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 Post subject: Re: Anastasia International (Anastasiaweb)
PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 11:31 am 
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Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2009 11:27 pm
Posts: 3
Here is my archive from last spring:

Anastasia-International is a Scam!


This is my story of how I got scammed out of $600 by Anastasia International. I’m telling it so that perhaps some other guy that does a search about this agency will find my story and read it and avoid the mistakes that I made. I am not alone in identifying this agency as a marraige scam. There is more convincing proof at this site here as well. It is unfortunately the only significant contribution to the internet by Russia and the FSU countries. They are rivaled only by the Nigerians for the pervasiveness of deceptiveness in their society. Russian women have elevated lying and deceitfulness to an art form and a way of life. It makes me wonder why I was ever interested in marrying one.

I should start by telling you that I found Anastasia by doing a search for Russian scams. Another Russian scammer was working me on Yahoo and I was trying to see if I could find her listed in the scammer database. But Anastasia has an anti-scam scam going and that is how I found their web site. In other words they are actively waging a fake campaign on the internet pretending that they are against scams. Pretty funny since they are one of the biggest marriage scam agencies on the internet. They have a long sordid history. They post messages on chat sites and forums defending their company. I think they use fake ID posts as well saying stuff like, “I found my bride on Anastasia and they are a reliable company.” But there is no verification of the testimony and often they only have that one post. It fooled me for a while because I did try to check them out and I read some of these false testimonies. They also use testimonies on their own site but there is no way to verify that these are in fact real, satisfied customers. There are no pictures of any men or successful marriages. If you visit a dating site that has a good reputation like Elena’s Models, they have pictures of real customers that met through their agency and were married. They do post pictures of men on their tours to the Ukraine but that is the next level of their scam.

After finding their verified ‘anti-scam’ site I started looking at beautiful girls like Svetlana here on their site that they claim are all genuinely seeking marriage. After looking at their pictures, and they are very attractive, you find yourself wanting to see more pictures of these Ukrainian beauties – so you have to fill out a profile and enroll to see their other pictures. That is free – at first. Then you start getting letters from all these beautiful women and you start looking at their pretty faces and knock out bodies and soon you find yourself wanting to read their letters. You start to think, “Hey, maybe they really are interested in me, maybe it could be real?” That’s when Anastasia starts making money on their scam because you just swallowed the bait and they set the hook.

So the letter reading and sending starts. It costs $8 dollars to read each letter. It cost another $8 to reply to her letter. So each communication cycle costs $16. You can see how that will add up real fast, especially if you start writing more than one girl. Since there are many beautiful young girls it is very enticing. If your a dumbass like me you start to think, “man, I really hit the jack pot here.” All the young beauties write back and express an interest in you and soon you start the process of emptying your wallet and filling theirs. You can buy a large package of credits and then the letters only cost $4 dollars each. But you have to buy $400 worth of credits to get the discount. So they made a bundle right away from you.

Now I justified this cost for a while because I figured that it does take time and cost money to run a business and translate letters, etc. If these girls were really interested in me it would be worth it. But the reality is she is not. It is a scam because they are deceiving you into thinking that she is interested in you. What the heck would a hot young 22 year old Ukrainian girl see in 49 year man like myself that has no money anyway? It’s very simple – your just a paycheck to them. That is what her interest in you is, just a paycheck. It is a way to make some money so they can buy something they want or need or maybe they are putting food on the table for their kids and family? The only thing I know for sure is that they are not interested in getting married and having children and cooking and cleaning for you like they pretend. The agencies that find these girls get paid a certain amount. The girls themselves get paid a certain amount and Anastasia gets the largest share of the loot. Your employing a lot of people with your little Ukrainian bride fantasy. Your contributing to the global economy!

Anastasia is more sophisticated than they used to be a few years ago. People reported that 200 letters would show up in a day. Now the letters come in at a pace of 5 to 10 a day – almost believable. They are not all super models either now. They mix them in so it seems real. Anastasia claims all the girls are verified as being real and they check their passports to insure their authenticity. The girls may in fact be real but you will never marry one of them. They are interested in you only to get you to write letters because that is how the scam works. It has the appearance of reality but it is not real. It is a scam. The scam is simple – to get you to spend as much money as possible writing letters and buying gifts and making telephone calls to the girls. Now I’m sure you can spend a lot more than I did. And it is possible if you travel to Odessa or take one of their tours that you might meet someone and eventually maybe even marry someday. But it will not be the knock out hottie that you have been ‘falling in love’ with online. There are plenty of horror stories from their tours as well. Instead meeting your dream girl you are more likely to meet some fat, chain smoking former hooker that drinks and smells like a fish.

