My experience with Natashaclub.com (aka 1st-International.com)

[grinc]

Note: This is *not* a post declaring a scam - it is simply a post of my experience with this particular site for the information of someone else interested in possibly doing business with them.

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I did a search to see what had been said about one of the main sites I have used (Natashaclub.com aka 1st-international.com) - there had been a few nasty things said about it on the internet, but they all seemed to come from the same guy.

When I did a search on THIS forum, I found an older post (Aug of 2007 or so) from a guy who wanted to know more about this site, so I wanted to comment because I've been on NatashaClub for over a year now and have studied it quite a bit trying to see if it was for real or not. I have paid them a few times to get credits so I could really give it a go. I know some people don't like the credits system and think its a ripoff, but I have a counterpoint to that issue I will discuss below.

Just a bit about me: I am 26, reasonably attractive (my avatar is a real photo of me), 6'2" and thin. I'm not hurting for money, so I've been at this endeavor on and off for the past few years. The girls I go after are always in the 19 to 26 range.

Now about the website...

First of all, I have seldom been first in sending email to a lady (I've found that my success increases a LOT when I know ahead of time she is attracted to my profile and photos) - they have almost always contacted me first. In doing so, I've figured out that some of the ladys view your profile before communicating and some do not. The ones that do not look are always sending out a form letter they've written (I know this because one time one of them mis-typed a variable where my username was supposed to go and it said "[username" instead of "[username]"

There is a "broadcast" feature on the website that allows both men and women to send the same letter to the first 300 matches of their search criteria, so that is what a good number of the girls do.

I believe the reason they do this is much for the same reason I do it myself: to automate the process of finding someone worth writing to. Because most of the guys who they send mail to are not going to write back (lots of non-paid profiles and guys who never check them anymore, dont want to write, etc etc) they have to automate the first letter to save time. I do the same thing with ladies myself, to save time.

Still, though, I never write a lady who has done this. Since I know I will have to pay after the first letter, I have very strict requirements for her:

1. She must NOT have sent a form letter using my username...as in... Dear Username... AND must have actually viewed my profile prior to writing. (I've found that this requirement is very important... if she has viewed and has written a custom note, she is very likely to be serious and even cooler is she already likes my profile and photos)

2. She must speak decent English already. (I've found that girls with at least a "Good" or "Fluent" rating in English are fine - obviously this is so for when we move off the website and talk normally, we don't need outside help)

3. She must have a genuine interest in me and not talk whimsically about love, daisys, springtime, secret dreams or any such nonsense. She has to use real details, answer all my questions, etc. I've found most of the "puffy" letters to be fakes more often times than not.

4. She must be incredibly attractive...at least, to me. I mean, I can find plenty of decent girls here in my city, so why go to all the expense and effort for less than the total package of intelligence and beauty?

Ok, so those are my 4 rules that have served me well for over a year.

Now here is what I've discovered:

1. Not all the girls are legit (the site even admits to this themselves) but its pretty easy to tell the ones who are if you follow the above 4 rules.

2. Whenever I asked for a refund (either on my account or for credits), they gave it to me right away, as they should have. Very good people to work with and they always answer emails.

3. Whenever I stopped talking to girls, some of them got very confused and upset, thinking they did something wrong to make me go away. Fakes seem to just stop talking and move on. One girl even thanked me for explaining to her why I was getting annoyed with her letters (they were frustratingly short and since I was paying bucks for each one, I was not happy) - so then she started to write much better, longer letters full of rich detail.

4. Whenever I did pay, I kept getting new communications from girls. They did not stop once I had paid like you would think a scam would. Also, I've found that the frequency of letters I get is perfectly random just like it should be, and not in any way dependent on whether I have credits.

All in all, I think the pay per email model is a bit costly, yes, but if you work it right, you can get some results.

