Finding An Honest Agency
There are now literally 1000’s of Russian dating sites on the Internet today. New ones spring up everyday and disappear just as quick. When I started my Angelika site way back in 99′ I was one of a handful of websites. Now there are so many I’ve lost count. Yes it is big business and with big business comes unscrupulous people wanting a piece of the action.
When I started we had agencies in Russia queuing up to join us. The reason was that local Russian agencies couldn’t build websites or if they could they couldn’t get credit card approval to take orders. All they could accept at the time was Western Union which quickly gained a reputation for allowing Russian scammers to receive money. Western Union now have a lot more security in place to stop scammers receiving money and is a far safer way of sending money than it used to be.
We soon found many of these ‘mom & pop’ agencies were in the business to make a fast buck. We weeded them out quickly and 10 years later we still have a number of them that joined us in day one still with us. Many more have folded or been fired.
Before I became an agency owner I was just like you. I was looking through all the sites (which wasn’t that many back in 97′) and bookmarking the ones that appeared to be the better ones.
The biggest thing that concerned me when I began looking at these Russian brides sites was ‘will I be ripped off’. You’re just about to pay money to contact a woman thousands of miles away who probably doesn’t speak your language and for all you know may not even exist! Therefore make sure you do some research about the website you are going to part money with.
You could try searching to see if there’s been any bad press about the site. Just typing ’scam + website name’ may give up some results from forums where men who have been ripped off are telling everyone. Forums are a great place to find recommendations. If a site has been ripping people off it soon gets spread all over the forums!
Take a look through ‘Jim’s List‘. Jim doesn’t pull any punches. If he thinks an agency is operating unethically he will tell you. He lists all the dodgy ones and ones he thinks or has proved are running scams. Obviously he has fallen out with a number of agency owners!
His gold list is a list of agencies he trusts the most. This is where Jim loses a bit of credit in my mind. His top 2 are Elena’s Models and A Foreign Affair. If you click on those recommended links Jim gets a commission if you buy any services. I have no problem with Elena’s Models as they have a good reputation. However the same can’t be said about a Foreign Affair. But you can make up your own mind about A Foreign Affair as there’s plenty of info about them on the net.
He does list 4 of our local agents on his gold list and even the agency I met my wife through! So he got those spot on! And finally Jim has ‘with love from Voronezh‘ a website run by a fellow Brit. Steve is a good guy and you won’t get anything less than a good, honest service. Just like you do at East meet West!
There are a number of anti-scam website but I can’t recommend any of them as they do very little in the way of vetting their listings. To get listed on a lot of these sites all you need to do is place a link to them on your own site and they’ll add your site to their recommended lists! That’s hardly an authorative response is it?
Once you’ve found a website you think you can trust it’s always worth contacting them to see how they respond. Give them 48 hours and make sure you have set their email address on your inbox’s ‘accepted list’ otherwise their replies could be blocked by your isp’s spam filter. I had a guy writing in forums that my site was a scam and that I never replied to emails. He had a Hotmail account which was blocking my replies. In the end I had to put a banner across my front page telling him to check his spam folder to find my replies. He did and apologised!
Check to see if the website has a page for women. If they do and it’s written in Russian it probably tells the women how they can join that website. This usually consists of completing a short form online and sending a photo. In other words they do nothing to check the validity of the women joining. How can they? These websites are usually created quickly using a cheap dating script which allows men and women to sign up for free. Needless to say they are full of scammers and you need to be very wary of any women you meet this way especially if they contact you first.
A reputable dating site will have offices in Russia and Ukraine and will insist that women appear in person at their local offices with their passport and photo’s. It doesn’t necessarily mean that no scammers will join but it does mean the website is trying and has your best interests at hearts. Scammers are lazy and they tend to stick to the free sites rather than joining up with a network that wants to meet them in person!
I receive applications from women all the time via email and they get told to go to one of our agents offices and join in person. We will never let a woman join up via email. It is just too risky.
One last thing you can do is try and look up the owner of the website. Domain Tools.com allows you to check a websites owner. However they can opt out displaying their information so you might not find what you are looking for. You should be able to see which country the website is registered in. Obviously if you feel you have been ripped of or scammed you will have a better opportunity for recourse with a company in the US or UK. You won’t get very far trying to sue or complain about a company in the middle of Russia!
There are plenty of good, honest agencies out there and with a little bit of common sense and some simple research you should be able to find one. You’ll then be on course for find your own bride from Russia!
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Posted in Tips & Advice | 
Tags: credit card approval, russian agencies, russian brides, Russian Scammers, sending money