The introductory letters are a complete fraud. They are not even from the girls themselves but from different agencies that work with Anastasia in the scam. If you read their site carefully (which I did not) they even admit to this. You have to pay to read these fake introductory letters from girls that don’t even know you exist. That is fraud. It is dishonest to make men think they are being written to by some beautiful girl. It is not even the girl pretending she likes you – which is dishonest too.

Once you begin a correspondence the letters themselves have a certain reality about them. They seem like they are from the girl herself but they could be written by anybody, even some fat, chain smoking Russian guy. They respond to specific questions so they are not just form letters. I had a very interesting dialogue with one scammer named Svetlana that I grew quite fond of, in my mind! They are much more sophisticated than perhaps a letter you might get from a Russian scammer on Yahoo or at least the ones I have seen, but they are scams nonetheless. After writing a couple different girls I began to detect linguistic patterns that were very similar from different translators. A Red Flag for sure.

The only way you can tell for sure it is the girl herself is to do a live video call. That costs $50 bucks for a minimum of 5 minutes. These have to scheduled with the girl. All the girl has to do is show up at the agency and pretend like she knows and likes you. These girls are quite good at lying so that is not a problem for them. This does not prove she loves you or is even interested in you. It is a way for them to make more money from you though. You might be convinced and continue to write letters to “your beloved.” Sending gifts is the most expensive way to run up your tab fast. $150 – $200 for flowers and a gift! That ain’t a cheap date.

They make some very attractive videos, so you know that the girl is aware of the scheme. You have to pay to watch those as well. So you know they didn’t just steal her photos and then run the scam. The girl has to be involved at some level. She has to know how the system works. It is the superficiality of legitimacy combined with your own desire or need to find someone that makes the scam work. The vain belief that maybe that girl really is interested in you. You want it to be real. That is what convinces you to spend more and more. I had plenty of doubts but I kept thinking with the wrong head.

If you take a tour you will be spending a lot more and you may even meet a girl. But it is a real crap shoot a best. They run these for a profit as well. Spending $5000 on a crap shoot for a beautiful young Ukrainian wife is not good judgement in my opinion. It is a fraudulent system that they use to lure you in. Go buy a lottery ticket if you want to gamble. You’ll probably have a better chance of winning the big one.

The chances of you going to the Ukraine and even meeting the girl you ‘fell in love’ with are very slim. The fact is she does not want you to go, she wants you to keep writing the letters. That is how she makes her money. I mentioned to a couple different girls that I was planning a trip soon and I got zero response. Doesn’t that seem odd? You tell a girl your going to spend thousands of dollars to come see her and she says nothing? Big Red Flag. That is because they can’t say that they don’t want you to come. That would ruin the scam. They don’t want to encourage you to come either. So they say nothing. What they want is you to keep spending money, writing letters, etc.

Another suspicious thing I found is that most will not send any more pictures. The ones they post are done in professional studios and are designed to make them appear as glamorous as possible. You can recognize pictures of different that have been take by the same studio as they have very similar backgrounds ect. It is an industry and a racket. Only one girl (or person undetermined) sent me more pictures of her taken in casual surroundings with other people. Maybe she was real? The rest said they did not have a camera or any digital photos. Big Red Flag! They act like they can’t afford one. How many girls that you know that are drop dead gorgeous and do not have a camera and more pictures than you can shake a stick at? Not many. That ain’t real! Even ugly fat girls like to take their pictures. Just look in the Craigslist personals section. I’m such a sucker that I went and bought a camera I was going to send to this girl for Christmas. I got wise before I sent it though.

The thing about Anastasia is it is quite difficult to prove that they are actually scamming you. As far a gathering evidence that you can use in a court of law. They are quite clever they way they operate. You’d have to get the girl to talk but she is all the way over in the Ukraine and they won’t give out any contact information about the girl. Last name, address, phone number, email. Big Red Flag there! How dangerous is it to give those things out if the guy is 3000 miles away? But they would lose control of the letter writing which is their bread and butter. Now some sites will sell the contact info for a fee. With the amount of money I spent at Anastasia I should have received that info – if they were legit. There are stories of guys who have contacted the same girl through a different agency and she didn’t even know them. After they wrote dozens of letters! That does prove that is is a complete scam and somebody else is doing the letter writing…..I suspect they have professional letter writers employed for this purpose.

