Match Guaranty

Many people are aware of the existence of Ukrainian pay-per-letter dating websites, some have even heard about the all too frequent scam scandals that are associated with this type of business. Few know, however, that these so-called “marriage agencies” are not only geared towards cheating unsuspecting foreigners out of their money (causing quite significant emotional damage in the process), but treat the people who work for them in the same unfair and unethical way.

If you take a look around Russian language side of the Internet, you will be surprised to find that foreign marriage agencies offer a tremendous amount of job opportunities for “translation” work in post-Soviet countries, especially Ukraine. For a moment one might think that is a good thing, but dig a little deeper you will discover the staff these agencies are looking for are not what you may expect.

The job of these “translators’ is to correspond with the male clients of the agency while posing as one of their female models. The men should be led to believe they are speaking with the beautiful Eastern beauty they see in the picture, while in reality they’re speaking to a completely different woman (or often a man!) whose sole objective is to seduce the man into writing more letters. Each letter these men send through the agency costs them money. The ultimate goal of these agencies is not to match a man and a woman for marriage, and not even to make it possible for them to meet each other, but to keep the conversation going, and going, and going. That is where they make their money, there is no profit in happy couples.

Take a look at this ad posted on a popular Russian language social media page for a “modelling” job offered by a marriage agency:

This ad openly states that the agency is looking for attractive women to offer a set of professional photos and consent to use them in exchange for 15% of all profits made by their use in an online matchmaking profile as well as a bonus for any gifts they receive from the male clients.

The above ad is looking for translators, stating that they will be able to work flexible hours in their free time. It sounds like a great opportunity, but the job descriptions are often misleading.

Pay-per-letter matchmaking is a billion dollar industry in the former Soviet Union, so it would make sense for the workers in this business get paid very well, but sadly that is not the case. A translator can earn as little as $0.50 commission per letter and $2 per hour for online chat. If a model speaks decent English herself and is able to conduct her own correspondence, she can earn more, but the numbers are still staggeringly low compared to what the agency charges for their services. Sometimes, the money does not arrive at all. There have been countless incidents when agencies made their staff work without pay for months on end, inventing excuse upon excuse and taking advantage of the harsh economic conditions their employees live in.

However, even with the low wages there is no shortage of Ukrainian women (and men!) who are willing to work for these agencies. The recent military crisis in the Ukraine took a heavy toll on the country’s economy and salaries plummeted from an average of $500 to about $300 per month, well below the cost of living. Ukraine is home to one of the world’s largest income gaps. Corruption, poor government regulation, and the desperate nature of the nations workforce creates an environment where the rich get richer and the common people must take gruelling, degrading work for little (or no) pay. Low pay, however, is not the only issue with these jobs. Most transactions are unofficial, so the translators have no way of knowing whether they are being paid what they earned as they only get paid for the letters that are opened by the agency’s male clients. On top of the regular 8-hour workdays (mostly night shifts, due to the large time difference between North America and Eastern Europe), they have to work gruelling double weekend shifts if they want to earn a decent income.

Some women leave the industry as soon as they discover how dishonest (and often illegal) their practices are, but for many of them this income is the only way to feed their families in a tough economy, so can we really blame them? The real evil in this story is the agencies who not only play with people’s emotions for their own material gain, but also treat their staff, the people who depend on them for their living, unfairly and without respect.

See this shocking video of Dr. Phil exposing mail-order-bride scams

Did you know that insiders estimate that the industry as a whole has less that 1% marriage success rate? Why? Because most agencies are all about the money, not genuine matchmaking. Case in point, most marriage agencies don’t even look at their ladies passport. In the former soviet countries, a woman’s marital status can be easily confirmed just by a quick glance at their domestic passport, a document used on a daily basis as identification. Consequently you’ll find some ladies registered at agencies that are actually married and make a living scamming foreign men. For most Ukrainian marriage agencies, it’s just business. That’s the ugly truth straight up! If the lady is beautiful she’s as good as money in their pocket, plain and simple. In fact, the model-like beauties can bring in as much as $10,000 per month! Just to put that into perspective, the average lawyer or medical doctor in Ukraine makes just $300 per month.