A Heads-Up Warning About "A BELARUS BRIDE"

[Patrick]

... in response to extortion? where?  n/t, posted by KenC on Jun 30, 2002

And it's rampant among clients.  They go in expecting everyone involved in this business to be some slick con man and can interpret many things as fraud.  It's my belief that perhaps more than half the stories of fraud are not real, but are based on drawing conclusions using a heavily biased view of the operator's ethics.  No doubt many of the men reading this message believe I'm writing it to keep my own profits up because I'm just another "con man."

Some guys think it's inherently evil to be making money off of introducing people.  I think that was JJ's attititude if I remember correctly.  If someone wants to use a service to meet women, they're going to have to pay for it.  If someone wants to avoid agencies altogether, they can.  Learn the language and go solo.

I suspect there may be more fraud going on with agencies in Eastern Europe simply because in that sector, more of the agencies are owned and operated by natives.  Perhaps that's not a very PC thing to say, but most of the cultures from which these women come have much higher levels of graft and corruption than here.  I think it's just common sense to assume your chances of encountering suspect business practices in these countries is going to be higher than here.  When life is not easy, moral corners tend to be cut a bit here and there.

I think the best advice to avoid being ripped off is probably to forego using many of the services that make this whole thing more convenient.  Email forewarding with translation is nice and easy, but it creates a business model in which at least part of the agency's profits are dependent on remaining in the middle of the relationship.  Canned first responses are going to be common.  Making up women's profiles is also a possibility, but I think that's pretty rare.  It's just not going to be a sustainable business.

[BruceS]

... in response to A Heads-Up Warning About "A BELARUS..., posted by Tony3583 on Jun 29, 2002

Tony,
   Sorry to hear about your problems with this agency. Being
in a business myself, not a agency business though; you won't
please everybody. Also I'm in business to make money. My business
is a small retail meat store. If you think I will give you my
recipes for my products your nuts. It's how I make my money.
I also won't give you the names of my sources of meat that will
sell to the public. I will give you the names of my wholesalers
though as the general public can't by from them. Then of course
I won't screw my customers over either or substitute a good
grade of beef for choice grade beef.
   Yes I've heard some other stories from about some men,
but not from the horses mouth. You can get my email addy from
this list. Heck I've had a women call and say we sold her bacon
that had maggot holes in it. LOL (the holes are caused by the
hangers used for hanging them in the smokehouse) Told her
to bring it back and we'd replace it..well she already through
it in the garbage. Think what she tells everyone about my store
and products. Write me I'm curious. You can get my email addy from this list.
   All I can tell you is I just came back from my visit there.
I'm completely satisfied with my visit and the lady who is
now my fiancee. I'm not defending the agency..I'm defending
the girls. I met probably 10 or so girls there and not a one
I'd call anything but good women looking for a good man. 3-I
met were friends of the lady I visited. All good women.
   I'm not saying all are and yes I'm sure some undesirables
get through the interogation they go through. Also remember
there are many words in English that have NO translatable
Russian version. (same for the Finnish language) I've learned
from being to other non english speaking countries to speak and
write in the simplest words. Much easier to get the proper
translation. Many times the translator will have a word with
nothing to use, so will try the best to convey your meaning
with what they can or know.
   No matter how you go about this journey whether your inferred
agency, the shopping mall sites, free email addy sites, tours
and the rest..It WILL cost money and not just a little. Expect
no matter which way atleast 4-5,000.00 and up. There is no cheap
way. To me every bit of money I spent with Greg and Nina was
worth every penny. I had no problems with my travels there,
Irina was so helpful while there, help with the airport and
customs from Smok Travel was a godsend.
   I hope that you are wrong about Greg and Nina screwing
some men over. The reason I hope that is for the ladies there.
It would be a shame for them not to be able to find a good man
to enjoy their lives with. I've only been back for a day and 1/2
and will post about my trip in a few days.
   I wish you luck in your quest and hope you find your native soul.

Cheers,
Bruce

[Patrick]

... in response to Re: A Heads-Up Warning About "A BEL..., posted by BruceS on Jun 29, 2002

I also run a business, which happens to be a foreign introduction business (not East European though) and I can speak from experience when I say many complaints and scam stories are either mis-understandings or expectations way out of line with reality.

It happens with the ladies also.  We just had one lady write to us and say that a man she had developed what she thought was a strong relationship with dumped here because we updated another lady's status to married but modified the wrong photo so that this lady's foto showed up in another part of the data base under the married lady's biography.  Straight away he apparently presumed that the whole thing was a scam and dumped her.

We were roasted on another message board for trying to convince a woman seriously involved with a man to stay in the agency and that her fiancee was seeing other women.  Turns out that the lady was telling the man about another foreign owned agency (the indentity of which did not make it through the language barrier correctly).

Another guy assumed the women were all made up after he wrote to three women and got no reply.

The list goes on, and on, and on.

This particular story may actually be true, but as is usually the case, there's not enough detail to make any kind of judgement. I would tend to believe much of it is based on a preconcieved notion that all agencies are bad and are out to swindle everyone for what ever they can get.  I could be wrong, but I've seen lots of complaints over the years.  You are right, these are businesses.  They are in business to make a profit, as all businesses are.  When comunicating through translators, things can get garbled.  When someone goes in suspicious, it's easy to find conspiracies.

[yoe]

... in response to Re: A Heads-Up Warning About "A BEL..., posted by BruceS on Jun 29, 2002

nobody an beat your meat?

Joe

[BruceS]

... in response to So what you are saying is,, posted by yoe on Jun 29, 2002

HEHE Well wanted to make a hat that said.

   SMITH'S MEATS
You can't beat our meat

But my brother wouldn't go along with it!!! ROFLAO
Also thought maybe...Try our meat you won't go without it.

Ahh the finer things you can do when you have a meat business!

Cheers,
Bruce