I have found all the girls I wrote too working on different agency sites. None of those sites have good reputations either. I think they are all pros and work as many as they can because they get paid by the letter. One site called Dream Marriage is an even bigger scam than Anastasia. I joined this site but paid no money so I could see what was going on. They definately have the hottest group of scammers in the Ukraine there. If you join that site it is like getting mugged by beautiful women. I mean they will hit you over the head with their looks and boobs and then take your money. They have this thing called ‘live chat’ and you could drop a couple of hundred in an hour at this site. They are super aggressive in inviting you to come chat with them. I felt like I was assaulted and violated. Like they are really interested in marrying a guy like me! It is worse than going to a strip club. At least there you could get ten table dances in an hour. The girl is real and it would only cost you $100. Not that I would know about any of that personally! When I found some of the girls from Anastasia that I knew (or thought I knew) working here, I knew for sure I was getting scammed.

Now there probably are some legitimate girls on Anastasia, but the good looking, knock out, drop dead gorgeous ladies are all scammer Pros. They are not looking for a husband. They are just predators. If you think you can sort them out – good luck. If you want to spend the time and effort to find a Ukrainian or Russian wife, go to an agency with a good reputation. Jim at Marriage Agency Scams, who seems to be the most informed guy on the internet about dating and marriage scams says it costs between 20,000 and 30,000 dollars and 2 to 3 years to get a real Russian bride to the US. I have a big thing for Russian girls. I’ll admit it. I like the way they look. I have been trying to meet one for 8 years. They have all been scammers. I’m a victim of my own vanity and desire I guess.

Anyway, gotta run and check my email at Anastasia to see if I have anymore letters from a Ukrainian beauty queen! Who knows? She might be the one!

I’m a slow learner still lookin’ for love in all the wrong places! :)

UPDATE 6/11/09: Anastasia has been busy trying to get this video removed from the web. They managed to get it removed from uTube. It is just more proof of how dishonest they are. They claim it is a violation of terms? What they mean is it tells the truth about their scam and they don’t want people finding it. You can download a copy here at this link. I put it on uTube because I saw it was removed from some other sites. They must be afraid of what it shows. More proof that they are a well organized scam and they prowl the internet to deceive people and trap them with their scams. Recently they changed their name again to Anastasia date. Whatever. Paying girls to write deceitful letters is not a date. Period!

Anastastia-International web scam





This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at 5:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Edit this entry.

6 Responses to “Anastasia-International is a Scam!”
Your Reader Says:
January 27, 2009 at 11:10 pm | Reply edit
Great! Thank you!
I always wanted to write in my blog something like that. Can I take part of your post to my blog?
Of course, I will add backlink?

Sincerely, Timur Alhimenkov

John Redford Says:
February 17, 2009 at 2:32 pm | Reply edit
I just watched the video. You know the girl in white yoo click on after about 5 minutes. Is she a scammer?. Do you know anything about her?

regards, John

Bob D Says:
February 17, 2009 at 7:06 pm | Reply edit
Boy, do I know this!! I have my own horror stories about these sites and I think you hit the nail on the head. It’s easy to get “suckered” in on these sites and I too fell in at first. Even went to Ukraine to meet a couple of the women. The ones I did meet were just playing along to keep me hooked but had no interest in me other than that. When I told one of the women from Anastasia that I thought we should remove our profiles and write each other directly, she couldn’t understand why I’d want to do that. Clearly, she was taking in a share of the proceeds from Anastasia.

It’s a new cottage industry for these folks and there seems to be no shortage of suckers like me to keep feeding them. I’ve learned my lesson the hard way and only hope I can help others learn theirs a bit easier. You’re doing that as well with posts like these. Thank you!!

