Love Online
For decades, men have wondered whether there are actually real women on the Internet. There are an uncountable (and increasing) number of dating websites and mobile applications that propose to match you up with the girl of your dreams. In reality, most of those women (if they are in fact a woman at all!) are not who they pretend to be. Some of these are profiles of ‘professional brides’ who never give straight answers about their occupation and life. Instead, they throw little hints or quote poetry or simply tell you exactly what you want to hear, almost like lines from a story or fairy tale. And others are professional scammers, often actually males pretending to be “Olga” or “Natasha” and umpteen other identities.
Busting the Ghostwriters
Writing letters to anybody, including your potential bride, has been a common method of communication for centuries. Sadly, many con artists use this to their advantage, especially when you try to meet a woman from Ukraine.
These days, the Internet is clearly the best way to talk to her, at least initially. Thousands of pretty ladies in Eastern Europe really do want to find a husband from abroad. Alas, since Ukraine became an independent state, scam artists have made an increasing business based on people looking for love. Dating agencies advertise a catalog of brides to western men and propose pay-per-letter services. But, in point of fact, you will never meet any of those ladies because, essentially, they don’t exist. Of course the girls exist… somewhere. How else could they have photos of her? But the text attached to the profile has little or nothing to do with the woman in the photos. The company will milk your money for as long as they can until you lose interest.
The girl who actually communicates with you is nothing but a hired professional, often a student, and sometimes not even a girl at all. They receive up to $1 per letter whenever they receive a response, but depending on the location of the corporate website, it can be as little as 8 to 15% of what the client pays to send that letter. If it is their only job, you can calculate that they need to write hundreds of letters every month just to pay rent. Clearly, not all of those are going to the same person so they have to communicate with dozens of clients at once.
In most cases, it is not just a simple chat about the weather (although sometimes that can be the case, especially in the initial ‘getting to know you’ stages). Very often, they are providing some pretty intimate information to keep a client interested and properly motivated, and some of them will go to the extremes to keep their clients corresponding. Not every person can stand doing that, especially when they are actual women, so the staff at these companies change constantly. Of course, genuine women looking for overseas love DO sometimes work at these services too, but they are a very small minority not to mention difficult, if not impossible, to identify.
Social Media
The last decade has seen a maturing growth in the industry because of the advent of popular social media platforms, and as Ukrainians started learning at least the basics of English at school. Women no longer faced the absolute need to use dating agency services to find a man from another country. Facebook and VK for example, plus other specific dating sites like Mamba, are just as viable. Because of this competition, there are more agencies now interested in working to maintain a good reputation, however, they are still very much in the minority compared to the scam agencies.
Beware though, even on free social media sites there is a high probability that a person is a scammer. Just like with the scam agencies, people can create an account with a pretty girl’s face and then contact as many men as possible with seemingly honest friend requests. A lot of these false ‘profiles’ do in fact belong to some of the scam agencies. Social media scams really deserve a separate article on their own.
Genuine Ladies Are Available
To find a woman with truly sincere intentions, you should definitely use an honest dating agency. The main traits you should look for are:
- Customer reviews from real customers with active social media profiles (send them a private message, ask the questions you need to ask!).
- Customer reviews from real customers who provide valid contact information (and it goes without saying, you should actually contact the person and see if they are willing to provide details about the agency in question. If they’re not forthcoming, do we need to tell you it’s just another scam?)
- The agency in question places little to no value in online communications, in fact, even better if they encourage face to face contact and resist ongoing written communications.
- Ladies willing to video chat (of course!).
Pay as little as possible for email contacts, most of the genuine agencies charge nothing at all for initial contact with their ladies, even better if any introductory video chats are also free. Of course, daring scammers will not hesitate to use a video chat to try and get you ‘hooked’ onto a particular lady or ladies, it’s only your money they’re looking for, and they are visually appealing to your male ego in attempts to get into your wallet, nothing more.
Finally, a sincere, genuine Ukrainian lady will be highly unlikely to enter into private and intimate conversations with you via email or video.
So, what are you waiting for, time to get real!