A refusal of totalitarian policy, the end of Cold War, building up friendly relations with the Western World has opened the borders of a formerly closed state with the name of Soviet Union.

Slav women conquer the whole world with their beauty, ability to be complaisant and submissive ("If he beats and hits me, it means he loves me"), skills to do all the work about the house, brining kids up without any help, dealing with a job with a title "for men only" and agreeing for minimum of respect in return. Western women were not able to behave and be treated like that, so the most risky half of the male population of the globe, having forfeited hope to find a good wife in their native country, rushed to the territory of the former Soviet Union for "Russian brides" in early 1990th.

Slav women are popular practically all over the world, but the mainstream of brides flows to the United States of America. US Ministry of Justice informed that during the last 12 years over 75 thousands of Ukrainian women came to the country using fiancee visa (K-1), however their quantity is 2-3 times more due to using the other types of visas.

The ladies began to get bunch of letters, photos, teddy bears and invitations to visit their foreign friends after publishing their profiles at magazines and newspapers first, and then after being registered at numerous Internet dating websites. But since the very beginning it became clear - due to bad financial situation - the citizens of "new democratic" states couldn't afford most of pleasures in their life which seemed natural for the most of the Western World. Kind and naive "grooms" were ready to help their new "brides". Everything would have been fine and innocent if an inquisitive mind of Slav persons, having accustomed to fight for survival, hadn't noticed "FREE STUFF" which meant decent earnings in exchange for simple things - a couple of high-quality photos and dozens of nice romantic letters.

In late 1990th when Internet became more or less available to the most of population, Ukraine, Russia and Belarus' found out new word combinations like "International Marriage Agency", "Internet correspondence", "fiancee visa", "dating fraud" and "scam" which were unknown before.

SCAM. This word was borrowed from far American English, but in a certain social group became an inalienable part of a daily vocabulary, having the only one meaning "to get money in a fraudulent way using Internet marriage and dating business".

Ukraine has never considered the Nigerian spam as a fraudulent action. Financial pyramids have always been financial pyramids, and nothing more. But such a comprehensible intuitively and simple in pronunciation word as "scam" has always stood for getting money by the means of a beautiful face and sentimental letters.

Scam became a style of life, a profession, and stable earnings for a certain social group in countries of former Soviet Union (CIS) who began proudly calling themselves as scammers.

UA(PRO)FILER offers you to find out more information about who scammers are, what means they use to fraud people, what their methodology is, what scenarios are common for con artists and where you can meet them in UA(PRO)FILER's scam encyclopedia which is the very first attempt to make profiling and comprehensive classification of this phenomenon.

Let’s try to imagine how much efforts and skills should be put into correspondence to make a “groom” want to help his “bride” financially and to send not $50, but $1000, and if the “bride” is not a real person, but just a photo of a model downloaded from Internet.

Scam is in some way a hard job demanding on certain knowledge of psychology of relationship, logics of communication, culture and country learning, the job which can damage the personality of a scammer because a con artist like an actor should be ready to please “clients”, performing a certain scenario which is known for him/her only, and try not to make any mistakes to get a “deserved reward” after several months of Internet correspondence.

A meaning of a “single scam” or a “mono-scam” is absent in a well developed business, there is only a “serial scam” there, the authors of which use their favorite and checked with time schemes and scenarios, updating them to the traditions of communicating in modern Internet Dating.

Some information to compare: several years ago Internet dating and matchmaking websites were full of marriage announcements from nice-looking 18-23 years old females from CIS, answering each letter from any foreigner they met in the net. After being deceived and taken some amount of money off, “grooms” started complaining to numerous official establishments of Russia, Ukraine etc, and decided that 18-23 years old females “are too young to be seriously considered as future wives and all the searches should be done towards mature Slav women, who are ready to marry a foreigner and wait for it” . The reaction of scammers was very fast – most of marriage announcements placed during the last year are from 26-51 years old women who are very choosy in answering “grooms” letters.

A modern scam has its own and rather clear inner hierarchy – a difficult system with numerous levels and sublevels, where each persons obtains the only position which is made just for him/her, and that’s why such a system is a key to success and safety.

Due to results of numerous researches done by UA(PRO)FILERs staff, all the scammers can be divided into 2 big groups following several criteria:

The first group is divided into subgroups due to scam experience and participation in fraud activity.