John Says:
March 28, 2009 at 10:41 am | Reply edit
Thanks a lot!
I didn’t spend money yet, but I was tempted to do…

Travis Says:
May 16, 2009 at 6:30 pm | Reply edit
Ha! Ha! Thanks for the info. I lost 1,500 dollars on this scam to a hot girl who claimed she had sincere intentions during our eight month correspondence, but later turned out to be a scammer. I only had one date with the girl in the city and she kept on making excuses not to show up for other dates, cause she was probably dating another guy, and didn’t want him to think she was with other guys. Also, even though I thought I got real close to her with my dialogues during the personal meeting, she did not want to hold my hand, another sign, she was seeing someone else!

These girls make money off all the letters sent to them by American guys. It’s side money for them. One US DOLLAR = 8 GRIVNAS. Some of these girls are probably working 5-10 guys, they read the letters either with personal computers or at work, then send answers, or have their agencies answer them, hoping to intice them to visit them.

The girls are REAL ! I spent almost 2,000 dollars for a trip to Sevastopol, to discover the truth about Anastasia. The girl you meet, is the girl in the picture, but her intentions are not the same as the girl or agency work you write to on the site, and they are ALWAYS accompanied by a interpreter who works with Anastasia, and the Interpreter’s job is to make sure the scam is maintained, and that no close bonding results, which will jeopardize the entire operation!!!!

She kept on making lame excuses also for not wanting to show for a nother meeting, “Had to attend a friend’s party, Got sick off something drunk at the party.”

They say they live in squallor or abject poverty, but it’s not as poor as you think. I know cause I went to Ukraine, and it isn’t as bad as Mexico.

Stay away from this scam!!

Jay.T Says:
June 3, 2009 at 10:23 am | Reply edit
Thanks for such an interesting video..

Im a 35 year old guy living in Australia and
Have been a past user of this site. Unfortunately
i also spent hundreds of dollars communicating with a handful of girls hoping to find that someone special in my life in 2006. Like you i recieved many many letters and it was quite hard choosing who i wanted to write to as they were all so beautiful!

But after some thinking i narrowed it down to 5 girls which i thought i would get on with. many many letters and even a few phone calls ( which cost me more!) i arranged to meet them on person as had previously arranged to go to Odessa (Ukraine) for my 5 week vacation. They said were all looking forward to meet me so i was really excited not knowing what was going to happen..
After i settled myself in Odessa i contacted all the girls i had been communicating with and was looking forward to meeing them in person. but what happened next really made me see i had made a big mistake in using this site. according to all the girls they were all out of the city on business and unfortunately they were not able to meet me!! WHAT THE!! ..there was only one girl out of the 5 that i planned to meet that i actually met in person. she was a nice girl. spent a bit of time with her but i could see she was not genunine. anyway i didnt let that ruin my vacation and enjoyed every minuite of it and made a lot of friends.

The next time i went back which was in Odessa winter of 2008 where i was a little smarter and i decided to take the risk and use a local dating site called loveplannet.ru. its free to send and real letters except its not in english. so what did ihave to loose after all i wasnt paying a cent to use it! It took quite a lot of work to translate everything to fill out my profile etc but was well worth it( although there are also some girls who were on it not for the right reasons)… anyways i found a really lovely girl who was Exactly what i had been looking for. i met her and her whole family and as they say the rest is history. after 1 year of traveling back and fourth she finaly come to Australia and we are planning to be married on June 2009 if anyone has any questions i would be willing to help them out in any way i can.
Thanks again
Jay


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 Post subject: Re: Anastasia International (Anastasiaweb)
PostPosted: Sat Oct 02, 2010 1:01 pm 
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Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2010 12:34 am
Posts: 3
I just home from the Ukriane .Kiev .Oddessa ,Yalta ,Sevastopol.I set up 4 dates with girls with profiles on Anastasia .They are 4 for 4 .All the ladies where real .Howener where any of them interested in marring me .No .From what I understand the translator gives the girl half the money .AS my easy going persionally made me friends with the translator who shaied with me .This date was arranged by Anastasias date a lady servicd so her translator was paided by Aweb .Had a good time spend 4 huors and yes girl of my dreams .At the end of the date well what do you really do?Exchage numbers ?Do you speak Russian ?Does she speak enlish?No give her you email does she read english ?Write english ? No.Most keyboreds in Ukriane type Russian and english .If you don't read or write it you can type a letter that makes sense .Cell phones in Ukriane are all on calling cards its free to call with in the country but if you call out in 1 mintune all the time on the card will be gone the chance of here being albe to afford to call the is vary small .The most you can do is call her translator to set up another date . I did she declined .Most real scamers never decline a free meal .Date 2 in oddessa acted like she did not like me at all was anti American and was possible strung out on something a sexy girl .She would pick her teeth with a tooth pick alot .Gum disease? One thing to know is many of these ladies not matter how beantiful have dental problems bad breath ext.Lady 3 Sevastopol took her out twice gave her a gift .Affter the date I went out to a bar to get a beer low and behold there she is with her boyfriend .Lady 4 a slut fun to easy. I did sleep with her pulled my own scam told her I was going to put in for her visa andI am not !


