She called me on the phone

by Frank
(Florida, USA)

Question: I have been writing a Russian girl for about a month and she seems real. She's not overly beautiful, just nice, but she wants to fly to visit me in the states. This worries me a little because at some point I will need to provide travel expense above me buying airplane ticket (will purchase with credit card). I also have worry that a single woman with little money could actually get tourist visa to visit the U. S.

Today she called me on telephone. This was a nice surprise and she spoke OK English.

I suggested that we meet in Moscow. She finally agreed but says she needs 500.00 for clothing and travel from her city of Nizhny Tagil.

I think if I am still nervous I might hire an investigator. This is more than $500.00, but I am more worried about traveling to Moscow and getting stranded in the airport.

Thanks for any help - Frank

Bob's Answer:

Hi Frank, and thanks for the great question. Your situation is actually very common.

How did you meet this girl? On which website? The details of your meeting would probably tell me more, but I can confidently say that I believe your suspicions are warranted.

I realize that she may seem "real", as you say. And since you spoke to her by phone, you know there is a real person behind the emails. But I am confident that this situation will end with you much poorer and without a girlfriend or wife if you pursue it further. Everything about this sounds fishy to me.

You are more right than you know about the tourist visa. Russian women are very rarely ever issued a tourist visa to visit the U.S. And if you had gone for this and offered to pay for the flight with a credit card (i.e. so that she could not just skip with cash), her next request would have been for you to pay for the visa, or some good reason why the flight she needed required her to pay cash.

The simple reality is that a GOOD Russian woman with sincere intentions would rather die than ask a man for money, at least before they ever met face to face. Yeah, if you had met several times, proposed marriage, and were working on your fiancee visa, then she might expect a little help in paying for the visa, or maybe even a little help with living expenses. But never before the first real meeting.

And when you turned it on her by asking if she would meet in Moscow, after she "finally agreed" (sounds like she didn't really like the idea) she still turned it into a cash request. She could easily take a train or bus to Moscow for less than $100 round trip. And money for CLOTHES? If you send this money I think it is unlikely you would ever see her at the airport.

I can only comment based on what you tell me, and based on the information you've provided here, I strongly believe that this girl is bad news. She is not sincerely seeking a relationship, but rather is simply in business to get cash.

I seriously doubt that an investigator could help. Save your money.

Don't worry though, there are plenty of attractive, sweet, feminine, SINCERE Russian women to go around, you just need to look in the right places. As you may have read on my site, I have found that Russian-Ukrainian-Women.com is easily the most scam-free site in the business. You will still need to use some common sense and a little guidance (you bring the common sense, this site provides a little guidance), but it's my best recommendation, and it's a heck of a lot cheaper than hiring an investigator!

Anyway, please feel free to follow up and I will be happy to try to help.