1. Novices – people dealing with scam for the period less than a year, who don’t practically have their own scenarios and schemes of fraud, and are not very skilled in this kind of activity. They are easy to be noticed and traced. In the cases of persistent failures and inability to gain a desired result novices leave this business. In the cases of persistent success, they become professionals.

2. Professionals – young people, aged 20-35, having their Masters’ Degrees done (mostly in computer science or languages), developed intuition and skills in communication, enough funds to buy computers and Internet access, to rent an apartment or a room for an “office/agency”, speaking more or less foreign languages, having desire to work and imagination to complete “brides” characters, stages of correspondence, scenarios of meetings and schemes of scam. They are organizers of fraudulent activity hiring implicated (auxiliary) persons for business development and safety (tangling their traces); get the biggest part of “profit”. In the cases of failures professionals start everything over again, thinking about new ways and schemes of scam. People belonging to this group don’t leave scam without any serious reason for it.

3. Implicated (auxiliary) persons – any person who wants to earn some money and is necessary for scam activity, usually hired by professionals, i.e.:

- a photo-person: a lady who is photogenic and nice-looking, but doesn’t have any knowledge of foreign languages, any desire to marry a foreigner, and any skills or knowledge of scam to become a novice. She offers to use her photos getting some amount of money in return, is often ready to meet a “groom” because of his presents and possibility to attend some fashionable restaurants, discos etc on the foreigner’s cost;

- a name-person: a person who lets the scammers use his/her name to open a bank account or get money transfers through Western Union/MoneyGram for some amount in return (usually some percentage of amount transferred on his/her name: 5%-20%);

- an address-person: a person who lets the scammers use his/her official or actual address to get a package or a parcel, common letters and cards, flowers delivery in return for some amount of money or packages (usually this person is a relative of one of the scammers);

- a translation-person: a person who offers his/her services in translating “grooms” or writing “brides” letters in return for a regular salary or some percentage of “profit”. In some time a translation-person has a big “library” of ready-to-be-sent letters, understands the process of scam, and in the case when he/she leaves professionals can become a novice.

- an IT-person: a person who offers his/her services as a programmer/web-designer or other IT-specialist and is important for creating a marriage agency or a tourist company etc website in return for a regular salary (if his/her services are necessary for professionals for all the time) or a single payment after the website is ready for work.

The second group is divided into subgroups due to the number of people involved in scam activity and ways of “profit” division:

1. monopolists (or lonely scammers): a single person working on his/her own, sometimes uses the help of implicated persons;

2. a group of scammers: a co-operation in a well developed collective following the hierarchical structure, “profit” division is made after a preliminary agreement, and working as:

- a group of people, representing themselves as an existing company with a website of a marriage agency or a tourist company (usually they have an office, a couple of translation-persons and gallery of existing or non-existing ladies, no state taxes paid and work following several scam schemes);

- a group of people, representing themselves as a company (a non-existing Internet café, a translating center, a tourist or a marriage agency) without any website (usually it’s a group of 2-3 people working at home);

- a group of people, representing the “bride” herself and dealing with a serial scam (usually they have up to 10 different “brides” registered at numerous websites).

Maybe in future it’ll be possible to pick up the other criteria to group scammers due to geographic sign etc, but the classification offered by UA(PRO)FILER analysts seems to be the most suitable and actual to the modern situation in Internet Dating.

The means of scam are the tools used by scammers to gain their goal, i.e. getting money in a fraudulent way. These tools are photos, letters/language, address, name and Internet.

Photos can be:
- scammer's own ones;
- taken from an implicated person or downloaded from Internet.

Knowledge of foreign language to write letters can be:
- scammer's own one;
- taken from an implicated person or persons due to the size of "business".

Name for opening a bank account or getting money transfers can be:
- scammer's own one;
- taken from an implicated person or persons due to the size of "business" or safety level.

Address of agency or personal "bride's" address can belong to:
- scammer;
- implicated person;
- nobody (the address can be false or taken without thinking in the case when it isn't considered as an important detail of a scam scheme).

Internet for providing correspondence can belong to:
- scammer (due to financial situation and necessary speed for work lonely scammers or group of scammers use modem/dial-up Internet connection, cable Internet connection or radio-Ethernet);
- Internet cafe (usually used by novices till the time they find enough money to buy a computer and Internet access; there're only 2 kind of Internet connection in Internet cafe either cable or radio-Ethernet ones).

