 3 years from victims. The story can be found on Google since it was all over the media and Putin got involved.

http://www.womenrussia.com/scammers_caught.htm

Lot's of men willing to buy love out there.

[aikorob]

Billy, she said that she had heard of 1 scammer that was in jail in Ukraine now--tens of thousands over several years; but that was the only one; and she was professional criminal.
She still thinks that all of the stories of individual women scamming thousands are all internet stories.

[Shadow]

It are more or less stories. Thousands of individuals are scammed, that is true. But it is IMHO not true that there are hundreds of scamming women around.  It is very easy to get a set of pictures, put a profile with them on any dating site or agency that does not work local only, and start. That is why the term 'Fat Yuri' was invented. Looking at the amount of money that might be involved, and that most scams seems to originate from one specific region at a time, it would not surprise me if 90% of the visa and ticket scams come from one group.

[troutrivers]

Here is a real example:

http://home.earthlink.net/~eldridgejim/ludmiladivachenkoakathedivaofgomelaltspellingliudmiladzivachenko/index.html