If I Dump Anastasia Web ...

[JohnMI]

Not sure if this message belongs here or in the scam section, but I'll start here. Well, I have spent many hours reading about Anastasia Web here and comparing some things I have read with my own experiences there. I had to admit it, but I've easily spent into the 5 digits on that place over the past two years corresponding with as many ladies as possible and then whittling my lists until I decided to meet one. The results have been lousy so far, and after reading some of the stories here I am beginning to question the authenticity of every lady I have written to! It seems that the rating page for introduction services is not well visited because no site has more than 3 comments, but from other things I have read it seems that Elena's Models is a reputable place. A do have a few questions that I hope someone might be willing to answer for me, though.

First, I am sure not all the girls on Anastasia are dishonest or in the dark concerning what the agencies do with their profiles and photos so, in the collective experience of this group, when a lady writes letters that contain very little generic fluff, specific answers to specific questions and they also ask questions of the guy they are writing to, is that a decent sign that she might be legit - even as far as Anastasia women are concerned?

Second, are the sincere women who use those sites generally aware that many other ladies who also use the sites are dishonest or have an agendy?

Third, if the answer to the second question is 'yes', would it be considered offensive to the sincere girl that you probe a bit deeper to try to determine her level of sincerity, and what are some ways I might do that without being culturally offensive?

Fourth, would it be out of line to ask the three Anastasia ladies I am very interested in to visit another agency that I trust more? Assuming, of course, that those who translate my letter would include that message in the final product to the lady.

Fifth, are telephone calls to the ladies always a reliable indicator that they are real, or is it conceivable that agency employees could field the calls too?

Sixth, is a more lengthy correspondence a better indicator of sincerity, in your experience? For instance, will an agency bother to continue writing personalized and lengthy letters beyond 10, 15, 20 or would an agency shill give it up after a time as not being worth the effort? Are translation fees alone enough to motivate a dishonest agency to continue a correspondence if no flowers, calls or tours appear to be in the offing?

I know this is a lot to digest, and thanks in advance for any suggestions you all might have. It just seems that I have spent too much time with Anastasia and I feel like I am just spinning my wheels and making no progress. I don't mind the money spent as much as I do the time wasted. On the other hand, I presently have lengthy correspondences with three girls there who seem sincere so I don't want to just close my account at AW and leave them hanging if there is a way to direct them to another site that is more reputible (withouth offending them, obviously). None of the three ladies in question speak English, and I don't know whether they have access to email, if that helps with the advice you are thinking of providing to me.

Thanks in advance!

John

[Serebro]

John, I am surprised that you refuse to forget Anastasia after  your rich experience...

[wxman]

John,

I have no experience with AW. However, if I experienced what you did with the flat, they would never get another dime out of me.

[BillyB]

First, I am sure not all the girls on Anastasia are dishonest or in the dark concerning what the agencies do with their profiles and photos so, in the collective experience of this group, when a lady writes letters that contain very little generic fluff, specific answers to specific questions and they also ask questions of the guy they are writing to, is that a decent sign that she might be legit - even as far as Anastasia women are concerned?

It's really hard to tell if a lady is legit unless you are sure the actual woman is writing the letters to you without agency interference. Tricky! Agency personel are trained to write letters and answer specific questions and ask you questions.

Second, are the sincere women who use those sites generally aware that many other ladies who also use the sites are dishonest or have an agendy?

Yes, many are aware that other women have less than sincere intentions and others do have sincere intentions.

Third, if the answer to the second question is 'yes', would it be considered offensive to the sincere girl that you probe a bit deeper to try to determine her level of sincerity, and what are some ways I might do that without being culturally offensive?

It would be difficult to probe deeper if you are not sure you are communicating with the actual woman or agency personel. If you are caught using a private detective to verify her existance, you may get dumped. If you use the flowers and photo to verify her existance, it still doesn't mean she's writing you and knows who you are.