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 Post subject: Re: Anastasia International (Anastasiaweb)
PostPosted: Sat Oct 02, 2010 1:53 pm 
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Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2010 12:34 am
Posts: 3
Just returned from Ukriane.Even with all the scams its true .This place is loaded with hot women .Every where you hot gals.You can always find a beer sit on the park bench drink a cold one just see the show.Learn to speak russian and rap to theses girls on you own you need no agency .Its also true there is some really great gals in Kiev and you can find a nice lady there .I also think most men who seek Mail order bride have trouble attracting women in the frist place .If you are kind of cool and know how to Speak Russian you could possible get laided 20 times a day no kidding .For the four thousand dollers Anastasia charges that does not incluid airfare to NYC .I send half that and toured the whole county .I took inter Ukriane flights and everything .Its a real guys kind of vacation if you go there only meet girls you will return unhappy go check out the Black sea its fantastic.They make you think it a dangerous place and you need the tour to be safe .I spend two weeks did not mugged did not even see police foor 3 days .I was out till 2 am taking pictures I don't feel this safe in San Francisco at night really I had a blast .The on thing Anastsia offers that is cool is the social only opption it worth to see once .Don't buy credits just go to the social .You could meet a nice lady at one of these you could meet a hooker or scamer as well .However it was fun .I know yes Anastasia is a ripp off .It is possble to meet a chick on the site I suppose .Some of it depends on you two and the age of the lady .There is also some hot cougers in Ukriane too.Take your own trip its safe.Also if you don't want to pay for lots of letters or the date service set up a phone reservation and see if she will give you a number to her translator this takes one letter and a phone call for 50 bucks .The lady can't call you herself she does not speak english .You also need a local phone sime card they can't afford to call you in the U.S. When you are in the Ukriane get a life phone write one leter set up phone reservation she will most liky meet you .


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 Post subject: Re: Anastasia International (Anastasiaweb)
PostPosted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 1:53 am 
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Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2010 6:12 pm
Posts: 1
I am glad to see that there is something that you can post your scams on... I was very involved with a lady on here and was going to go in January to see her. I was just about to set everything up and just happened to run across this site. WOW... Did this save me some money!!! I have already spent a lot just chatting and writting letters... Because of this site, I decided to call the lawyer that they recomend and see how many fiancee visas they get for Anastasia out of the Ukraine. He told me about 80 a year. HMMMM, My bet is he is on there payroll too.. Because I then decided to create another account and start chatting with my girlfriend... Guess what?? When I asked her if she was available she said yes. WOW. Mind you I was going there in January to ask her to marry me. We had talked about it and she was quit aware of this... I asked her other questions and she was happy to answer. I then told her I was the one she was meeting in January and said my name and let her or who ever have it.. So If your worried that your girlfriend isnt real, just create another account with a different email and start chatting.. After I told her who I really was I then logged into my own account and confronted her... She was speachless lol.


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 Post subject: Re: Anastasia International (Anastasiaweb)
PostPosted: Fri Dec 24, 2010 11:41 pm 
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Joined: Fri Dec 24, 2010 11:32 pm
Posts: 1
Anastasia International is the 100% pure scam. I recently browsed their "brides" and could not believe my eyes when I saw "bride" Anna, age 35 (ID: 1609014). First of all this woman works as interpreter for several marriage agencies in Odessa, Ukraine including Anastasia International. She is highly professional scam artist, gold digger and the #1 fraud in Odessa, Ukraine marriage agencies business. This Armenian woman keeps coaching dozens of other girls how to extort money and expensive gifts from foreigners Furthermore, this so called bride is currently married and been married during the past several years to her second husband. During the winter when number of foreign men drops, she becomes "bride" herself. So much for Anastasia International "Fraud Screening".


