Elena Petrova: Realistic image of Russian-Western marriages

It was wonderful to read something positive on the subject of
Russian-American relationships, for a change!
I am Elena Petrova from Russian Brides Cyber Guide, referenced in PRAVDA.Ru article. For many years I work hard to promote realistic image of Russian-western marriages, instead of sugary candies of dating agencies or nightmare horrors of Media. I am glad that PRAVDA.Ru opened this topic on their pages. I will be working with PRAVDA.Ru on a series of articles devoted to this theme.

The thing that concerns me the most is the growing number of Internet dating scams. What most men do not realize is that most of those scams are run by professional criminals. These scams give poor reputation to Russian women, quite undeserved. In reality, some of the scammers reside in the USA! There was a recent case where a scammer, a USA man, extorted whopping $750,000 from his victims posing as a Russian woman seeking marriage. This one got caught but many are still free and fishing for your hard-earned dollars.

The scam usually starts as unsolicited contact through a large dating site in response to a man's ad. The 'woman' expresses interest in the man and requests him to write to her direct email address. After a short while, she falls in love with you and wants to visit you in your country. Then comes a money request for visa and travel expences.

I want all men to know that this is a typical scam pattern and in no case they should send large amounts of money for visas and tickets to people they never met.

In my e-book "Anti-Scam Guide", I give detailed information about scams and scammers, how to protect yourself from scams the right way and how to detect if your correspondent is sincere.

I hope my warning will help some people who could otherwise get burned.

Sincerely,
Elena Petrova
RUSSIAN BRIDES CYBER GUIDE
http://www.womenrussia.com