What is a "Russian Dating Scam"? Basically, it is a scam where lonely foreign man gets "hooked" on pictures of a nice-looking girl from Russia/FSU, "wishing to marry" a foreigner. Whoever is behind the scam will try to get as much money out of the unsuspecting foreigner as possible. Most scams have something to do with one or more of the following: - man sending money for the girl's travel expenses - man sending money for emergency medical expenses for the girl or her relatives - man paying for the girl's internet cafe / marriage agency expenses - man being asked to cash a check for the girl - man being asked to call the girl (expensive toll number is used) Step 1 Scammer (a man or a woman) finds a set of pictures of an attractive girl 18-40 years old (or, if the scammer IS an attractive girl, she uses her own pictures) and places personal ads in as many international dating catalogs as possible. Many scammers actively seek out new potential victims rather than wait for the victims to come to them. Most often scammers use big online dating web sites to approach their potential victims. Often their profiles on Yahoo and Match.com indicate that they are from the USA (that is because those sites no longer accept subscribers from Russia). Step 2 After a while the letters from single men from all over the world start arriving. The scammer replies positively to all of them and the process begins. Since a lot of letters need to be answered, the scammer usually does not have the ability to answer all of them individually. Therefore a standard set of letters exists and the scammer typically uses these pre-written letters to correspond with all potential victims. As a results of using the sets of pre-written letters, scammers tend to ignore questions posted to them, write about the same thing twice, answer questions only at the very beginning or at the very end of each letter, etc. On the other hand, some scammers do not use prewritten letters and do answer each potential victim individually. They either learned that prewritten letters do not fly anymore, or they do not have that many people writing to them. Some of them choose to work only 1 or 2 potential victims a month to maintain the quality of communication process. To speed up the process the scammer "falls in love" with each of the potential victims literally within two to six weeks. Sometimes at the same time many scammers would announce that their yearly vacation time (usually 2 weeks) is coming up. A common theme amount the "set up" letters of this phase are: the scammer starts to call the guy "my love", "my prince", "my sunshine", "my best friend", "my future husband", etc the scammers starts to sign her letters "your princess", "your love", "your future wife", etc. Lots of kisses and hugs are given at the end of each letter. the letters become intensely long, flowery and romantic, almost like something out of a love novel , her pictures become very seductive she tells the victim about her friend such and such, who also found a guy through the internet and went to his country and how they live happily together and how she envies their happiness. she tells the victim that her desire to see the object of her "love" is so strong, that it is overwhelming to her. Step 3 Once the fact that the scammer is "deeply in love" is well established, the scammer begins the real preparation. She becomes extremely eager to meet in person, so she decides to find out what her options are as far as visas and travel fare. The scammer will "announce the good news" (that she found out how to obtain the visa) in one of the letters shortly after explaining her undying love. She will tell that she has found out everything she needs to do to receive a tourist (work, student) visa. She will be all bubbly and excited about the opportunity. She will explain in detail how much it will cost to get the visa and the tickets, and how to send the necessary amount to get things going. At first, most scammers start with a small amount - $350-$500 for the visa. Some scammers also ask for "hotel" money for their hotel "accommodations" in Moscow while they are filing for their visa with the US Embassy. After the "visa" is received, the scammer asks for money to buy plane tickets - usually around $700-$1800. Very often the money request letters are supplemented with her most seductive pictures. In many cases, by some wonderful coincidence the scammer's mother (father/brother/uncle/best friend) is working in a travel agency or airport. Of course obtaining the visa and tickets for the flight through them would be a natural suggestion. Or the same mother or father is working in a university and can put her in a student exchange group, or something like that. If NOBODY from her family is working in a travel agency, airport or university, she can at least easily arrange her visa at a travel agency near her home. Most scammers indicate to the victim, that a Tourist Visa is the best way to travel to the victim's country and that obtaining that visa would take about 5-15 days. While for some countries it may be true, it is certainly not true for the United States of America. Some scammers claim they can come on a student or work visa. Though there have been girls who were able to obtain student and tourist visas, but the chances that she can obtain such a visa are minimal, but the risks that you are being set up for a scam are huge. Some scammers to "volunteer" to pay for the documents and even a part of the travel expenses themselves, but finally admit her "financial difficulties" to the victim. Sooner or later most victims realize that they are being taken advantage of and stop sending money, do not make that mistake - do not send money! EVER!