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 Post subject: Re: Anastasia International (Anastasiaweb)
PostPosted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 8:32 am 
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Joined: Mon Jan 31, 2011 8:20 am
Posts: 2
Hi,
I have a proof, that Anastasia Dating is a Scam. I have received an insider information
of an emplyee. She told me that between 1000 and 2000 men are visiting every year
Odessa in Ukraine. Only 1 or two of these men marry the woman!!!
It is all about creating an small income for the girls but much more for the site and
a lot of associated people from translaters to restaurants. It is a scam industry.
I wonder if someone has already started legal steps.

Hope that this helps someone

fool999


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 Post subject: Re: Anastasia International (Anastasiaweb)
PostPosted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 11:04 pm 
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Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2010 12:34 am
Posts: 3
Well the good news is yes someone has taken legal action go to jims list you will find it .I am now dateing a Russian women I met on match .com .A former m.o.b. so far she has been nothing but the nicest person I enjoy here company at lot .There is still some great girls all over the f.s.u. She told me that many will leave you affter they get a green card .They think all americans are rich and if they find out your not they my want to go back to the f.s.u .Russian men are expected to give them lots of gifts and will exspect this from you as well .She also says many ar just looking for love .You just have to try your best to find a good one .They do out number the men and its true they sometimes have a hard time finding love .


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 Post subject: Re: Anastasia International (Anastasiaweb)
PostPosted: Sat May 21, 2011 7:49 pm 
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Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2011 11:22 am
Posts: 14
YOU SHOULD NOW CHECK MY TOPIC OF DATING IMBALANCES-THERE I WILL PUT MANY DATING SITES AND THEIR IMBALANCES FOR ALL THE WORLD TO SEE

I REALLY AM LOOKING FORWARD TO DO THIS WITH ANATASIADATE.COM


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 Post subject: Re: Anastasia International (Anastasiaweb)
PostPosted: Sat May 21, 2011 8:27 pm 
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Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2011 11:22 am
Posts: 14
PLEASE READ MY POST ON MY TOPIC OF DATING IMBALANCES (NOT THAT I AM PROMOTING MY TOPIC BUT)-ON THERE IS A GIRL WHO HAD THE MOST STRANGEST ISSUE WITH ANASTASIA :shock:


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 Post subject: Re: Anastasia International (Anastasiaweb)
PostPosted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 10:13 pm 
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Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2011 9:55 pm
Posts: 2
I am a woman who receives unsolicited emails from Anastasiadate.com. I have phoned them and told them I have no interest in dating or marrying a Russian girl and that there is some sort of mistake. The last time the fellow answering the phone said he would remove me from the database.


Last edited by OldGirl on Wed Oct 26, 2011 1:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Anastasia International (Anastasiaweb)
PostPosted: Sat Oct 22, 2011 12:59 pm 
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Location: Third Rock from the Sun
Quote:
I have phoned them and told them I have no interest in dating or marrying a Russian girl that there is some sort of mistake.


The best thing to do is to mark it as spam and then delete it. Do not respond to anymore emails, as it tells the person that they have a valid email address.

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 Post subject: Re: Anastasia International (Anastasiaweb)
PostPosted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 5:56 pm 
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Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2011 9:55 pm
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Anastasia has deleted me from their database. Thank heavens.


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 Post subject: Re: Anastasia International (Anastasiaweb)
PostPosted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 10:49 pm 
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Posts: 4
Just a quick thank-you to whoever started this thread and to all those who contributed - I was seriously considering adding to Anastasia's coffers before I happened on this forum!

It's a pity it's a scam, but as others have suggested here and which also seems to be backed up by other disgruntled Anastasia-users I have googled, this seems more a 'cottage-industry' type-thing rather than being just confined to Anastasiadate - for instance, one guy complained about how after traveling to the Ukraine to meet his 'betroved' he had to foot a restaurant-bill for both the woman and the seemingly obligatory translator for a cool $300 - only to have them try pulling the same crap on the second-date with a different Anastasia woman! Having had enough and heading for the exit, he was stopped and threatened with the police, so he ended up getting fleeced for $150 for a dinner he never had! So it seems that the local restaurants are in on this too.

