1. Do your home work and if you are getting serious with someone check to see if they may be listed on any one of the many great scammer sites on the Internet. A good one to start with is our friend Elena operating the Russian Detectives or our friend Marisa operating the Romance Scam site. Bookmark these sites and check them often and do Internet searches for these kind of sites. Sometimes you can identify a scammer with only their picture or one of many e-mail addresses. To protect yourself you have to always be suspicious even though they say all the things you want to hear and you really want to believe what they are saying.


2. After many e-mails back and forth if you feel that you are dealing with a real person who has not asked for money then she may be genuinely interested in you. Now it may be time to touch base and actually talk to that special person. (If they say the don't have a phone you should be suspicious. How do they use the internet?) Shop for a good deal on an international calling card. There are many that are not very expensive or much more than long distance in the USA. Telecard is the best deal on an international calling card that we have found. Even if the woman's English is not the best you can still tell a lot about someone by just speaking with them. (Here another scam is worth mentioning. Never dial area codes 809, 284, or 876. Those area codes are routed through the British Virgin Islands and if you are calling from the USA your phone charges apparently could be hundreds of dollars).


3. Since you are never going to send money to anyone that you haven't met in person there are now at least a couple more directions to go. If she can afford to travel and come to meet you then that may be a good sign and she may be legitimate in her intentions.


4. If she cannot afford to purchase her plane ticket and visa so she can come to America to meet you in person, then the next oblivious step is to your benefit because you are taking charge of the situation. Instead of your next vacation in the states that you take each year, this time you might want to consider taking a wonderful trip and experience an adventure with international travel. This is the only way that you can be sure you will use your money wisely and get something in return. Two good things can happen now. Either you meet your new romantic friend, everything is exactly how you hoped it would be, and you live happily ever after. Or you went on a wonderful vacation exploring lots of new things that you never would have otherwise experienced. Your hard earned money went to a good cause and you enjoyed every dollar getting something in return. Nothing was lost! There are even travel tours specifically designed for this purpose if you don't want to travel alone.


5. If you can't or don't want to have the adventure of traveling you can check with immigration to see if the woman is who she says she is and is truly seeking a visa to visit you in the USA. It is safer investment to do this through an immigration lawyer here in the states since you will eventually need one. A good place to start would be with your local immigration lawyer. The last time we checked a visa can be granted to a person if she or he is going to the US to get married to a US citizen. It is usually valid for 3 months if she has already met someone from the US - time which is considered enough to organize a wedding. Check with USCIS for the newest information about these rules. Never wire the money to the woman so that she can take care of it and never trust the forwarded e-mails from immigration or her travel agents. Again, this information is not reliable and simple to create. Your immigration lawyer will give you good advice and explain in detail all of your choices. It is always best to talk to professionals who know the system and once again you are sure to get something for your money.

Another scam is when a man contacts you and say that he represents a dating agency in Russia and there is a beautiful girl interested in contacting you, or perhaps she has already contacted you and now the communication is interrupted. The only problem is that the girl has financial problems and can't pay the dating agency costs. If you could pay the small fee (and maybe a translation fee), then she can contact you. This is always 100% a scam, because Russian dating agencies do not charge the girls. There are other variations on this scam such as translation fees, so be very careful and please forward us the e-mail and the member number and we will delete and block them immediately.


If you experience anything with any of our members that you feel is inappropriate or is fraudulent you should report it to us immediately. We can then take a look at it and if it is more than a simple misunderstanding, the people who are committing any fraud will be removed from our system immediately. We delete profiles everyday and take steps to prevent from entering the system again. All that we need is the member name of the person soliciting you along with the forwarded e-mail where they asked you for money.