Fourth, would it be out of line to ask the three Anastasia ladies I am very interested in to visit another agency that I trust more? Assuming, of course, that those who translate my letter would include that message in the final product to the lady.

First, I doubt the agency translator will allow you to ask that question but go ahead and ask, the woman shouldn't care what agency you prefer to use, she should be interested in meeting you if that is her goal.

Fifth, are telephone calls to the ladies always a reliable indicator that they are real, or is it conceivable that agency employees could field the calls too?

Yes, A poster here said his wife applied for a job at an AWeb affiliate. They gave her a bunch of phones with girls names on the back and she was to pretend she was that specific girl when the phone in the specific girls name rang. The guy's wife did not accept the job.

Sixth, is a more lengthy correspondence a better indicator of sincerity, in your experience? For instance, will an agency bother to continue writing personalized and lengthy letters beyond 10, 15, 20 or would an agency shill give it up after a time as not being worth the effort? Are translation fees alone enough to motivate a dishonest agency to continue a correspondence if no flowers, calls or tours appear to be in the offing?

I found younger women, ones with better English skills and access to internet wrote me more often than older women and ones with less English skills and less access to internet. For each case I tried to judge the women's interest in me differently pertaining to her situation. The bottom line was she had to be sincerely interested in me before I would commit to visiting her.

An agency will write you back for years if you want and as long as you're paying for it. Yeah they want you to buy a tour but they are still making money per each letter. They also incorperate the bait and switch tactics. You're lured to the FSU by one of their hot women and the first date doesn't work out and they then encourage you to date others in the agency for around $50 a pop.

Spending over $10,000 at one agency is a hard pill to swallow not to mention wasting two years of your life for a game you never knew you were playing in. You should be pissed. Get results soon from the remaining ladies you're communicating with or do business elsewhere.

[JohnMI]

John,

I have no experience with AW. However, if I experienced what you did with the flat, they would never get another dime out of me.

To be fair, I didn't rent the apartment through Anastasia so they are not responsible for that fiasco.

[wxman]

John,

Thanks for the clarification. I retract my last statement.

[Shadow]

JohnMI, if you are in a business and you find out that one of your business partners has been swindling in many cases, and probably has been swindling you as well, what do you do ?
1. Drop them and find one that is more reliable
2. Have pity on a couple of honest employees that work there and continue to do business.

An organization as big as AW can not continue in business without honest and sincere women being part of it. And many of their sub-agencies will probably be honest as well. But the thing is that the business model they run gives the opportunity for less than honest people to make money with only a small chance of getting caught.

Finding a woman in the FSU is not easy. Why make it more complicated by adding the need to check out the resource you are using ?

[I/O]

John: I know nothing about Aweb, other than what I've read and not one piece of that has been good.

What you have now is three names on a page, you don't know if they exist, you can't communicate directly with them and even if you could, you can't because they don't speak English.

Step back a moment and be realistic, even if one of them was real, you are light years away from making any real progess by staying this course. I suggest you trash the whole program to date and the cash that went with it. You are simply throwing good money after bad.

Elenas is not perfect, but I'd suggest you go there and write up a few ladies, then gauge the difference from what you've been working with. I suspect it will be substantial.

I/O 

[MaxxumUSA]

Elenas is not perfect, but I'd suggest you go there and write up a few ladies, then gauge the difference from what you've been working with. I suspect it will be substantial.

I/O 

I second this suggestion.

I found my wife on Elena's models.  Only took me a few days to find her - then got her direct contact information after two or three emails.

Many men on the forums found their women on Elena's Models.  Elena's platinum membership is only about $600 for the first six months and I think less after that.  I only needed one membership.

- Maxxum

[alantodd]

There are decent girls on A-web.  Just go visit and meet several women.  No need to send letters.  Face to Face is what most women want anyways.  Not letters.

[Gator]

JohnMi,

None of the three ladies in question speak English

That says it all.  Forget about your other questions.  Let us assume the three are sincere.  Unless you speak Russian, how will you communicate if you ever meet?  There are threads on needing to speaking English.

