Russian dating/marriage scammers exposed

Released on = June 26, 2005, 5:07 pm

Press Release Author = Steven Coffman

Industry = Internet & Online

Press Release Summary = Thalia Assuras correspondent of CBS Evening News and Rich
Dubek reporter for NBC KPNX channel 12 news Phoneix, Arizona interviewed Steven
Coffman of Family-eStore.com regarding a dating/marriage scam that he was a victim
off earlier this year. His story was told as follows.

Press Release Body = A woman calling herself Elena Inyutina contacted Mr. Coffman of
Family-eStore.com a Christian and patriotic gift store, 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
co
ming 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 offer links to Russian Black List
sites in our Articles and Information section of our website, for you to check for
yourself for your peace of mind.

Web Site = http://www1.ecxmall.com/stores/familyestore/StoreFront.bok

Contact Details = Family-eStore
5250 S. Hardy Dr. #1042
Tempe, AZ 85283
480-966-4448
Family_eStore@hotmail.com