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Russian Dating/Marriage scams
An interview with CBS Evening News correspondent Thalia Assuras, NBC Phoenix reporter Rich Dubek regarding Russian dating-marriage scams that are currently targeting US singles.
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Story
Russian Dating/Marriage scams
A woman calling herself Elena Inyutina contacted Steven E Coffman on an American based dating service, showing interest in him. She wrote Mr. Coffman and commented that he was the only person that she picked to contact. He replied back, and they emailed each other for several months. “Everything seemed to be going very well between us in our email correspondence.” remarked Mr. Coffman. “I never had a woman talk to me the way that Elena did.” said Mr. Coffman.
The Russian scammer told Mr. Coffman in an email at the beginning of their correspondence about an old friend of hers that joined a dating service and met an American gentleman. They wrote each other for several months, and then she came to the U.S. to meet him. Shortly there after they were married, and she moved to the U.S. to live with him, and was very happy with her choice.
The scammer wrote Mr. Coffman that this happened about 1 year ago, and she was ready to settle down, and thought of what her friend had remarked to her the previous year. So she decided to join a dating service herself. The scammer told Mr. Coffman about 1 month of their writing each other that she thought that “they should meet in person, and was willing to come to the U.S. to meet him.” She said, “A day together was worth 1000 emails.”
The next day the scammer emailed Mr. Coffman and remarked that she had checked into the cost of a Visa and airline tickets, and that she only had $160.00 US saved, which would not even pay for the cost of the Visa. So Mr. Coffman offered to buy the ticket himself and send it to her. The scammer replied “that she could go through an agency in Novosibirsk (the major city near where she lived) called Novosibirsk International Visa Agency or NIVA, and if she when through them that they could cut the time it would take for her to be able to come to the U.S. so that they could meet, because they were contracted with the U.S. Embassy. She told him that if he bought the ticket and sent it to her she would have to drive to Moscow herself to get her visa, which was 2000 miles away, and would add to the delay of her coming to the U.S., so Mr. Coffman first wired her $360.00 Western Union for her visa.
A couple of days passed, then the scammer sent Mr. Coffman an email with a (copy& paste) in it of an Aeroflot schedule and cost for a flight that cost almost $900.00, so Mr. Coffman wired her the $900.00 via Western Union. Another couple of days passed then she wrote Mr. Coffman that she had only purchased a one-way ticket and was planning to buy the return ticket in the U.S. because she didn’t know how long that she would stay. She claimed that she went to NIVA to fill out some paperwork for her trip, and mentioned to them that she only had a one-way ticket and they told her that the only way she would be able to come is if she had a round trip ticket. So the scammer said, she could exchange her ticket for a round trip, another day and flight but, that she would need another $700.00 to make up the difference for the round trip, and asked Mr. Coffman if he could send this money also, which he did via Western Union.
As the days grew closer to the flight date the scammer writes Mr. Coffman saying that she could not come because NIVA said that she also needed another $700 euro for what she called (Tramp money). The scammer claimed that NIVA told her that this was not their rule but a U.S. Customs rule, and that they would not allow her to pass through customs without this money. So Mr. Coffman went on line to the U.S. Customs website and found the rules on entry for non-US citizens and found no such rule. He even went to the U.S. Customs office in Phoenix and personally asked them of the rule, and was told that there is no such rule for US entry. He emailed the scammer back and copied and pasted the U.S. Customs rules and a hyper link to the U.S. Customs site stating that there is no such law or rule. The scammer would not comment back on this. So Mr. Coffman emailed her again, and sent the information on the U.S. Customs rules again, and told her that if NIVA was going to stop her from coming because of their claim of needing pocket money, that she needed to go to the police with this information and allow the police to take care of it, so that she could still make the scheduled flight. The scammer never commented back in her emails as to what she would do in this regard.
The day came for the scheduled flight to arrive and Mr. Coffman was there to meet her, and know one showed up. A couple of days passed before the scammer email Mr. Coffman back. Then an email came in with a new flight schedule and the scammer insisted that she still needed the $700 euro to be able to come. Then on the following day she emailed him and asked if there was anything wrong, that he seemed to be upset? Mr. Coffman replied in his return email that he was upset and stated the multiple reasons why, and the scammer never emailed him back to this day.
Mr. Coffman started doing some research on this an even had a friend who lived in Novosibirsk check the phone book for NIVA and it did not exist. Then Mr. Coffman went on the internet and found the scammer on multiple (Russian Blacklists), with some of the same pictures that she had sent him. He discovered that she had been doing this since 1999 and had used a dozen different names and towns that she was suppose to be from in the Russian Federation and even one from the Ukraine. He was able to (connect the dots) because of the pictures that she had sent him. The scammer used the same pictures, and several more that she had not sent him, to other guys that she had done the same thing with. Some of the pictures he found are of her semi-nude, and on one site a visa with her picture on it.
One guy who sent in his story to a Black List site called her “Queen of the Russian scammers.” Mr. Coffman now says, “I will probably see a penny of my money back, but I just want to stop anyone else from getting ripped off this way”.
He also called the FBI to file a complaint and was told to do this through their special branch called; Internet Fraud Complaint Center or IFCC. He filed the complaint and uploaded all the information that he had in regards to this encounter.
Since this encounter Mr. Coffman has received several emails for other scammers on various dating sites that claim they are living or staying in the US, but their return email address has (.ru) at the end of their email address. Any address that has .ru at the end of it means that it originates from Russia, and they ARE NOT in the US as they so claim. Mr. Coffman says that he has emailed back to these contacts and panted this out, and has never received a return response of any of them. This seems to be the latest twist to the Russian scammer's attempts at tapping into the US dating pool. I feel that any contact like this that is deceptive can only mean that they are some of these Russian scammers. I also offer a picture of Elena, follow up and links to Russian Black List sites on my website: Family-eStore.com
By: Steven E Coffman
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