Ka-ching, Ka-ching

[Gordon]

[This message has been edited by Gordon]

Hello again. If you read my first post you know that I was weak and posted my profile on the Anastasia site. It's been up for five days now and I have about 40 responses to my ad. As some of you may have noticed, letters are numbered on the site. I subtracted the # on the first letter I received from the # on the last letter. Just under 220,000 letters have passed through the site in the 5 days I've had my ad up. I just bought the 4 credit package @ $30.00 which is probably what most men do but lets average the credit price @ $6.00 per mail because some men are getting a cheaper price per mail by buying larger blocks of credits. Anyway you look at it Anastasia is one big cash cow unless I'm missing something.  $6.00 per letter puts their gross at $1,320,000 for 5 days. Ca-ching, ca-ching. Or as they say in Russian, Ka-ching, Ka-ching. That's a lot of scratch!!!! It's also a lot of letters to translate. Which raises many questions in my mind.
I tell you, this Eastern European bride adventure is the most amazing thing I've ever done. Buckle your seatbelt Gordy, it's going to be a very bumpy ride. Which is cool; I love bumpy rides. HAHA :-)

Any insight from you veterans about Anastasia? I went through the archives and didn't get much information.

Thanks!

[fishtiger]

... in response to Ka-ching, Ka-ching, posted by Gordon on Jun 3, 2003

Gordo
The web site is a big time scam. I had several e-mail arguments with the web director who gave me many excuses
why they send form letters which clearly do not acknowledge your questions etc in your e-mail. She never could give me a straight answer.
I know the former director Dave and his ex-wife is a major
scam master.
It simply is a major money maker on the web. There are cheaper ways to find your gal.

[Gordon]

... in response to Ka-ching, Ka-ching, posted by Gordon on Jun 3, 2003

Two days ago I got a letter from a woman responding to my ad on Anastasiaweb. I sent her a letter and received a response from her today. It was a form letter so I figure it was the agency generating some revenue off me. I will send a mail complaining and see what happens.
Ya got to admit, it's a real sweet con!!! At least the "churning" part of the Ana mailings.  The last letter I got today   puts the total # of letters (real or scam) going through Ana's site at 248,199 for 7 days. I think the $6.00 per letter figure I posted before is probably a good figure but here is the flaw in my math from my previous post. I have received 48 letters so far but I have only read and responded to two of them. Thus, only putting $30.00 into the Ana bank account not $288.00. But still, anyway you look at it, they're doing some big $ on a yearly basis.

This is the way I'm seeing things now and I would appreciate forum members pointing out the flaws in my reasoning.

There are probably only a hand full of sites where everyone is babysat and screened and no scamming occurs.

As to the Ana site as a whole, I don't think the corruption is all pervasive. If it were I'd be receiving more than 7 letters a day from nothing but the most beautiful of women and that's not the case. The Ana. site solves two of my problems. Translation and e-mail costs. E-mail has been my biggest problem. Or, more to the point , the fact that FSU women have to pay somebody to send and receive their mail and it's expensive for them. I've connected with quite a few  women I have believed to be real on other sites and at some point during the correspondence you get the mail asking to help pay for the cost of the e-mail. How can they help not asking? How would they be able to correspond with you otherwise? But now you're up against the wall. Now you're wondering if the woman is real or just some guy writing to 40 other guys like yourself and collecting $40.00 per month from each. You're screwed! Maybe they're real and maybe they're not but you don't have a choice, you have  to cut them off. With the Anastasia site that problem is solved. I'm going to get some "churned" letters but I'm going to get a certain % of those almost anywhere on the net. I'm thinking that eventually, because of my good looks and charm, I'll connect and begin corresponding with some real women. Then all I need to worry about is the "my Mom needs a brain transplant; can you help?" letter. At which time I put them in the delete bin. I could be wrong but I just can't see how every woman on the Ana. site could be scammer.

As always, you feedback is a appreciated. Gordon

[DanM]

... in response to Re: Ka-ching, Ka-ching, posted by Gordon on Jun 5, 2003

If a guys is willing to do the leg work, he can find sites with very nice girls that are free. Also he could find a lot of sites that would probably be cheaper than what you described above.

Its all just a matter of taking the time to look.

[Jack]

... in response to Ka-ching, Ka-ching, posted by Gordon on Jun 3, 2003

Gordon wrote a very interesting post's above with some interesting numbers included.

I would like to add to Gordon's post with what I consider some useful information.

About 10 days ago a client (John well call him) wrote me about a beautiful lady who I have on the website. This lady is also on the Anastasiaweb site.

Here is the guys e-mail (ofcourse I will change his name).

Hi Jack,
I am NOT saying this lady is bad girl......
I think you might want to explore the following to maybe help her.
I got a letter from somebody CLAIMING to be this girl via a-web
it was only 1 line long...in my opinion somebody got hold of her photo that is at bottom of her profile on your site and spammed everyguy posted on anastasiaweb
I happened to like her photo and sent her long intro letter...but she never replied,
due to fact that she or whomever wrote me FIRST, and I replied but NEVER got 2nd reply back from her or whomever,
I think maybe her photo is being used at anastasiaweb to generate cash for the agency that posted her photo at a-web.

Here is copy of letter she sent John

Dear John,

My name is Alla, I live in XYZ....., Russia. I would like to meet a man from abroad. A man I could create a happy family with. Please check my profile, maybe I''m a woman of your dreams? :-)

Looking forward to hearing from you soon!

Warm regards,

Alla

I know there is one major agency in this one city where Alla lives. I know this agency owner so thought I would take a chance and write her and see if she knew anything about Alla. Here is my e-mail to her.