Otherwise if you don't have a soliciting e-mail to send us, then simply forward us a link to the page of the scam site they are listed on. Be sure to include their member number and be sure to always keep track of it. If you have the e-mail address that they used to sign up with that is even better. Scammers are very good at what they do and use multiple e-mail addresses which intentionally can become a little confusing. If we can confirm they are soliciting for money we will then delete their profile, block their IP and permanently remove them from our site. This is a never ending international game that we do not tolerate. For the criminals to get back into the system they need a new picture, new e mail address, new story, and upload a new profile through a different computer with a different IP address. They are persistent and will do this but we can at least slow them down. Unfortunately, we cannot run a criminal background check on just a screen name.


Most of all remember that this activity is created by a small percentage of women and you notice them because they are hi profile and become very active on the site until you give them your private e mail address. They like having private e-mail addresses because when they get banned from our site they still have all their contacts. Never get discouraged because a very few unethical criminals commit crimes of the heart. It is impossible to detect and block all of these scams, but if we work together we can certainly keep it at a minimum. There are many anti-scammer websites like Russian Detectives that work hard trying to protect your heart and your wallet. Most of all have fun with your search and don't take things too seriously because after all, this is all about searching for love. Once again remember, if you don't send anyone money you will always be safe and this will be fun. If you never send money you will never get scammed.


Below are some links to sites that you can click on (and there are many more if you search) that are updated everyday so you can keep checking for scammers.

Romance Scam

Stop Scammers

Scammer Black List

Agency Scams

Dating Scams


One of many unethical sites who apparently steal profiles from our site are marriageagency-nataly.net. Copy and paste
http://www.agencyscams.com/Why/Nataly.html to read about what an impartial 3rd party has written about them.



CHECKING ACCOUNT SCAMS:


Never cash a check from anybody that you do not know or anybody that does not owe you money. There are many variations on this scam but here is the idea. A scammer sends you a check for no reason, or for a specified reason, or to just "do them a favor", so you cash the check. When the cashed check has cleared your bank and is returned to the scammer here is what they have.


1. The way you sign your signature.
2. Your checking account number.
3. Your checking account routing number.


With only your account and routing number anyone can pay bills or charge merchandise from your account online without question. This is why we do not accept checks anymore.


A different creative variation on this scam is someone sending you a certified check. Because you are honest and assume that a certified check is issued from a bank and it is guaranteed good, you accept it. (The scammer buys a $1 certified check and easily alters it to read $1000 or more.) In this case we will say it is for her plane ticket to come and visit you and she is nice enough to pay her own way, but the ticket is only $600 so you gladly send her back a check for $400. You cash her certified check and mail her back the difference. Her fraudulent certified check will not clear quickly because it is international, so you will not know for a month or more. In the mean time your check to her has already been cashed and cleared, probably into an account that has nothing to do with her. Now the kicker to this scam is that when you deposit a fraudulent certified check, it is you who is committing the crime, not the sender. The authorities do not care where the check came from, it is you who cashed it. Never accept a certified or personal check from anyone that you do not know.


MAILING SCAMS:

Here there are also a lot of variations to this scam, but this is generally how it works as it actually happened to one or our members. A lady asks for your mailing address so that she can send you a birthday or love card. You are flattered and suspect nothing, so you give her your home address. She then uses a credit card from someone who has had their identity stolen to charge an item online and have it shipped to your house. In this case it was 5 pairs of brand new very expensive mens shoes for you. The $2000 worth of shoes reaches your house and you sign for the package and accept it. When you open it you are thrilled that your new friend sent you such an expensive gift. But as luck would have it, the shoes are not your size. After talking to her on the phone she then tells you that it will be too much trouble to return them, as asks you to just sell them and maybe send her some of the money to help with her expenses to come and see you. After you send her some money you realize that you have committed a crime and you are liable because you signed and accepted the package because it was easily traced. Never accept anything form anyone that you do not know or that just does not seem right. If you do unknowing accept any merchandise, simply return it immediately and have the carried come back and pick it up leaving you documentation that you have refused the package. This is why we protect our members and we do not allow any personal information to be displayed in your profile.


CREDIT CARD PHONE SCAM:

This one is pretty slick since they provide YOU with all the information, except the one piece they want. Note, the callers do not ask for your card number; they already have it but they need your security number on the back of the card. By understanding how the VISA & MasterCard Telephone Credit Card Scam works, you'll be better prepared to protect yourself.


