1 - If a scammer is an individual

Since a lot of correspondence needs to be handled, most of their letters are prewritten. In fact, we believe that the scammers have at least 50 different prewritten letters, to fit lots of situations. This is their weakest point, since once we have got a couple of examples of any particular scammer "letters", we can easily spot them again among hundreds of other letters.

Because the letters are prewritten, they are VERY generic. Most of the time they just create the appearance of a personal letter, and as such consist mainly of long descriptions of what happened today, "girl's" favorite things to do, etc ("today I have been eating a fruit salad. I love fruit salads and eat them often").
The letters are very long and fancy.
The questions you ask will not be answered in the middle if the letter, but maybe as a P.S. note or as a few first or last lines.

Your name will not appear anywhere in the letter. Instead, there will be lots of "sweet darling", "my new friend", "honey", "my love" and anything like this. Your name will be only mentioned once or twice at the beginning or the end of the letter.
Your name appears to be in a different font than the rest of the letter.
Sometimes the questions you have asked don't answered at all or are answered a few letters later - sometimes because there is too much correspondence going on the girl have forgotten who asked what, or sometimes because you asked the "wrong" questions.

The girl asks you some questions you have discussed before (for example, she would ask you if you like this and that while you have told her before that you do like it).

The girl will make some little mistakes like mentioning different dates of her birthday, or different color of her eyes or hair, than the girl in the picture has.

The girl will start to develop some strong feelings toward you within an unusually short period of time - less than a week of correspondence or less than two weeks. Honest Russian girls are very careful and guarded when talking about their feelings. Usually the words "love" and "marriage" will come not earlier than a few months of knowing each other closely. They do not fall in love from the first picture.

The girl will talk a lot about trust and understanding, telling you that she always trusts people she is dealing with. That is supposed to make you think that she herself is a very honest person.
The girl sends you a picture with every letter.
The pictures has numbers like next to them exceeding 5 or 10 (like Smirnova_K.15.jpg). Very few real girls have so many pictures available or ever fewer giving them numeric names.

Her "love" will grow stronger with every single letter and in a week or so she will be completely crazy about you. Again, this would be very unusual for honest Russian girls who know that the real feelings need time to develop and to be tested.

She will start sending more and more erotic pictures of herself or describe her sexual dreams about you. You can ask yourself who made those erotic pictures and for what purpose - or ask her, and see what she answers. Just for your information the vast majority of Russian girls would never even think about sending a picture of themselves in their underwear to a person they hardly know. They probably wouldn't even have such pictures at all.

The girl will start describing an urgent desire to meet you in person within a month or so of correspondence.

Your suggestion of coming to her country to meet her first is for some reason rejected. Very strong scammer alert - usually honest girls would prefer if you would come to visit them first, so they could introduce you to their family and make sure that you are what you say and you yourself are not a scam. Not to mention that a tourist visa is almost impossible for a marriage- age Russian woman to obtain, and the K-1 fiancé visa requires you to have met face to face in the last two years. This means virtually every successful and "real" relationship requires the man to travel to Russia to meet the girl.

The girl's family member or friend is working in a travel agency or airport.

The girl's family member or friend is working in a university and can place her on the student exchange program.

The girl went ahead and applied for a visa without discussing it with you. This way she can be sure that the talk about money for the visa is inescapable. This is a very strong "scammer" signal since no honest girl in her right mind will apply for a visa without discussing it with you first. The honest girl will probably not even know how to apply for a visa. Most probably, an honest girl will leave the problem of obtaining a visa for her to you (since she most likely will first need an invitation from you anyway). This point also shows the girl's very little knowledge about getting the visa. Visit your country's embassy web site to get familiar with the necessary processes which are required before the application for a visa can be made, and you will be amazed how easily it is to catch a liar on this point. Or call an immigration attorney to ask him what he thinks about your "fiancée's" decision. You would hear him laughing loudly.

The girl went ahead and paid some amount already, so the process would begin (usually $20-$50 of her own "reserve" money). This way she could be sure that you will definitely send the rest of the sum needed for visa, so her own money will not get wasted.

