Dating and Marriage Scams. Scam names and tactics

Scam Scenario

The scams described below are usually ran by a team of con-artists: both men and women. Most often these scams originate from sites where both men and women can post their profiles for free. The process is simple.

You receive a letter from a beautiful (often young, but not necessarily) woman, or you contact the woman on the website yourself.
Her description of a partner is very broad. She is looking for a "nice, intelligent, good hearted man". She usually does not specifies the age of a partner she is looking for. She never uses the word "financially secure". She talks a lot about honesty, trust and understanding. She is extremely not materialistic & never asks you how much money you earn.
She, on the other hand is extremely poor. Her income is very low and she writes about it in second, or third letter, even though you might've never asked.
She starts writing you almost every day. She never answers your specific questions, but every next letter is more and more romantic and affectionate. Almost every letter has a new photo attached and sometimes those photos are numbered in sequence. Things progress very fast and she "falls in love" with you on 10-14th day.
After she falls in love with you, it is natural that she wants to see you right away. Conveniently, she just happens to know a person who can get her a tourist (business, student) visa for $280-$340. Or she might know someone with a connection to cheap tickets and the whole trip can be arranged for $700-$1500. The only thing is - she has to pay cash. After you send her cash, she is gone and you will never hear from her again.

How this scam works
All you need is 5-15 photos of the same woman, 20-30 form letters and a person willing to pick up the money in Western Union.
Scammers never actually read your letters. They don't answer your questions. They don't remember what you wrote. They correspond with several potential victims at once and have no time to learn the particulars about each one. At first they re-address every form letter with your name, later all letters will start with "My beloved", "Darling", etc. Their letters are all one long monologue about them and their love for you and the desire to be with you despite all odds.

How to protect yourself
Most often these scams originate from sites where both men and women can post their profiles for free. Please note that these sites do not let you e-mail other members unless you pay for a membership by credit card. Ask yourself - where would a poor Russian girl - get a credit card to pay for membership? Instead of using membership, or free personals sites - buy addresses! Scammers will NOT give out their contact information. Having actual contact information for the person you are writing to is very important. It is also easy to check if it is correct, or not.
Never correspond with only one woman. Write to as many as you can, establish stable correspondence with a few and feel the difference. Scammers with their flowery, romantic letters always stand out.
Go on a tour! Until you actually go to Russia - nothing happens! You might convince yourself that you are in love with a photo - but it's not real! Only when you actually see the ladies if flesh and blood, only then you can really judge their beauty and character.
NEVER, EVER send money to anybody before you met them in person for any reason! We can not say this enough.