Note: Please do not reproduce this article, either in full or in parts, without my written permission. All said below is my own personal opinion and is based on my experience as a dating webmaster and things I observe on my dating service on a daily basis.
So, how do you detect scam? Of course you can just wait and see if she asks you for money. But you probably don't want to get to the point when she actually starts asking for money, right? You would be wasting your time, and maybe even getting attached to that person, making plans, just to discover later that she is a freakin scammer. We don't want any drama here! You want to know right away if it's a scam. So, here it goes:
Russian scam is fairly easy to detect by IP address. Most of the Russian scam generates from the same source: Mari El. There is also a small scam source in Kazan, but it's really small. Not to be confused with all those thousands of profiles that say they are from "Kazan"!! They are actually from Mari El, but just saying they are from Kazan. Another small source is in Lugansk, but those registrations are usually easy to detect as they mostly use obviously modeling pictures. Those are nothing compared to Mari El, a drop in the ocean! Most of the scam comes from Mari El and their accomplices in the United States, and only small percentage from Kazan and Lugansk.
In most cases you can tell that the girl is a scammer just by looking at her profile.
Tip 1. Most scammy profiles start with words "I the sociable girl", "I the cheerful girl", or whatever, with "am" omitted. Or, if it says "To me of 25 years", or whatever age, but that weird phrase "to me of xx years" or "me of xx years". Yes, it is a scam!!! Believe my experience, each and every profile that started with this particular cliche and had this grammar mistake, later turned out to be a scam. Don't ask me why they are putting this in their profiles!!! Stupid, perhaps?? Or maybe they use some absolutely weird translator that translates the phrase like that? Or maybe they have some "profile writer" in their "staff" who writes it? I have no idea!
There is nothing wrong with making mistakes when it is not your native language. After all, English is not my native language too, and as you see I make mistakes too. But to start each and every profile with the same cliche, and with the same grammar mistake is really dumb! It's like putting a signature "I am a scammer". But overall, while dealing with Russian scam, I come to the conclusion that scammers are not very smart people. That's why probably they cannot make it out of poverty in their own country, and stick to scams: the only thing they are good at. Anyway, whenever you see that, it's a scam. You don't even have to check IPs, emails and photos, really! Just run away from it!
BTW, you wanted a database with photos? Here is the PERFECT one for you: Google! Just enter in quotes: "I the sociable girl", or "I the cheerful girl", or "I the nice girl", or any combination of those and here you go. Everything returned is a prefect scam database. I bet most of it will be either from Kazan, or Cheboksary, or Yoshkar-Ola, or... the United States! LOL If you don't believe me, join my site and enter something like that in the search form. Out of all my Russian girls, I bet you will not find a single profile like that on THIS site!!
But sometimes they are not so stupid, and copy the profile descriptions from somebody else's profile, written in a good English. If that happens, half of Mari El starts using and re-using it, like this one for example:
"The main thing about me is probably that I am a purposeful person and always reach my goal and that I am always ready top work hard for it. At the same time I am a very soft person and dreamy.... I like to surround myself with beautiful things, to make coziness always bringing smith special in the atmosphere and in all I do. I always have many friends in my house as I am able to listen to a person and to support him both in his hard times and the happiest moments. I dislike dull and monotonous life and want my life to be exciting and to have great moments of joy. I am fond of surprises and can be a spontaneous person myself though I am never irresponsible. I truly believe in love and want to raise my children in the atmosphere of love and respect on the patterns of their parents."
They may also try to play smartarses and change it a bit, so it sounds more like it was written by a Russian girl, with mistakes. Or maybe they run an English text through their broken translator??
"The main thing about me - it is probable, that I am the purposeful person and always I reach my purpose and that I am always ready top, work hard for this purpose. At the same time I - very much the gentle person and pensive.... I like to surround me with beautiful things to make a cosiness, always bringing to the smith special in an atmosphere and everything, I make. I always have many friends in my house as I am capable to listen to the person and to support him and in his hard times and the happiest moments. I do not love a sad and monotonous life and I want, that my life was fascinating and had the big moments of pleasure. I like surprise and I can be independent the direct person though I am never irresponsible. I really believe in love and I want to lift my children in an atmosphere of love and respect attitudes on samples of attitudes of their parents."