The scam works like this: Caller: "This is (name), and I'm calling from the Security and Fraud Department at VISA. My Badge number is 12460. Your card has been flagged for an unusual purchase pattern, and I'm calling to verify. This would be on your VISA card which was issued by (name of bank). Did you purchase an Anti-Telemarketing Device for $497.99 from a Marketing company based in Arizona?"


When you say "No", the caller continues with, "Then we will be issuing a credit to your account. This is a company we have been watching and the charges range from $297 to $497, just under the $500 purchase pattern that flags most cards. Before your next statement, the credit will be sent to (gives you your address), is that correct?"


You say "yes". The caller continues - "I will be starting a Fraud investigation. If you have any questions, you should call the 1- 800 number listed on the back of your card (1-800-VISA) and ask for Security. You will need to refer to this Control Number. The caller then gives you a 6 digit number. "Do you need me to read it again?"


Here's the IMPORTANT part on how the scam works. The caller then says, "I need to verify you are in possession of your card". He'll ask you to "turn your card over and look for some numbers". ; There are 7 numbers; the first 4 are part of your card number, the next 3 are the security Numbers' that verify you are the possessor of the card. These are the numbers you sometimes use to make Internet purchases to prove you have the card. The caller will ask you to read the 3 numbers to him. After you tell the caller the 3 numbers, he'll say, "That is correct, I just needed to verify that the card has not been lost or stolen, and that you still have your card. Do you have any other questions?" After you say No, the caller then thanks you and states, "Don't hesitate to call back if you do", and hangs up. The scammers now have all they need to make internet purchases.


So all you really have to remember is never send money to anyone for any reason even if they are saying everything that you want to hear.

It’s frustrating to see an occasional member ranting after sending money to another member which is clearly against our advice and warnings over and over.  We see an occasional posting across the net after members have acted against our advice in our newsletters and the detailed information on this page, and even an occasional chat room discrediting our site. 

FYI….If you come upon one of these links there is someone who calls himself the SCAM HUNTER who is a self proclaimed expert internet patrol with some sort of subversive objective we haven’t quite figured out yet. Although his intentions in the beginning may have been honorable, he sent us (and also our members) many long and rambling e-mails criticizing all that we are doing and asking us to rewrite some pages on our site to his liking, while never contributing a penny or showing support for any of our efforts. He made it clear that he didn't like the way we run our site as well as our concept of promoting love.  While he promoted his site to our members at our expense (which was clearly breeching our Terms Of Use that he agreed to when he joined our site). For a while we politely corresponded with him but since we reserve the right to decline or delete membership at our sole discretion, we finally became frustrated and blocked him from using our site which we have every right to do. In return he has posted negative comments about our site across the internet labeled “BLACKLIST-RussianAmericanLove.com”.

Oh well, I guess we can't please everybody. We have created our site in good faith and what keeps us going is that the feedback we get is positive and supportive. Everyone is welcome to their own opinion but a few choose to ignore the progress that we have made and the positive things our site has done over the years.  We do as much or more to fight scamming as any site.  We have a built in “report user” link on every profile and “geo map” which is free for any member to compare the log in location against information that members post on their profile. RAL deletes and permanently blocks thousands of IP addresses of all scammer profiles that members send us.  But if you read about how professional scammers operate on some of the links on this page, you will see that scamming is a very complex issue and there is more to it than just searching pictures and blocking IPs. Every new member joining RAL is sent our welcome letter clearly advising any member to never send money for any reason no matter how creative….period!  If you never send money you can never get scammed.

Now with this wealth of new information that we gave you for free, you know some things to look for. There is nothing to be afraid of if you are simply aware and careful in this new world. Now let's go to the Search page and start browsing to find a quality person that will be a fun date and the beginning of something big. From here on out it's just a numbers game, meaning the more people you meet, the better your odds and the closer you get to finding your soul mate for life.


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