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!â€
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.â€
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