Of course, we can add an apartment or a room for an "agency", photo and video studios, apartments for-rent-to-"grooms" while their visit to a "bride's" country etc to this list of means of scam - it can be endless and various depending on a scheme of fraud.

The following description of scammer's methods of work is not the same for all the con artists - some stages can vary, the others are out of use - but the main principle (methodology) is one for all the frauds.

At the very beginning all people involved in scam activity check their desire to work together (or to work in scam business). If such a desire is absent, like in any other projects there won't be anything good and profitable there.

Then all the necessary means of scam are to be checked. If some of tools or implicated persons are absent, the organizers try to find them: they are looking for photos, names, addresses and places for having an "agency".

When it becomes clear that a bride is "blonde" and her name is "Lena", scammers start to create an image and inner style of a "virtual lady" - something can be taken from a personal past of a con artist (frauds have never written about the things they don't know anything about, that's why they use episodes from their life or from the lives of their relatives and friends) , something can be added by a translation-person, and something will be changed due to the scheme of scam (a scenario used by scammers to get money should be an organic part of a "bride's" personality: a successful business lady can't ask for financial help to pay for correspondence and Internet).

Approximate scenarios of scam are known by the moment of creating the "bride's" life. These scenarios can be divided into groups due to frequency of using with a single taken "groom" as following:

- a single scenario: scam is built on using the only type of scenario and for the one time only - money for being operated, visa and tickets, buying contact information of "brides" etc.;

- a single scenario with a preliminary check: scam is built on using the only type of scenario and for the one time only with a preliminary check of a "client" by the means of little pleas - send me flowers, a teddy bear etc.- if the "groom" fulfills the task, scammers understand that the foreigner can follow their scam scenario;

- a single repeating scenario: scam is built on using the only type of scenario for several times - agency's letters with request to pay for correspondence etc.;

- a combination of several scenarios: scam is built on using several types of scenarios which put together a scheme of scam - money to pay for correspondence + money for English courses + money for visa and tickets etc.;

- a combination of several scenarios with a preliminary check: scam is built on using several types of scenarios which put together a scheme of scam with a preliminary check of a "client" by the means of little pleas.

Due to the chosen type of scenario, scammers analyze and define the criteria of picking up the future "grooms" and type of a dating server or a matchmaking website where "brides" profiles will be placed at.

Con artists working as an existing "agency" usually place their ladies ads at huge International dating or matchmaking websites with a big quantity of potential clients, because their goal is to pick so many men as possible to make them pay for correspondence, translating letters and Internet access usage. The number of "brides" profiles this case is more than 15-20, the ads are badly written, but have attracting photos. Age, race, and marital status of "grooms" are not important to the frauds because this kind of scam supposes mass sending of pre-written letters.

Scammers working on behalf of a "bride" use different kinds of websites either big International or little local ones. Their goal is to get as much money as possible from a man, that's why the con artists pay a lot of attention to making ladies' profiles (the ads are well done, memorizing, but sometimes they are too much look alike, contain all the information a "groom" needs to know, and high-quality photos). Foreigners are strictly chosen due to scammers' personal preferences: some of them like to work only with Americans, the other ones with Europeans, the others with singles or divorced, and the rest with sexually addicted or perverted etc. Everything depends on a scam scenario. The number of "grooms" is not big (up to 10 persons) because each foreigner should be convinced that he's "the only one" to make the man be so much interested in the lady to send her money afterwards.

After the website is chosen (the ads can be posted at 1-10 websites), scammers start registration of the profiles at the matchmaking server: they place information about a "bride" which can be true (if the lady is real and can meet with a foreigner) or false (if the photos of the lady were downloaded from Internet), her place of residence is the city where the frauds live (or towns in this region not far than 100 km from their "head quarter").

Some big International websites close the access for citizens of former Soviet Union of being registered because of high probability of scam activity, but such actions can't stop professionals - it's always possible to place an ad using American or European zip codes, and then explain a reason of it to a "groom" as "they are racists at this website; they don't let all the people equal possibilities; I was looking for a chance to meet you and had to lie about my place of residence" etc.

If a matchmaking website requires payment for being registered or answering messages (so called "Gold" or "Premium" membership), scammers will gladly do it - because it guarantees the absence of Arabian, Nigerian people and just bored ones who use Internet as place of entertaining themselves - con artists pay using the credit card of their own or with an information about a stolen credit card and its owner which was bought in the net a day before.