Here is another favorite Mari El quote:
"You can believe me, when I tell you, you've never met a woman quite like me. I am very romantic, kind, calm, devoted woman, who does like home coziness. I enjoy good company, music. I adore literature, ballet, like to dance, to go to the theater and cinema. Like any woman I am fond of talking but at the same time I am a good listener. Marriage for me is a mutual work of two people. I suppose the man should be the head of the family. And the woman duty is to respect his opinion even if it differs. It would be a boring world if we all had the same ideas! I like a smart, honest man, who has a good sense of humor. I would like to meet a man who likes this life, enjoys it, who loves children and does want to have friendly family."
Whenever you read this, just turn around and go!
Tip 2. Enter the sentence from her profile description in quotes in Google. If it returns many results with different names, locations, or even photos, it is obviously a scam!
Tip 3. Another indication of scam: when the girl says in her profile or in the first letter to you that all Russian men drink too much. Like this typical scammy profile description: "I have very bad marriage experience.My husband drinked too much.We divorce. Now i want to find partner not from Russia, because i dont like russia mens of they most drinking ability."
Excuse me, but this is a bunch of bull! First of all, even if everybody around her was indeed a drunkard, why the hell she would put that in her profile?! Besides, not all Russian men are drunkard, but probably those from her own social circle. I am originally from Kiev, Ukraine, and none of my family or friends "drink too much". Now, if I was raised in the US in the trailer park with a drive-by-shooting, yeah, probably all men around me would be the drug addicts. That doesn't speak bad of men in general, but of the girl herself! If this is the kind of friends she has, it's her own problem. If any American girl put in her profile that "she searches for love online because everybody around her is a drug addict" what would you think about such girl?! Another proof that scammers are not smart people. I never saw any normal Russian girl putting something like that in her profile. Anyway, when you see that about Russian men, it is an indication of scam.
Tip 4. Now, from profile description to location. Most of the scam originates from Mari El (the capital city is Yoshkar Ola, or Yoshka), but they very rarely put in their profiles that they are really from Mari El or Yoshkar Ola. In most cases they list other cities. Their favorite 3 are Kazan, Kirov and Cheboksary. Those are small poor cities, located not even in the European part of Russia. But when you look at all those Russian profiles, it seems like most people in Russia live in Kazan, Kirov or Cheboksary! There are two times more online profiles from Kazan than from Moscow for example, with all its millions of population, higher level of life, where people have jobs, have computers at home... Isn't it weird? Every time you see Kazan, Kirov or Cheboksary (not to mention Mari El itself!!), that's a huge red flag! Though they may put any other city, of course.
Another important point I need to make about location. Often scammers put in their profiles that they are from USA or UK. When questioned, they say this is because the dating service doesn't allow registrations from Russia. In most cases, THIS IS A LIE!. To check if it is a lie or not, just go to a site's search form. If there is an option "Russia" in the country field, than the registrations from Russia are perfectly allowed. And if a site allows contacts for free, it will definitely allow such contacts from Russians as well. If in doubt, ask administration. There is a small percentage of sites that really don't allow registrations from Russia. But the problem is, the scammers place profiles on soooo many sites that they simply lose track where Russia is OK and where it is not OK, so they just put "USA" or "UK" everywhere, and tell everybody: "the registrations from Russia are not allowed". But the most important thing you should remember: if registrations from Russia are not allowed, the real Russian girl will NOT try to sneak in anyway and lie in her profile. For example, if it is a UK site for UK people only, the real Russian girl will just turn around and go. She will never lie that she is from UK and register by all means. There are plenty of places where real Russian people are welcomed and can register. Only scammers try to sneak in everywhere, even when the door is closed in front of their nose, they don't care, and mass-mail, hoping to catch their gullible fish! The bottom line: if a Russian girl puts in her profile that she is from US or UK, this is a 100% scam. ESPECIALLY on the sites they are not allowed!
Tip 5. Another indication of scam is mass-mailing everybody on the site. With all my experience as a dating webmaster who sees everything behind the scene what others don't see, I can tell you: only scammers mass-mail everybody, without even looking at profiles. Real people never do it. They may contact 10, 20, even 40 people at once if they are really bored LOL, but they will never sit and mass-mail for hours. I cannot believe that other dating services even permit it! But anyway, how can you, a regular member, tell if she is mass-mailing? If the dating service where you met her has a counter how many times the profile has been viewed, look at it. If she just recently joined and the counter already shows a lot of views, three times more than other pretty girls who joined about the same time, that means she IS mass-mailing everybody, the guys are looking because she mailed them = scam.