She gives you very detailed instructions about sending money via Western Union. ("You will need my full name - and it is such and such. Then they will give you a 10-digit number. I will need this number to receive the money"). Why is she so familiar with the process? Her "friend" has received money this way from her fiancé... Or works in a bank. Or something. Again, a very easy point to notice. Ask a few hundred common Russian girls what they know about receiving the money through Western Union, and a very few of them will have any idea of what Western Union is. But scammers do know Western Union's requirements very well.

The name of the receiver of the money is not her own or does not exactly match her name (for example "Pavlo" (men's name) instead of "Pavla" (woman's name)

If you do not really want HER to buy the tickets, she stubbornly insists on buying them herself anyway.

If you do not send the money at her request, she starts writing to you much less, than before. The scammer is not going to waste time on "smart" victims. Probably, they won't send the money anyway. But they will still keep the correspondence going just in case you change your mind.

If you do send the sum required, the announcement of some unexpected additional expenses comes shortly. It may be an increase in the cost of the tickets, some problems with the visa process, some terrible tragedy with girl's relatives or money just got stolen. The problems are usually unexpected and not the girl's fault.

Since you started sending money, some evil eye is on the girl and her family. The money got stolen again and again, her mother is hit by a car and needs an operation, she herself got a heart attack and is dieing in hospital without necessary medications.... the only way out is stop sending the money before her family become completely extinct!

Other things to watch out for: the girl starts asking for Internet-cafe money very shortly after the correspondence begins; in the first few letters she describes you the exact amount of her salary ($60 dollars almost always); she is 26 years old and a virgin; her e-mail changes frequently and without particular reason; she gives her info necessary for wire transfers even if you did not ask for it; she initiates the visa talk; the letters are very poetic and passionate, but not too detailed; her mother (father/brother/uncle) is very ill and dying in front of her eyes (or "on her eyes" as it is usually said); she used the word "structure" in her first letters to you ("I liked your structure very much", "I have looked your structure" - these phrases have been found in a number of scammer letters); she loves eating fruit salad; she wants to be a professional model.

2 - If a scammer is an agency

The agency's web site does not have it's own domain but uses something like www.geocities.123456.stp.natashashotgirls.com (it means that it is a free web site and free domain name - very strong scam-alert). That by itself does not necessarily makes the agency a scammer, but in combination with other signals it could be a strong warning.

On the web site the only contact information available is their e-mail address, no physical address or phone listed.

Their e-mail address is free and practically anonymous (like natashashotgirls12345@hotmail.com). This is an especially strong scam-alert signal if no other contact information is provided.

The agency does not have any return policy - again, this fact itself does not make an agency a scammer, but in combination with other warning signals can mean a lot.

Lots of the girls on this poorly-done web site are extremely pretty. Ask yourself how such a poor web site could get so many pretty girls at one place - does this seem normal compared to other sites?

Agency offers lots of services and almost all of them are already prepackaged for you so you are forced to use them.

Communication with the agency is very poor and unreliable.

Some of the ordered addresses never came.

The girls' introductory letters that you receive through the agency are identical to each other.

Agency insists on using their translation and mail forwarding services.

If you order a picture or a video of a girl to be taken, they come in the wrong format (ex.. you ordered 30-minutes video but received a 45-minutes video, or vice versa), or the background of the picture is out of season (snow in the middle of July or green trees on the "Christmas" picture).

The agency refuses to give you any direct addresses or phone numbers. They suggest you keep in contact with the girl through their office. They may explain it is for the "protection" of the girls.

Some of your requests, questions or complaints are left unanswered. The agency may claim that they sent you a reply but the mail got lost.

Of course, the biggest warning is that the agency asks you to send money for a tourist visa and tickets for the girl. They are supposed to know that a tourist visa is almost impossible to obtain for a Russian or Ukrainian girl unless she can show something like $5000 income per month.

Am I being scammed if: The person I am writing to is listed on some catalogs even after she states that she likes me and wants to meet me? Well, if she placed a half of dozen of those ads in different catalogs before, she may not remember to remove them later. Also, the agencies may keep selling her address for their own profits. You may try to "reply" to her existing listing using a different name and e-mail address, and see what happens.

