Other Scammers

When I put together my page about the scam by Natalia Minina and Ludmila Domashneva, I wasn't really interested in other scams, but I guess I've changed my mind somewhat. If you have been scammed, you can send me email about it and I'll add the incident to the list below. The information I want is precisely this:

  • the name of the person you sent the money to,
  • the city you sent the money to,
  • the amount of money,
  • the method of transfer - that is did you use Western Union or a bank?
  • the website through which you first made contact
  • the country from which you sent money

I am not interested in photos of scammers (except photos used by Domashneva and/or Minina/Mitina) since you have no proof that the person in the photos is actually the person you communicated with. I am interested in scammers' names since they have to provide correct names to receive money. I may be interested in reading your story, too, but I won't consider posting it on my website unless it is about Ludmila Domashneva and/or Natalia Minina. I am especially interested in hearing any results of complaining to your country's embassy in Russia, Western Union, or the FBI or other police agency in your home country.

Scammer's Name City Reported by Website Transfer by Amount
Elena Vasileva Bryansk Xavier,
Feb 2006		 singlec.com Western Union $2190
Elena Chemodanova Nadym JRB,
Feb 2006		 Match.com Western Union $700
Natalia Alexandronva Smirnova Moscow JWL,
Jan 2006		 Match.com Western Union $3189
Lyudmila (Luda) Polovnikova Moscow/Cheboksary Joseph,
Aug 2005		 Russian Western Union ($300)
Svetlana Aleksandrovna Ryabinina Kirov MS,
Mar 2005		 ? Western Union E215
($170)
Larisa Vladimirovna Kungurtseva Yoshkar-Ola AF,
Mar 2005		 friendfinder.com Western Union $6200
Sylvia Adriana Eizenszlas Buenos Aires, Argentina MH,
Feb 2004		 match.com Western Union $2100
Ekaterina Gavrilenko Kherson, Ukraine MM
Feb 2004		 Anastasia
(RussianBrides.com)		 Western Union $5000
Ekaterina Kokovihina Moscow PP,
Jan 2004		 lovers.ru Western Union $250
Elena Deveteriarova Novosibirsk? GJC,
Aug 2003		 freepersonals.ru
Anastasia
Absolute		 Western Union $15,000
Regina Podgornova Surgut  JJC,
Apr 2003		 probably Match or Yahoo Western Union $500
Zhanna Myasintseva
(aka Natalya/Natasha Komarova?)		 Tolyatti  CT,
Mar 2003		 romanticmate.com Western Union $1161
Lenara Kamaleeva Kazan  JH,
Dec 2002		 friendfinder.com Western Union $800
Iren Belan Kiev/Kherson  RLO,
Dec 2002		 matchdoctor.com Western Union $5000
Lidiya Rybachenko &
Svetlana Propst		 Severodvinsk &
Moscow		  JL,
Aug 2002		 Germanfriendfinder.com Western Union $4263
Galina Kossyreva Samara  EE,
July 2002		 Olga Edwards in person $300
Musa Vorona Perm  TR,
Apr 2002		 Matchdoctor.com Western Union $142
Natalia Sergeevna Leonidova Ulyanovsk  HG,
Apr 2002		 Match.com Western Union $1800
Lidiya Rybachenko Severodvinsk? YJB,
Feb 2002		 Yahoo Western Union $1500
Natalya Dementyeva Yoshkar-Ola  GF,
Nov 2001		 Friendfinder Western Union $2100
Tatyana Tsaregorodseva Novosibirsk? JJH,
Nov 2001		 kiss.com Western Union $1800
Ludmila Domashneva Arkhangelsk  me,
Jan 2001		 email Western Union $50

In most of these cases where the amount was over $1000, the scam victim sent money for the woman to travel from Russia to meet him in his home country. Any good website of Russian women's personal ads will tell you that you should not consider doing this. For one thing, it's probably impossible for the woman to get a visa to go to your country, no matter what “special circumstances” she tells you about. Notice how many of these men saved money (not) by establishing contact with women using free websites. EE's story is different. He went to Russia to meet a couple of women and when he got there he was coerced into spending a lot of money buying things from the women's associates, as well as giving one woman about $300. He says that in total he spent about $2000 not including airfare but I only put $300 in the list above since that was the only amount he clearly said he gave as cash. RLO went to Ukraine and paid $5000 to a friend of the woman, supposedly to deal with legal requirements regarding marriage and emigration. RLO reports that matchdoctor removed this woman's profile, and so did other websites that she was on including ikarinter.com, Absolute Agency, and A Pretty Russian Girl. GJC wrote


I lost more than fifteen thousand and the scam lasted for more than one year with trips to Moscow, Novosibirk, Moscow, funeral expenses, monthly check, apartment repairs and so forth....she even stole the money for the ticket of course the last $2,000 that I sent to her. I wrote letters to the Russian Embassy, never got a reply, the State Department....found an attorney in Novosibirk and told me that was almost impossible to procecute because I send all the money via Western Union and was considered a gift. I lost more than one year of my life and thousands of dollars in the ordeal.

I do not claim that telling me your story is any kind of substitute for reporting it to the FBI or Western Union, but I haven't heard of anyone getting satisfaction from doing that. If you really want to pursue proper legal recourse, here is what I think you should do:

  (1) Learn to speak Russian well. Expect this to take a couple of hours every day for a year.
  (2) Go to the Russian city where the scammer lives and report the incident to the local police.
  (3) Hang around Russia for months or years waiting for the case to go to court.

What? You think this isn't a realistic plan? No wonder the scammers aren't afraid of consequences. I didn't even get to the part about the difficulties of getting a visa to visit Russia, or the problems with the police and courts being so much less efficient in Russia than in your home country. Short of following my unrealistic recommendation, if you want to respond “properly” to getting scammed, I think you should complain to the FBI (if you're American), to your country's embassy in the scammer's country, and by registered mail addressed to “Legal Counsel for Western Union” at the Western Union address in small print on the back of the money transfer order (assuming you sent money by Western Union). As I said, I have yet to hear of anyone getting satisfaction from doing these things. I think really the only way to get the FBI interested is to show that a large dollar amount is involved, and that's why on this page I'm concentrating on dollar amounts. I have not had any official communication with law enforcement about this, but I thought it was interesting in April, 2002 when I got a message from a South African police officer about an obvious scam bait message he received and he expressed his frustration that apparently there's no effective official recourse against these scams.

update February 15, 2006: I have read a few news stories in the past year about scams like these. The American embassy in Russia gets about ten complaints a day from American men in the US about scams like this. Even American crooks in the US have impersonated Russian women on websites of personal ads to pull these scams. One thing that I wrote above now seems very incorrect. I recommended writing to the legal counsel for Western Union if you are scammed and Western Union was the means of sending money. Dealing with a certain crook recently has made me realise that the function of legal counsel is to prevent accountability. I think it would be much better to write to any executive of Western Union. I have read that Western Union has implemented a change of policy in response to scams in eastern Europe, at least for customers sending money from England. In England, it is Western Union's policy to warn customers not to send money to people they do not know. Because of this, if you have been scammed and you send me the details above, I would like to know also which country you sent money from. By the way, this policy of Western Union was introduced mainly in response to scams on Ebay.

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Remember, don't send me photos. Just plain text email.

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