I think one of the great benefits of the credit system that no one ever talks about is how it is designed to keep new guys away from the girls you have been talking to for awhile. They do this by increasing the number of credits it takes a new guy to open a message from her by .25 every time a new guy opens one.... however I remain locked in at the current price she was at the beginning of our correspondence. I like this, because you can tell which girls are the most popular and already talking with enough guys and which could use a little more attention. And like I said, it also keeps new guys away from the girls I'm already talking to by charging them more.

Ok, anyway, that is some of my experience with this particular agency... I don't use it as much anymore since right now I am talking to my favorite girl independently (phone, email, etc...heck, we even faxed each other lol) and planning a trip to see her very soon.

[CCowboy]

Have you actually made a trip and met any women you've met on Natasha Club?  I've received several hundred messages initiated by the women ages 18 to 50.  Although some of the women who are on NC have their own computers and are legit, most of the profiles are from agencies.  I've received e-mails from women who never even looked at my profile.  I was able to get contact information from one woman (the 1st 8-9 words of a message are readible and she was able to send me her address in Kharkov).  When I went to the address, it was her agency, and her agency provided the address.  No matter how much money I might have spent corresponding, the agency wanted $60 to set up a meeting.  Since it could cost as much as $20 to read a woman's message, the agency couldn't care less if you've spent $100+.  I've also seen profiles of women whose photos are at least 5 years old.  So, while you may luck out and find a woman who is legit, probably 90% of the messages you receive are either spam or written by her agency.  Bottom line: I think you'll do much better using that money to win the lottery.

[grinc]

If you read my message above, you'll see the answer as to why you get messages from women who never viewed your profile. Its because of the "broadcast" feature on the site. Anybody can use it, even us guys. However, if a person follows the steps I outlined in the message above, he can avoid the girls who "aren't real"

Anyway, yes I've met 2 of the women so far and they are very real.

Whether or not the photos are updated is up to the girls, from what I've seen. If they submit new photos, then they can get them updated.

[docetae]

I am sure all girls are real (like UA ladies, ex CC) , but the probability they are more interested by your wallet than your heart is high..Why swimming with sharks when you have safe waters ?

[BillyB]

I think one of the great benefits of the credit system that no one ever talks about is how it is designed to keep new guys away from the girls you have been talking to for awhile. They do this by increasing the number of credits it takes a new guy to open a message from her by .25 every time a new guy opens one.... however I remain locked in at the current price she was at the beginning of our correspondence. I like this, because you can tell which girls are the most popular and already talking with enough guys and which could use a little more attention. And like I said, it also keeps new guys away from the girls I'm already talking to by charging them more.

The agency does this to their benefit, not yours or the the women's. Also it does the women no favors because the first wave of guys to write them when their profile hits the agency for the first time are weirdo's and losers who target nearly every good looking new woman that shows up. The normal guys who doesn't live at the agency website full time will come back to find certain women to expensive to trade letters with. But hey, some guys will pay $4 a minute for a phone sex fantasy, they may be willing to pay $4 a letter to have a chance to get married to her to get the real thing.

[jmana]

Here is my experience with this website:  I get messages from women on this site every day, they are definitely generic letters with my name added, which I don't have a problem with, but what I do have a problem with is every one is above the 5 point level, so obviously they have many men already writing, so the only reason I could think of that they are sending out these mass messages is that they are scammers trying to up their odds on extracting money from a generous American.  I actually like the fact that you can see how many men are writing, because otherwise I would have to email several times before I'd actually find out it was a scam.  But this site is definitely full of scammers, of course what site isn't? 

[grinc]

UPDATE:

While the girls themselves are real, there is most certainly something a little fishy going on here.

I'll explain:

A girl I had been talking to told me about her page on a Russian social networking site. So when I signed up for an account at vkontakte.ru (Russian version of Facebook), I added a couple of the girls I had been talking to to my friends list.

Then as I was looking through some of the photos she wanted me to see, I noticed a couple of the other girls had commented on some several of the photos and one of them was actually in a photo or two.

