Czech fraudsters work MySpace for Russian dating scam
If an attractive Russian woman contacts you after being intrigued by your MySpace profile, chances are she’s not Russian, not a woman, and not really interested in you. What he or she is probably trying to do is to suck you into into the so called Russian Dating Scam. That’s the experience of one Australian man who was recently the target of such a deception.
Fraudsters behind the Russian Dating Scam usually target single 40-something males, and once trust is established through ongoing dialogue, the fraudsters start requesting money, which is usually required because of some unforeseen misfortune. It’s really just a variant of the infamous Nigerian Letter scam, where the target is persuaded to advance relatively small amounts of money in the hope of gaining a much larger amount. In the case of the Russian Dating Scam, victims are tricked into handing over sums of money in the hope of gaining the love of a beautiful woman.
The Sydney Morning Herald recently highlighted a case of Danny, a 45-year-old Australian music producer who was approached by Lena (pictured), apparently a Russian doctor, who said she like his MySpace profile.
From the outset Lena sent long romantic emails that talked about how much she wanted to visit Australia. Surprise, surprise, during the course of the exchange of emails Lena decided to visit her sister in Australia, but Danny wasn’t initially asked for money.
It was only after Lena’s brother-in-law started having problems transferring the money to Russia for the air fare that Danny was asked for assistance, and that’s when alarm bells started ringing.
“I was happy for her to come, but I wasn’t about to send her money or anything. I thought maybe she was young and doing something a little rash,” Danny told the Sydney Morning Herald.
By checking the IP addresses attached to the emails he received from Lena, Danny discovered that the emails were originating from the Czech Republic, not St Petersburg, where Lena claimed to live. He also found that the emails were being sent via a mass email client. When Danny confronted Lena with this information, he stopped receiving emails.
What’s the take away of this story?
The next time an attractive woman starts throwing herself at you on MySpace for no good reason, it’s probably not because you’ve got a cool profile.
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July 31st, 2007
Anybody interetsed in Russian women should be aware of Russian dating scams. I recommend to use dating scammers search engine and you will receive detailed information regarding the presence or location of any or specific Russian lady on dating scammers black lists and anti-scam sites. Really useful tool.
April 5th, 2009
My son who is now out of country went in to My Space in Russian and he does not remember sign in or password now I am hung w/50 e-mails a day.How do I delete. I cannot read Russian.