Is it possible to punish the scammer?

There are many men who have suffered from scammers. Many lost some money from them and much more who stopped and realized that they are scammed and did not send any money, but they have suffered also – from broken heart and broken hopes. When communicating with men and helping them check the Russian girls they are communicating with, I meet often with the situation when a man wants to punish the scammers and asks if it is possible. Yes, it is possible. And it is done. There were several loud cases when scammers were put to prison in Russia. Recently a group of men contacted me with the question if I have any information on one woman in my scammerlist. They hired a lawyer who filed a case against one woman in St-Petersburg. Unfortunately, I did not have any information on her, just had her in my database of scammers (she registered to my dating site but after checking I saw that she is in scammer databases and put her to my scammerlist instead of my dating site). But this case made me glad. The men were great working on this together. I hope I will listen to this court procedures.

But to punish a scammer a man should send her at least some money. He should have something with what to go to the police. Then he has two options. He can come to Russia and file a case against her (usually against the group) that scammed her. He should go to the police department that works with the address where he sent money (when sending Western union, a man should know the address (or at least a city and country). Or he can hire a private detective (a lawyer) that can file the complaint instead. In the first case no money is needed, but the man should travel there. In the second case, a money paid to a detective is needed, but the man should not come. He is asked to be present later at the court but then his expenses for coming there and staying are covered.

Recently I met also an interesting case. A man whose girlfriend in Russia I checked after my analysis went to Australian consulate and checked there that yes, that girl had not have a visa to Australia (he was told by her that she had a visa to Australia and needed money from him for airplane). Then he contacted also Western union and they suggested a scheme to him. They will give him false MTSN number and when the girl will come to fetch her money, she will be arrested. I can’t say for sure that it works, I wish the man has written to me again with the result. The main problem that I see here is that usually Western union payments are given in many small offices everywhere. I can’t imagine putting policemen to all of them. There is a guard there, but I am not sure that he is competent to make arrest.

There were several cases when scammers were caught and put to prison. The most loud one was in Yoshkar-Ola in 2006. (there was also another case there in 2004). There was a big scammer group in Yoshkar-Ola, about 200 people. The leaders of the group rent several flats to work from and hired all other people just as ordinary workers. Some workers went to different sites and wrote the first letter to men, some (as a rule, men) communicated with them if they answered, they had standard letters that they should send. Then women were hired just to phone to men and had very simple quick talk with them. Women were hired as couriers who had to go to Western union offices and take money on their passport. The income of this organization was more than 30 000 usd a month. The first man who filed a case about them was a man from Europe who lost more than 30 000 euro to Russia; he came and filed a case. The police interrogated the woman that received the money, and then found the man who hired her, and then little by little took all the group. Only leaders of the group at the end were sentenced to prison for 6 years.

Another case when scammers in Russia were arrested was in Yekaterinburg. Girls with her boyfriend were arrested. They created a site with Russian girls www.russiangirls.ru, they took pictures from different magazines and just from different other sites. The agency was not big and they communicated with men from all these women. Men sent women money for visa and travel, sent gifts, then the men were sent a notice that something happened and the woman can’t come to them. One man from Canada when he received a message that his “fiancée” was robbed by Russian mafia came to Yekaterinburg and applied to police. The couple was arrested. They were given 6 and 7 years of prison. There were several other cases when scammers were arrested but these were rather recent and loud.

The scammers are very active, that’s why it seems that there are much more scammers than real Russian girls. But it is not so. On my dating site I see that scammers usually go from the same ip addresses, they write that they are from different cities, write different names, emails, but it is the same place they work from. Russian girls have traditional family values and it is men who should show the initiative in their opinion, it is men who should make the first sign. For Western men it is different- they are mostly accustomed to women making the first step in getting acquainted. That’s where scammers come in. They see it as their niche, while women register to different Russian dating agencies and wait, wait, wait for men to write to them, scammers write, write to men countless first letters. Men want a blond young girl falling in love with them – no problem they fall in love in several letters and write in details about future happy life. 60 year old man wants to meet a 22-28 year old girl – no problem is here also (they won’t need to live with him later and it does not matter from whom to take money if he is 30 or if he is 60, a Christian or a Muslim). They just feed on expectation of men; they made them true at least in letters and wait for a good compensation for this.