So I went searching and discovered that many of there girls who are on Natasha Club are on vkontakte.ru and not only that, but most of the girls from the same cities all know each other! (or at the very least, they know OF each other)

And some of the girls, though quite happy to talk to you on the Natasha Club website, are not so happy to see you on vkontakte - they probably didn't count on me being smart enough to get on an all-Russian site and then do searches in Cryllic to find them.

Anyway, I discovered many of them are flat out lying. They may lie to guys on Natasha Club, but they do NOT lie to their real friends in real life on vkontakte. One girl who told me her Russian boyfriend left her for another girl (Darja Lavrova), had pictures on her vkontakte profile that proved otherwise and that they were still together. All of what she told me were lies, and let me tell you, she was NOT happy I found her on there and discovered her secrets!

As soon as she discovered I had seen her profile, she immediately took her profile from public to private and apparently notified all the girls on her friends list because within a 48 hour period, most of the girls who had added me as a friend to their list who were ALSO on Darja's list, deleted me for absolutely no reason.

It's funny how they were so friendly to me before, but turned so quickly.

Another girl I had been talking to (one of the most vicious liars of them all) also had a Russian boyfriend (and was doing a lot of other horrible back-stabbing to guys that I won't mention here) and of course had absolutely no plans to change her ways. I feel sorry for the poor saps who are paying $11 per letter to write to her on NatashaClub.

However, not all is crap... a few of the girls DID prove they had integrity and proved their "real life" selves to be the same as their "Natasha Club" selves.

Strangely, a couple of the girls said that although they were interested in me, they would prefer to talk to me on Natasha Club and not vkontakte. Weird. I asked one of them why and she said that it was because they helped her with translation of certain words. Fair enough, but I'm skeptical because her English seemed good enough to me. The other one said it was because of privacy reasons. Strange answer too, because I'd think being separated by a whole ocean and continent would be privacy enough. Besides, I've already seen all of her info.

Needless to say, because of all this, I have stopped using the site LONG AGO. It's just too risky and there is very little evidence to verify anything, even when following my rules posted above.

The thing that really gets me about all of this is that the girls have absolutely no material motive, and never ask for anything. The only apparent benefit they get is emotional. Sounds funny to say, but I'd actually feel BETTER about things if they tried to scam me, because at least then I would understand what they are after! LOL

Even a girl I once talked to for 6 months never asked me for a dime or anything, made all kinds of promises and took such a liking to me that she practically literally memorized everything about me (and said and did tons of other things to demonstrate commitment as the guy she wants)... then STILL stabbed my back in the end by going with some other guy just as I was literally DAYS away from flying over to see her.

She did not benefit at all from doing this to me. She ended up wasting just as much of her time as I did mine.

So strange.

[SANDRO43]

She did not benefit at all from doing this to me. She ended up wasting just as much of her time as I did mine. So strange.

Maybe they get a % of the $ traffic ? Just a thought .

[Ronnie]

Yikes! Is the fedora making a comeback?

What's next zoot suits?

[BillyB]

I wanted to comment because I've been on NatashaClub for over a year now and have studied it quite a bit trying to see if it was for real or not. I have paid them a few times to get credits so I could really give it a go. I know some people don't like the credits system and think its a ripoff, but I have a counterpoint to that issue I will discuss below.........

..............Needless to say, because of all this, I have stopped using the site LONG AGO. It's just too risky and there is very little evidence to verify anything, even when following my rules posted above.

Your original post my have inspired a few guys to sign up with that agency. There's a reason most of us don't recommend that site. You could have save yourself a lot of time and money.

[grinc]

Well, fortunately it wasn't THAT much money... around $300 for me. No biggie. I'm sure there are guys out there who have laid out $1,000's

And yes, that idea of them maybe splitting some of the cash with the girls seems like the only logical answer right now. Otherwise, there's no reason for any of it.