Since that moment the very process of correspondence begins. Both "grooms" and "brides" can be an initiator of the first letter/message. In the case if it's a lady who sends you the first letter, it can mean that a man follows all the criteria to be a potential "client" for scam.

The process of choosing the "right" foreigner lasts for all the correspondence. Scammers don't want to waste their time, efforts and money just for writing letters without expecting any "reward" for it. That's why all the letters are read carefully, a "bride" asks questions which can seem useless to an average person, but they are very important for con artists - as a result of a wrong choice a scammer won't get any money - and the letters from an "unmatched" foreigner are usually left without any answer.

There are a lot of pieces of advice for a safe Internet Dating can be given by numerous matchmaking websites - ask questions, insist on getting photos, speak on the phone, meet in safe places, don't give full information about yourself, don't send money to your brides etc. But the main problem is that scammers read this advice too - they are ready to answer any of your questions, send you a photo of a favorite cat and the whole family (reality and variety of photos are some of criteria of picking up images for scam activity), speak in a tender voice on phone and even phone-sex you, communicate in chat, agree to meet you, ask for permission not to tell you all the information ("you can be a maniac or a brothel owner") and are offended if you don't agree to help them financially ("don't you love me? is money more important than our relations? you are greedy, and I don't like greedy people etc.") - scammers make you believe in reality of your relations which is very hard to be distinguished from a standard scheme of scam.

After some period of correspondence, several phone calls, chats, bunch of photos and romantic letters, and a preliminary check for "feelings" to a lady - all these stages can be planned in advance or taken intuitively - scammers start to lead a "groom" to a scam scenario, since this moment con artists take the process of correspondence in their hands and try to make the foreigner follow the "scheme" - it can happen after a month of communication, sometimes after 8 months or even a year: everything depends on the "client" to be ready to pay and professional skills of scammers.

Traps are ready and the frauds are waiting for results, reading the text of a letter nervously. A victory (getting money) is celebrated quietly - professionals are not too emotional about success, it's just a "reward" for a well done job. A failure (not getting expected money) can be taken painfully - scammers discuss the smallest details of their mistakes, a right or wrong style of correspondence, and an out-of-date or too up-to-date scheme of scam.

But both in the case of getting money or failure a "bride" tries to disappear from a "groom's" life in some period of time - a sudden business trip, illness of a relative, changing place of residence etc.

If a "client" put the "bride" he's been in correspondence with into some of kind of blacklists, scammers stop using the photos, name and address of marked implicated persons.

And everything repeats over and over again…

There are several types of scenarios of scam - getting money in illegal way using computers and different Internet project in the field of virtual communication - due to specific characters and themes while gaining its goal:

- payment for getting a contact information of a "bride";

- payment for correspondence with a lady: Internet access, computer usage, translating letters;

- payment for making photos and video;

- payment for foreign language courses/computer courses;

- financial help for accidents (smashing car, steal of all money, flood, debts etc.);

- payment for medical treatment (operation, illness of some of the lady's relatives);

- payment for buying a computer, a mobile phone etc.;

- payment for flowers and gifts (the prices for flowers and gifts in "agencies" are 2-3 time higher than average Ukrainian standards);

- a common financial help ("I don't have enough money to buy bananas for my daughter" etc.);

- immigration (marriage with the goal of obtaining a permanent residence visa in the USA or Western countries);

- payment for visiting a "groom's" or neutral country: payment for tickets, visa and traveling papers (scammers often use non-existing tourist companies founded on their own);

- payment for visiting a "bride's" country: payment for "tours-for-brides", payment for the lady's trip to the capital or other big city (often with a translation-person), payment for hotel for the lady or booking an apartment for a "groom" (scammers often are the owners of the rented apartments, the price of renting which is 2-3 time higher than average Ukrainian standards), payment for service of translator/driver/guard, payment for visa and invitation to a "bride's" country (prices are 2-3 time higher than average Ukrainian standards) etc.

All the scenarios are common ones, but they can be combined together creating schemes of scam. The type of scenarios can be more variable - e.g.: kidnapping or threatening by "strong and cruel" Russian mafia etc. - but everything depends on personal preferences of scammers.

Everywhere. Nobody has insurance against meeting scammers at either International or local matchmaking websites, paid or free dating servers. They are looking for their "victim" everywhere.

UA(PRO)FILER hopes that information placed at this section will help our client to understand the essence of scam and will be useful during Internet Dating.

If you have some questions, you can ask our consultants in UA(PRO)FILER Forum or contact us.