She tells me that her Internet costs a lot, and she has very little money to pay for it. This may be the complete truth - Internet-cafes DO cost a lot, and the average salary in Russia is $50 - $60 per month. Even given that an hour in the Internet cafe costs only $1 (more often more that that), how much must she love you to spend a third of her monthly income to be able to write you each month? But if this is one of the FIRST things she mentions in her very first letters, then it is a scam-alert. Usually honest girls will wait until some degree of relationship has started to develop to get brave enough to mention that some support is needed.

The agency requested me to pay something to be able to continue writing to her. Unless it is a scheduled membership renewal - yes, it is a strong scam alert. Ask the agency to give you the girl's address or phone so you could contact her on your own. If they refuse to do so, just stop using that agency (and please report that agency to us - we will place it on the Possibly Dishonest Agencies list). If your wish to continue your correspondence with the girl is still very strong, use one of the investigation services they may be able find out if the "girl" exists at all and to locate her address and phone if possible.

She never uses my name. She gives me a lot of sweet and nice names but never calls me by name. We would say it is a usual scam indication. But if the letters are very personal and have all your questions answered in detail and do not have any other scam-symptoms, then it might just be that person's manner of speaking. If there ARE other scam-symptoms in the letters, then you may wish to be careful with that person. She said her friend works in a travel agency. Of course there IS a possibility that one of the girl's friends really works in a travel agency, but we would suggest you keep your eyes open for other scam-alert signals. If you would like to know for sure - ask the girl for the name of the agency her friend works for, and see what the girl says. If she gives you the name of the agency her friend is supposed to work for, we can check that agency for you easily.

She said her mom is very ill and they are paying a lot for the treatment. Well, it is the second most often used reason for scammers to ask for money, but we would not rush to place her on our black list just because of that. In her particular situation this may be the complete truth. Many people's parents (especially if they are pretty old already) do get very ill and do need expensive treatments and drugs. We suggest you go though all black lists you can find and make sure that your friend is not on one of them already. If you didn't find her on any black list, but still would like to find out for sure how her mom is doing, we could check it for you. And if her mom is really as ill as she says, we would suggest you help your Russian friend if you like her a lot and if you are in stable financial situation yourself. That will probably mean a lot to her. If the story with mommy's illness turns out to be a lie, you will know exactly with whom you are dealing.

She has already fallen in love with me but we have hardly been writing each other for a month. Unless you are ex- Mr. Universe and lots of girls everywhere are crazy about you - it IS probably a scam. Check all black lists and send us copies of her letters, if you wish. We can compare her letters to a few hundreds of other scammers letters and see if we find your Russian admirer in our database. Her feelings for me are very strong. I am many years older than her and in my country I am not considered to be very attractive for a girl of her age. 50/50 scammer possibility. Many girls in Russia do prefer dating older men, and 10-20 years difference is very common. But be aware that many scammers commonly prey on older western men, since they are considered to be a pretty easy target. What you can do to try to make sure she is not a scammer: 1)Check all black lists to see if the girl's pictures are already there. 2) If you didn't find anything that way, try to write to her under a different name and use a different age, mention that you are making a good living, and ready to support your new Russian friend. See what she will do. She didn't mentioned ill mom or money for visa yet, but she is telling me about her poor financial situation in every letter. She may be a scammer or may be a girl in a very poor financial situation, who desperately tries to get your help. To see what kind of person it is you may just mention that you are in a bad financial situation yourself and would love to help her with money but cannot at the moment. If she is as attracted to your personality, as she says, she will understand that (in that case I would suggest you do help her at least with the money for the costs of Internet). If she is there just for the money, her letters will become less and less loving and she will probably drop the correspondence.

In many of her letters she tells me the same things over and over again, in exactly the same words. Yes, big possibility of a "copy and paste" scammer. They use prewritten letters and take pieces of them as they need. Check all black lists very carefully, and consider writing the girl using a different name. See if her letters will change. She said she doesn't have a phone so I cannot call her. Maybe a complete truth. Even in major cities lots of people in FSU do not have a phone in the house. But we can check if she DOES have a phone. If she does you may ask yourself why would she lie about that.