One more funny note: A couple of the girls who saw me on vkontakte seemed offended that I was ... *gasp*... talking to other girls! LOL! Yeah... like no one else ever talks to multiple girls to save time and increase odds. Many of these girls are talking to several guys at once. One of them was close to a dozen (I only know this because she actually told me)

What a silly double-standard.

[Wolf]

  I think that Natashaclub.com is using the same girls data base that www.russian-women-personals.com
   
   I created a profike in rwd and I have the same profile in Natasha, hahaha
  The funny thing is they give you marks and almost all men are above 4 and the highest score is 5. Moreover you can be hotlisted and you can see who looked at your profile and the funny thing is you received letters or hotlisted you from people who in theory have never looked at your profile.

[grinc]

Yeah, the company has several such satellite websites, all of which have the same database of girls. They're all interconnected. The main reason behind it all is for search engine strategy; more top rankings for more varied keywords.

[grinc]

I'm only posting this as a warning to others who might deal with 1st International/Natasha Club:

There are some scammer local agencies that the website deals with. I finally got real confirmation from a girl I found on vkontakte.

There was someone from the site who had been sending me notes every day (and viewing my profile every day) so I decided to look her up on vkontakte... and found her. I sent her a note asking her about the site and... she didn't know who I was. (funny, since I was her dream guy in the notes)

So I sent her a link to her profile on the website and also copies of some of the notes, and this is the response I got back from her:

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!! I fell somebody's going to have BIG PROBLEMS!!! Well, as I wrote, a year ago I communicated with foreigners on another site like that NatashaClub. To tell the truth, that was my job, I earned money by communicated with foreign men wanting to find a girl, like lots of others did. At first I didn't realize that that was cheating, but when I understood how the system worked and that I earned by lying, I gave up the job. And now somebody is using my picture and profile (huh, they didn't even change the mostakes made by a machine translator). I'm really FURIOUS now!!! And I'll do everuthing to find out who's responsible for that. I'm really sorry for this situation, I'm shocked myself! And I'll try to deal with that. So, thet wasn't me who wrote to you, but that's wonderful that you found me here and that now I know that someone's using my pic and my personal info.

Ah, so there it is. Some of the girls are getitng paid just as we have suspected in previous posts on this topic, which explains why almost all of them I've talked to off-site have clammed up when I ask them about the site or mention that I'm from the site. All of a sudden no one responds to messages anymore when the agency is mentioned.

They must either be ashamed or know that their jar of cookies will be taken away if they squeal on the agency.

Either way, I'm doing some chargebacks for sure. That's fraud.

Here's another note I got from the same girl after thanking her for her candor:

You're wellcome!!! You don't even imagine how sorry I am now for doing that a year ago! When I understood how meanly it was, I simply spent my time in the office on watching videos on YouTube and writing my coursepaper, 'cause Internet was free there, so I decided to use that for better purposes than cheating honest men. And after a month, when I had to leave, I said "Goodbye"... But now they'll havve to recall me, definitely!=)))) So, it's really nice that you found me!!!!!!! That's a real luck!!!!!!

Now it should also be noted that the fault does not lie entirely on the shoulders of the Natasha Club website; it acts as merely a means by which the multiple local agencies communicate with the guys. So I'm guessing the website has to constantly deal with these local scammers and clean their site of them periodically.

Still, it's a very good reason to just stay clear of the whole mess.

[BetweenLines]

I rapidly realized this agency is yet another waste of time and money.

"Ah, so there it is. Some of the girls are getitng paid just as we have suspected in previous posts on this topic, which explains why almost all of them I've talked to off-site have clammed up when I ask them about the site or mention that I'm from the site. All of a sudden no one responds to messages anymore when the agency is mentioned."

Are you really surprised?
The temptation is just too great. They can have people write romantic crap all day long for $20 per letter!

This site has some good looking women, but unless you go there to meet them, dont even waste your time with writing.