Tip 6. Now, the main part: how do you know she is from Mari EL? From her IP address! You can find her IP in the full e-mail headers. I assume you already know how to check the full headers on e-mail. If not, LEARN!!! You MUST do it, if you don't want to get scammed by Russians. It works much better than any scamlist or database in the world. Almost bulletproof! The Mari El gang literally places hundreds of profiles everyday, with new photos. It may be a fresh scam, not listed on any scamlist, and you will be wasting your time, searching through all those scam databases, browsing through thousands of pretty faces until you feel like vomiting, while all this time the truth is sitting right in front of your nose, in her IP address. Trust me on this!
If you are using Yahoo webmail, there is a link about "full headers" in the right top corner. If you are using Outlook Express, right-click the message, then click "Properties", then "Details". If you are using something else, read help files. The full headers look smth like this:
X-Apparently-To: somename@yahoo.com via 68.142.207.124; Thu, 20 Oct 2005 07:11:09 -0700
X-YahooFilteredBulk: 194.67.57.14
X-Originating-IP: [194.67.57.14]
Return-Path:
Authentication-Results: mta106.mail.mud.yahoo.com
from=list.ru; domainkeys=neutral (no sig)
Received: from 194.67.57.14 (EHLO mx4.mail.ru) (194.67.57.14)
by mta106.mail.mud.yahoo.com with SMTP; Thu, 20 Oct 2005 07:11:09 -0700
Received: from mx1.mail.ru (mx1.mail.ru [194.67.23.121])
by mx4.mail.ru (mPOP.Fallback_MX) with ESMTP id 5F49F7200EA
for ; Thu, 20 Oct 2005 18:02:09 +0400 (MSD)
Received: from [217.107.237.100] (port=3462 helo=localhost)
by mx1.mail.ru with asmtp
id 1ESayo-000IiU-00
for somename@yahoo.com; Thu, 20 Oct 2005 18:01:15 +0400
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 18:01:26 +0400
From: scammersname@list.ru
X-Mailer: The Bat! (v2.00.6) Personal
Reply-to: scammersname@list.ru
Organization: scammersname@list.ru
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Message-ID: <15733309015.20051020180126@list.ru>
To: some name
Subject: hi
In-Reply-To: <20051020052155.40273.qmail@web32105.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
References: <20051020052155.40273.qmail@web32105.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
boundary="----------118D77C3CB3AE25"
Content-Length: 127952
The IP addresses are shown in bold (I show them in bold of course, in the real headers they are not going to be in bold!). Those are the 4 groups of numbers, separated by dots. Every computer on the earth has an IP address, including your own. The IP addresses are assigned to us by our Internet services providers when we go online.
Some IPs in the e-mail headers are the IP addresses of your own mail server, in this case 68.142.207.124, which is Yahoo. Some are IP addresses of the scammer's mailserver (not of the scammer himself!), in this case 194.67.23.121 and 194.67.57.14, which is mail.ru, the free webmail in Russia. And finally, 217.107.237.100 this is an actual IP address of the scammer's computer. This is where the message originates from, this is EXTREMLY important information.
Also, X-Mailer is the e-mail client they are using: basically, this is a software they use to read and send e-mails. Russians scammers, by some reason, almost always use "The Bat!". While hardly any of you are using it, right? ;)
Please read this very interesting article why Russian scammers use The Bat!. Beware!! recently they started using other mass-mailing programs (those are usually used to send spam). In particular: FC'2000, Becky and CommuniGate Pro.
Now, depending on the mail service, IPs may be in the different locations other than shown, and you may not be able to tell right away which one is actually the IP of the scammer's computer. That's why it is a good idea to check ALL IPs found in the headers. You may want to skip the first IP though, as it will probably be your own mailserver.