Hello Natasha,

   I hope all is going well with you.

   I want to ask you about the lady whose photo I included with this e-mail, Alla C........ Do you know this woman?  Is she part of your agency?

  I ask you these question because I have heard from an individual who received a letter from her as part of the Anastasiaweb service. As you may have heard, many guys have had great problems
with Anastasiaweb because they write many men pretending to be the ladies. The individual who told me about Anna says that she also wrote him first as part of the Anastasiaweb program. This man
was greatly interested in Alla, wrote her back (after paying $8) and never heard back from her, but she was the one who first showed interest in him.

  Natasha, we think there is a chance that someone or some agency may be pretending to be Alla C....... and writing many men. This will at some point hurt Alla.  My question is do you know this
woman?  I have her address on Y...... street. What I would like to do is to contact Alla and ask if she is writing several
men that she see's signed up as part of the Anastasiaweb program. If she says yes I think we might give her my friends name and photo and ask Alla if she ever wrote him, if not, someone is
pretending to be Alla and this will hurt her in the future.

  Jack

The next day I receive this e-mail from Natasha.

Hello Jack,

Yes, Alla is a part of my program and I know her very well. It was me
who put her on Anastasia web site and it is me who sends letters to
men from Anastasia on Alla's behalf. Don't worry it's not some man
writing instead her! Everything looks like this: Alla (or any other lady
who is also published at Anastasia by our agency) comes to our agency
and we together with her check many men's profiles from Anastasia. She
chooses appr. 100 men she is interested in. You see, when some
our lady sends letters to the men on Anastasia, e.g. if she send 100 letters,
she will get appr. 3-5 replies, not more. But it was not a case with
Alla! She got about 20-25 replies! I think it's because she looks very
beautiful and sexy. After reading all these replies she chose appr. 10
men to continue correspondence with. And I'm afraid your friend was
not on this list of favorites. I can do nothing about it and I can't
force her to correspond with this or that man.
Please give me your friend's name and his ID on Anastasia. I will ask
Alla about this man in particular and let you know. OK?

I hope that everything is clear for you now.

Sincerely,

Natasha

Well guys, what do you think? I have not written Natasha back, received this from her on Friday May 30th.

I can tell you this, Alla is only one of MANY beautiful ladies on Anastasiaweb. If any and everyone of those beautiful ladies has someone who is writing 100 men for them, I can assure you that atleast 80 men will write these ladies back, not some 3 or 5, not even some 20, but more than likely 80 or 85!  When ladies like this write, our jaws drop and we have to open that letter, see what she says.

Now Gordon, add those figures to the ones you started and see what you come up with?

[DanM]

... in response to Ka-ching, Ka-ching, Ka-tinued, posted by Jack on Jun 4, 2003

This supports the point I made a couple of months ago. Its worth everyone's time to find websites that are not so heavily used by men. Find the honest smaller agencies so you will not be one of dozens or even one of hundreds. Its too easy to get lost in the shuffle with those numbers.

How many men use the Anastasia website? A guy listed some useage statistics a bit earlier and I am too lazy to find it. Anyway, the numbers were very high. Why do so many people use this website? Its because the site is easy to find and the brand name is almost an industry standard.

If a guy will just surf around for differnet websites, he can find some hidden gems who will not be receiving letters from hundreds of guys. Thats how I met my wife.

Best of luck to all.

[DanM]

... in response to Ka-ching, Ka-ching, posted by Gordon on Jun 3, 2003

Back in 1997 or 1998 I bought a about 30 addresses from Anastasia. It was the very first time I ever tried to contact a Russian girl. I think I got three letters. Two were form letters and the third seemed serious, but she never wrote me back.

Maybe they are crooks. To me, it just seemed like they were a lot more focused on making money than helping people. My expereince with Anastasia is part of what made me appreciate a service like Jack Bragg's so much. Of course he is not the only one, but he did take a personal interest in me.

As for the letter thing, it sounds like a very good business proposition if you have the name recognition and mass needed to make it cost effective. It was probably a very sound business decision, but seems to have no personal touch. Sounds like Anastasia to me.

[Stevo]

... in response to Re: Ka-ching, Ka-ching, posted by DanM on Jun 4, 2003

80 addresses from Anastasia and 20 addresses from European Connections.  I received around 25 replies from the Anastasia group and 2 from the Euro Connections group.

The letters were all 'serious', not form letters.  Some I terminated after the first letter, some I kept up the correspondence with.  I gradually reduced the number of ladies I was corresponding with down to two, and finally one (the one I propsed to on the 2nd day of our meeting).

Can't tell you if things are different at Anastasia 5 years later.

[DanM]

... in response to Things are always subject to change, but..., posted by Stevo on Jun 4, 2003

Thats interesting because I had a very different experience than you at approximately the same time. Maybe it was luck of the draw or maybe you just seemed more interesting? : )

Either way, it was not the right choice for me.

[Stevo]

... in response to Ka-ching, Ka-ching, posted by Gordon on Jun 3, 2003

ggg

[Griffin redux]

... in response to I found my wife on Anastasia, what can I..., posted by Stevo on Jun 3, 2003

Has anyone done the math on his post?

How many translator's would they need?

[wsbill]

... in response to Ka-ching, Ka-ching, posted by Gordon on Jun 3, 2003

But I've never dealt with them, and nor will I ever.

I think you'd be wise to ask they local guys who've got at least 500 postings on this msg board in their profile, who'd they'd recommend.

[jrm]

... in response to Re: Somewhere I heard they were CROOKS, posted by wsbill on Jun 3, 2003

nt