One other point about Anastasiadate, they seem to be rolling out the webcam-thing big-time at the moment. There seems to be a 'glitch' with their software which occasionally results in an image of some of the women being briefly displayed - in other words, they are really whom they claim to be, not some fat hairy Russian guy or something! Whether they're operating from 'home' or Anastasia's offices is another matter though - I've often logged on when it's the middle of the night Ukraine-time & when they should all be tucked up in bed fast asleep, only to be bombarded by models 'desperate' to have a webcam-chat! And as I mentioned, many of these girls are actually there, it's quite funny actually. :) The one other thing I've noticed about Anastasiadate's site and as may also have been touched upon here, while there's no checkable testimonials available, their "Anastasia in the news" stuff almost exclusively points to financial-sites dealing with articles looking at the dating-scene as a business, not to reviews of Anastasiadate themselves! What interest would a potential Anastasiadate customer have in the opinions of groups whose sole interest is in maximizing profits??? Finally, I've also happened across Anastasiadate's "anti-scam" site - how hypocritical can you get, from the get-go they give the impression that the main thing the customer needs to be aware of is greedy ladies scamming moneys for visas/flights etc, not a word about Introduction-agencies like themselves possibly having a hand in the looting.....

And trying to find a one legit operation is no small task either. I thought Elena's Models was the real deal until I came across a wealth of defamatory stuff about them/her - they all seem to be mud-slinging at each other with the sole intention of muddying the waters further. Elena's still seems to me to be the best pick though, but almost $500 for just 6 months is certainly not cheap!

I've also been checking out Anastasia's Asian site, as I find Oriental ladies as delectable as Ukraine's blue-eyed lasses! I mention this 'cos in this thread the point was raised that in todays former-Soviet-states, things are nowhere near as bad as some outsiders make out, and women are not gagging for a reason to leave. The same misguided thinking seems to apply to China. While the standard of living is certainly lower for the average Chinese women than for her Western counterpart, from reading through non-partisan blogs/forums it is clear to me that many/most 'Chinese-brides' are very reluctant to leave China. The huge difference between say Ukraine & Chinese women is twofold, one the enormous population - 465,000,000 women in 2008 - and two, Chinese men seem to mainly like young women so abandon their wives in droves, with the result that there is an absolutely huge number of divorced Chinese women who are destined to end their life alone. Bad for them of course but good for anyone outside of China looking for an Oriental bride! Particularly since they are both far more willing to leave their country, and there are huge numbers of them that are absolutely stunning!!! What were their idiotic ex-husbands thinking... Personally I'm seriously thinking of visiting for 3-6 months, hopefully in the not too distant future, and who knows, I might end up staying :D Oops, gone off-topic, sorry!

I'll end with this interesting link for those that are still on the fence with regards to Anastasiadate - this is from the "Better Business Bureau" organization which rates business' from 'A' (excellent) to 'F' (abysmal), and there's no prizes for guessing which end of the scale Anastasiadate is at;

http://www.bbb.org/boston/business-reviews/dating-service/anastasia-international-inc-in-bangor-me-87318/

Yep, the lowest possible score :D :D :D


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 Post subject: Re: Anastasia International (Anastasiaweb)
PostPosted: Sun Dec 04, 2011 10:43 am 
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Joined: Sat Nov 19, 2011 8:25 pm
Posts: 4
I just thought I'd give a update on my experience with Anastasia. As I said in the above post, I was planning to fund an account I opened with the Russian site but didn't. However the lure of Anastasia's 'Asian Beauties' proved too much for me, so I funded an account there to the sum of $96 (160 credits) to see for myself.

Not impressed, after 1 week and 0 credits remaining, pretty much sums it up! :D :D :D

First off, just funding the account is a little bit scary. Once you fill in your credit card details, there is no 'Confirmation' menu-dialog whatsoever when you click the 'Pay' button, meaning that it immediately debits you card - so if you had forgotten to select the number of credits you wished to purchase, it would automatically select the 'default' value, which this being Anastasia, you probably would have guessed is for the maximum 1000 credits - that's a cool $399 without a "Are you sure?" confirmation! And make sure that you do not automatically select the 'auto-top-up when credits run low' option that's there either, which would be very easy to do...