To check IPs, go here: http://www.dnsstuff.com/ and enter it in the box that says "IPWHOIS Lookup"
In the results, look at the lines that say
intenum:
netname:
descr:
If the results say Rambler.ru, Yandex.ru, List.ru, newmail.ru, pochta.ru, etc.., skip those. Remember: those are IPs of her mailserver, NOT her own IPs. Keep checking other IPs that you can find in headers. Don't forget about those which may look like that: (imsuperstar547@209.67.220.179 with plain). Finally, if she is a scammer, you'll get IP saying something like that:
inetnum: 195.161.208.0 - 195.161.215.255
netname: RT-CLNT-MARTELCOM
descr: VolgaTelecom Mari El branch
Or like that:
inetnum: 217.107.236.0 - 217.107.237.255
netname: RT-CLNT-MARTELCOM
descr: Mari El Net
descr: Volgatelecom Mari El branch
inetnum: 88.214.192.0 - 88.214.255.255
netname: UK-UAONLINE-20060118
descr: Real International Business Corp.
country: GB
Whenever you see any of those, this is a scam. The IP ranges may be different, but if it shows any of the above mentioned providers or says something about Mari El, it's a scam. I never had any good registrations from those Internet providers. Not a single one, only crap! And all e-mail headers of scammy e-mails that guys forward me always contain one of those. Of course there are also good people using these providers, but they are not on the dating sites placing profiles, lying about their real homecity and contacting (or should I say: mass-mailing??) US men.
If it's a real girl, the result returned for at least one IP found in the full e-mail headers should match the city she says she is from. Make sure you don't confuse her provider with her mailservice. Her mailservice is whatever her e-mail extension is: yandex, rambler, pochta.ru, list.ru, mail.ru, hotmail, yahoo, gmail, etc.. If she says she is from Omsk, Samara, Saint-Petersburg, Kiev, etc... her Internet service provider's city shoud match her city. If it doesn't match, it's highly suspicious, and if I was you I wouldn't write to her. Very simple!
If she is from a very small city, then find out which big city is the closest one to her village, and her Internet provider should be from there. Though honestly the chances that you will get contacted by some REAL Russian girl from some small Russian village in the middle of nowhere is almost zero. And most likely she will not look like a model. I never saw that happening, honestly. All those Orshanka, Zelenodolsk or Chistopol are inventions of scammers. These cities do exist of course, but on the map. Not on the dating services!
Sometimes they use Cyprus provider Plantesky, or Strato of Berlin (81.169.147.x), or LeaseWeb of Netherlands (85.17.3.x), or the American servers: reverse.layeredtech.com aka Layered Technologies (IP ranges 209.67.208.x - 209.67.223.x), Netsonic (IP ranges 66.180.160.x - 66.180.175.x), InterCage (IP ranges 216.255.176.x - 216.255.191.x) and FDC Servers.net (66.90.75.x or 67.159.20.x). Recently, we have noticed the significant increase of those. Remember: this is a 100% scam. All 4 below mentioned providers are used by Mari El scammers, so whenever you see these, it basically means: just another Mari El pest.
NetRange: 66.180.160.0 - 66.180.175.255
OrgName: Netsonic
OrgID: NESO
Address: PO Box 28283
City: Green Bay
StateProv: WI
PostalCode: 54304
Country: US
or
NetRange: 209.67.208.0 - 209.67.223.255 NetRange: 72.36.128.0 - 72.36.255.255
OrgName: Layered Technologies, Inc.
OrgID: LAYER-3
Address: 18816 Preston Road
Address: Suite #100
City: Dallas
StateProv: TX
PostalCode: 75252
Country: US
NetRange: 216.255.176.0 - 216.255.191.255
OrgName: InterCage, Inc.
OrgID: INTER-359
Address: 1955 Monument Blvd.
Address: #236
City: Concord
StateProv: CA
PostalCode: 94520
Country: US
or
NetRange: 67.159.0.0 - 67.159.63.255 NetRange: 66.90.64.0 - 66.90.127.255
OrgName: FDC Servers.net, LLC
OrgID: FDCSE
Address: 141 West Jackson Blvd, Suite 1135
City: Chicago
StateProv: IL
PostalCode: 60604
Country: US
or
NetRange: 69.56.128.0 - 69.56.255.255
OrgName: ThePlanet.com Internet Services, Inc.
OrgID: TPCM
Address: 1333 North Stemmons Freeway
Address: Suite 110
City: Dallas
StateProv: TX
PostalCode: 75207
Country: US
If you cannot identify her IP or it shows some other country (the UK, USA, Germany, Netherlands, France, Lebanon, Iran, etc..) this may mean she is using anonymous proxy and is trying to hide her real IP. Worse for her, this is 100% scam: real people have nothing to hide and most likely don't even know how to do it! If you run into this situation, get stuck resolving her IP and have your suspicions about some girl, you may forward her full e-mail headers to me and I will check it out.