I expect that when you do go to EM and start writing directly to a few RW who know at least fair English, you will quickly forget about these three AW babes.

The sincerity of EM will become apparent when you send "winks" to some lovelies and many do not "wink" back.  At EM you will probably end up  with women whose photos are somewhat less alluring than those from AW, but you will be talking directly at 4 cents per minute to sincere women.  You will be able to get endless information about them so that you can judge compatibility, values. character, etc.  You will not repeat the Odessa experience.

If the three AW babes still linger in your mind, have an American based RW translator research the Russian white pages for their telephone numbers.  You do have their full names?

   

[chernoble]

Johnny I recommend you check out my thread on A-web.  Theres a lot of detail and insight I learned from it.  (Granted I was fortunate I only spent $0 since I asked around here before paying for the chain letter trick.  I'm sorry to hear you got major scammed.  This really sucks)

http://www.russianwomendiscussion.com/index.php?topic=6424.0

[JohnMI]

Hey guys, thanks for the continued input on this thread. As I explained in my other thread, I have decided to drop AW and go with two other agencies to see how that works out. I used my final letter credits at AW to invite my three favorites there to a telephone call where I will tell them I am registering at other sites and I will invite them to meet me there, if they are interested. If they follow me to the other agencies, great, but if not then I will assume they are shill profiles that simply drained money from my account.

Gator: Yes, I know it is preferable to speak a common language, and I do think it is probably more important than I realize at the moment. I do have a friend who met his wife through AW at a time when she spoke no English at all so it can work. He used the AW tours, by the way, not the letter exchange. Concerning rejection at AW, it is surprising but I can say that I have been rejected there by maybe 30 percent of the women - mainly because my children live with me, but also because of the size of my town. I suppose that is proof there are some real and sincere women on that site. I'm sure it will be much easier to communicate directly with a lady who already speaks English, and if the three AW babes do follow me to another agency then maybe I will hire AnastasiaAsh to arrange a three-way call with them. I read her web site, and it seems she is willing to do that. I have names and addresses for two of the girls, and I asked the third girl for her address in my letter to her that was sent yesterday. Hopefully I am on the right track now!

Maxxum: I have chosen EM based on your recommendation as well as those of a few other guys here. I hope to have better luck this time.

Shadow: You are correct, of course. I knew I was getting frustrated with the lack of progress while using AW, but I suppose I needed to come here and have a few people kick me in the head before I confronted the issue directly. Of couse knowing alternatives to AW was critical, and I thank everyone on this site for that information.

BillyB: Thanks for the suggestions regarding the current women from AW who I don't really want to abandon just because I think the site is corrupt. These girls may be fake or insincere, but there is a chance they are neither so I cannot simply close my account and leave them wondering what happened. I have sent them messages suggesting that I will telephone them, and at that time I will get their phone numbers and tell them of my move to other agencies. If they are real and sincere then at least they will know that I left AW for another agency and they will have to opportunity to follow me there if they are really interested in me. I think that is the most polite way to handle the situation.

Thanks to the rest of you who responded and who I did not mention by name. I think I am on the right track now, and my luck might improve. It can't get any worse than it has been so far, anyway.

[Turboguy]

It sounds to me that you are taking the best possible route.   I think you will find a big difference in using Elena's which happens to be where I met my wife also.   If you go for the Platinum memberhship when it comes time to renew it the price drops greatly, as I recall to $ 199.00 for 6 months of unlimited correspondence.   Good Luck.

[Shadow]

As you already know how to book an apartment and flight outside the agency, perhaps you could also look on dating sites with a lower or no price tag on correspondence. The 'scammer rate' will be higher, but if you start out writing more than just one woman you will find the difference soon enough.

[Turboguy]

Along the lines that Shadow is suggesting the two sites I was using for the last year of my search was Elena's and FreePersonals.ru     I liked the price at Free Personals but you did waste more time writing more women with fewer responses and there were a few more scammers but still if you have free time the price is right.