Apart from the obvious 'up-front' raping-you-financially charges that you incur, it's the 'extras' that really pissed me off. The most obvious is having the pay both to send-and-receive letters - I knew that the ladies weren't charged, not that you are charged to read their letters as well, so that's 20 credits please (10 * 2 credits or up to $8 * 2 = $16 total). Had I realized this from the get-go I would probably never have funded the account. But there's worse - when sending a letter, were you to include more that one photo as an attachment, you are charged 10 credits for each additional photo, up to a maximum of 6. That's about $50 just to send 1 email, which is really insane! Same madness goes for "Virtual Gifts" - ladies can flood you with these all day long for free, but it costs the men 15 credits each time! And the 'Gift' is simply a little graphic-character - a rose or teddy-bear for instance, with the option to add a short note. The same 'reduce your credits in any way possible' thinking is also in evidence with the Chat option. The 'standard' charge is 1 credit/min with a minimum of 1 credit being used up even if it's just a simple "Hello!". However if you add anything other than Happy or Sad smilies to a text message, you are charged one credit for each 'non-standard' smiley - which again, to me is completely insane! Where things get criminally insane regards the web-cam. Although you can get to see the lady for 'only' 2 credits/min, if you select 2-way video you are charged 6 credits/min - that's about $300/hr!!! The one other thing worth mentioning is that the same 'no confirmation asked for' applies throughout the site - click on the wrong button, and your credits are automatically deducted. With so many spam-letters being sent to my mailbox by Anastasia, several times I accidentally clicked the wrong one, so it's completely unforgiving...

I spoke to about only 4 ladies, and only 2 in a meaningful way. The one I regarded as having the most potential, so spent the most credits on, turned out to be a real stinker. After 4 email exchanges and being suitably impressed with her seeming sincerity, I suggested that we might make arrangements to take our correspondence off-site, but she absolutely didn't want to know! - despite my having detailed just how much it was costing! As she was a divorcee whose marriage had supposedly failed through lack of communication, a recurring line in almost all of her emails was that communication was essential, and how she so looked forward to each and every email of mine. So her 'solution' was equally revealing - seeing as she was happy with the free-service, I should just limit what I spent - that was what she said, I kid you not!!! This woman is either paid to do this or she is just there to be entertained, but as many others have said, it's almost impossible to prove one way or the other.

The other lady I had emailed several times also seemed to be genuine, and as it turned out, in fact was. Another divorcee, she had been looking to remarry for several years and I in fact later found an entry, several years old, for her in the AFA dating-site. She was also more than happy to correspond via normal email. In one email where I detailed some of Anastasia's horrendous charges, she responded that she had no idea that the service cost the men this much to use. So it would appear that the women are kept pretty well insulated from the financial-buggery perpetrated by Anastasia on the menfolk - at least with many of the 'geniune' women that are using the free-service anyway. And there seems to be at least some good apples among the women that are registered.

What also became obvious after many many hours of observation and during widely varying hours, is that many women log-on at practically the same time every day, logging out 8-12 hours later - just like it's their day-job! A few hardly ever seem to go off-line at all. Again, impossible to prove anything though. One final example of potential-skulduggery involved one particularly beautiful 20 year old. After just a few exchanges via the Chat option, she was proclaiming her undying love for me - despite my not having then even uploaded a photo - followed by a spate of expensive-to-open letters probably saying more of the same! Hilarious - if the joke hadn't been on me...

To sum up, Anastasia's site is specifically designed for one and one thing only - reduce the credits that you have purchased as quickly as possible. There seems to be at least some genuine ladies there but separating the wheat from the chaff would undoubtedly prove prohibitively expensive. I read on another site that due to what Anastasia offers Affiliates, they have to extort a minimum of $500 per paying customer. My question is, how are they still in business? Is their 'typical' customer so desperate/sexually-frustrated that they are willing to throw away at least this amount? Having used the service, it's not like their is anything like a feeling of value-for-money associated with this. The one thing I will say about their setup is that it's pretty slick, and know firsthand why someone would like to try it out. But I certainly won't be back! It would be nice if some other operator came out with a similar offering with substantially reduced charges, forcing Anastasia to follow suit. As for me, I think I might try out AFA for now. Their site really looks dated in comparison, but as it employs a different business-model I guess it's unfair to compare it to Anastasia's setup, but at least you can purchase contact information directly.


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 Post subject: Re: Anastasia International (Anastasiaweb)
PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 5:19 am 
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Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2011 5:33 am
Posts: 123
These women aren't scammers. They are what is called pro-daters. They are real women that you can actually meet in real life, but are only interested in men's money, expensive gifts, restaurants, trips, etc... They have NO intention of marrying anybody or leaving the country.

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