But those are rare cases, most likely she will be using either VolgaTelecom Mari El branch, or Nata-Info, or Fokus-Satcom, or Uaonline. I keep watching them, and if they change providers I'll update this page with new info.
Now, about other scam sources. There is a scam source in Kazan itself:
inetnum: 213.179.235.0 - 213.179.235.255
netname: UKRTELNET
descr: Ukrtelecom IP access network in Lugansk
descr: JSC Ukrtelecom
and
inetnum: 194.116.194.0 - 194.116.195.255
netname: DSIP-NET
descr: Digital Service
country: UA
There is also a scammer from Bryansk: Sergey Zavoloko, or Sergey Simonov. At first he writes like as if he is a "girl", he usually uses the pictures of models, which are obviously fake, if you ask me. Anyway, this "girl" wants to come visit you and refers you to some bogus travel agency (Alliance travel, Global travel, Around of the World, whatever) and the manager of this "travel agency" sure is Sergey Zavoloko or Sergey Simonov. He is rather dumb though: if you look at the e-mail headers from him and "girls", you will see this line:
Received: from [217.106.99.197] (port=40984 helo=sergey)
IP and port number may be different, but that "helo=sergey" part is the name of his Windows machine, which he carelessly leaves in all headers! His IP range:
Watch out for those, too. As for other "freelance" scammers, I'm not aware of their IPs. You see, they are like UFOs. I believe they do exist, but never actually saw one live, and none of the people whom I personally know ever saw an UFO. The same with the freelance scammers. LOL If you happen to run into one, let me know!
And finally: of course there are probably good girls living in Mari El. But I never saw a single real one on any English language dating service. 100% of profiles placed from Mari El are scam. And unfortunately, they completely discredited that area (just like Nigerian scams discredited Nigeria). Don't take any chances on Mari El girls! At least until that gang is taken out. There is plenty of other, much better fish in the ocean.
Once in a blue moon I hear the story that somebody met a girl from Mari El who was nice and real. Well, that's probably true! But you know what: once in a blue moon I also hear a story that somebody won a million dollar jackpot in Vegas on a slot machine. That's probably also true! But that doesn't mean that I will rush to Vegas and blow all my money hopeing that I'll hit it too! Be smart, the chances of both things hapenning are the same. Some sites, like agencyscams, preach that headers and IP doesn't mean anything and even call my site "stupid" for trying to open men's eyes. If you don't want to get scammed, don't listen! They are just trying to bash my site, as well as other anti-scam sites. Stay away from Mari El.
This is my personal opinion though. In your place I wouldn't write to them. But what you do with this information is up to you. And please don't ask me: are you sure??? Yes, I am absolutely sure. But I am not going to convince anybody. I banned them all from this site because I don't want to see them here. This is my site and I have a right to decide who is welcomed here and who is not. Similarly, it's your life and you decide whom you want in your life and whom you don't.
Please note: the article above is the original article of this site. I didn't give ANYBODY permission to re-publish it. If you find this article on other sites, it means it was STOLEN from this site. I would think twice about credibility of a site or a dating service that is stealing copyrighted materials.
Unfortunately, the online dating nowadays is turning into a one big scam. When we check out other dating services, we are horrified: 50% of males and 90% of females (just think about it!!!!) of their photo galleries are scammers. This is a fact! Those cute blonde girls from the United States in reality are scammers from West Africa or Mari El, Russia. If you want a scam free dating, sign up with our site! We don't inflate our database with scammers. We maintain it small and clean, always putting quality before quantity. We don't care if we have less members than other dating services, at least we know they are all real people, and that's the only thing that matters. If our members say they are from the US or UK, we can 100% guarantee you they ARE from US or UK, and NOT from Nigeria, Ivory Coast or Russia. If a Russian girl on our site says she is from Moscow, you can be 100% sure she IS from Moscow, and not from Mari El. We check every registration: IPs, anonymous proxies registrations, e-mails, Yahoo profiles, everything. Sign up today! This is NOT an advertising. This is a truth of life.
