If you had a bad experience with any individual represented by any dating agency, please let them know. This may help to stop dishonest people and organizations from taking advantage of customers.

The scam relies on the good will of lonely people, usually men, who will be too embarrassed to report the crime.

These inter-net scams are relatively simple. The criminals, either female con artists or men posing as Russian women in meeting their victims through personal ads on web sites such as America Online and Match.com, supposedly seeking love.

They then write e-mails and send pictures, usually of a pretty model.

Eventually a visit will be arranged; that's when the scammers ask the victim to pay for a visa and plane tickets, or ask for money or credit card numbers to pay for one thing or another.

When the scammer thinks the victim is running out of money (or getting suspicious), they simply stop returning emails and move on to the next victim.

For info on "Russian Bride" or other scams visit

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