[JohnMI]

Shadow and Turbo: Thanks for pointing out the free option. I just finished browsing freepersonals.ru for the past half hour, and a few interesting observations stand out. The 28 year old ladies on the agency sites who claim an interest in meeting someone my age seems to be the norm, while on the free site this seems to be quite rare. Also, I noticed the weight of the women on the free site seems to be higher, on average. Perhaps the agencies subtract 10 pounds from the women and add 15 years to their stated age preferences? I'll give that site a try also ... seems I'll be quite busy setting up profiles for the next few days.

Anyway, thanks to both of you for advising me of this option.

[Daveman]

Elenas is okay.. I've met some very nice ladies from there, but, I would say that the ratio between those who wish find a fat wallet vs ladies who wish to find love is probably in the neighborhood of at least 10-20 to 1.  Most are obvious and just spew the "I'm a high maintenance woman" from every orifice (which must be messy, so hopefully they'll break a nail trying to clean it up). With the more insidious, you need to invent creative ways to weed them out and make them lose interest because you might not be able to see it quickly.

Of course, if you want a high maintenance woman.. flash the wallet a few times and you'll catch one there for sure.

Dave

[BillyB]

John, take a look at bride.ru too. It's a dating site with no services but when you get ladies contact info, you get e-mail, postal address, and phone number and there's nobody in the middle of your communication with the ladies. $100 the first month and $50 a month there after. You can get up to 30 contact info a day or around 900 a month if you can handle it.

[JohnMI]

Dave: Thanks for the warning. This isn't going to be easy, is it? No way, I had the high maintenance woman, and that's a road I don't want to travel again. I'll weed 'em out, though ... I can spot that attitude a mile away.

BillyB: Thanks for another link. I'll check out that site tomorrow.

[Gator]

Daveman,

I've met some very nice ladies from there, but, I would say that the ratio between those who wish find a fat wallet vs ladies who wish to find love is probably in the neighborhood of at least 10-20 to 1

Not my experience with EM.  We must be chasing different women.  Either that or we have different definitions of "high maintenance."

[Daveman]

Daveman,
Not my experience with EM.  We must be chasing different women.  Either that or we have different definitions of "high maintenance."

A different definition could be very true and I'll be the first to admit that my definition is probably a bit on the strict side (and possibly unrealistic for anyone else).  There are actually few women I chase there.  Probably would have been better for me to say that the ratio of ladies there with whom I would have an interest in communication would be about 10 to 20 to 1 (actually more like 50  to 1, but that doesn't mean all 50 are high maintenance).

A lady who wishes to join my life, and my lifestyle exactly as I live it.  Bread and butter, with the occasional caviar.  I would say most are looking for the caviar which I would never promise nor would I regularly provide.

Of course my post above cannot be backed with any form of presentable proof other than viewing the site through Daveman colored glasses, so I'll concede that I pulled that 'guess' straight out of the air.

Really though, as with any site, there are pro-daters, status queens, high maintenance girls, and ladies who are just seeing what it's all about (who may or may not really be interested in a western man - also a high risk group IMO) along with the very sincere ladies looking for a partner - and anyone new to EM should go into the site with open eyes and mind to narrow down and find what he's really looking for.

Dave

[jb]

Dave,

If you ever do actually marry a Russian you will find having a little caviar occasionally is a good thing,,, and not as expensive as you might think.

http://www.911caviar.com/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=american_caviar

[catzenmouse]

Of course my post above cannot be backed with any form of presentable proof other than viewing the site through Daveman colored glasses, so I'll concede that I pulled that 'guess' straight out of the air.

For the uninformed, I present Daveman Colored Glasses ($28.95 online at Grits-R-Us.com). 

[acrzybear]

Catzenmouse

Are you sure you have the right colored sunglasses? These might be a better fit


I'd be more then happy to give him mine, I haven't used them in years