SCAM BUSTERS®

"Am I writing to a scammer? Please help me!"

"I think I am being scammed! Please help me to figure this out!!!"

"This sounds too good to be true. I wonder if this girl is for real. Can you help?"

This is the type of requests we receive daily. Since this seems to be the most common request for assistance, we decided to put together this ScamBusters® plan.

"THE PLAN"

The vast majority of victims come across the translation agency scams originating from Ukraine, or the so-called "visa-and-tickets" scam originating from Russia and Ukraine (for the full list of all scams, check out our Classification of Scammers). 

The good news about those scams is that they are fairly easy to detect, because they are almost always use stolen or bought photos and pre-written letters.

This time-tested ScamBuster® plan can weed out 99% of such scams in 3 easy steps.

Here are the steps:

Step 1

Checking the Internet to see whether the letters you are receiving have already been used in scams before. This step alone will weed out about 80% of the scammers. Cost: $52

 

Step 2

Performing a 3-Point Check to verify this person's full name, date of birth, and the latest registered address. That will confirm that you are writing to a real person, not a fictitious story character. Costs: $75 in Russia, $85 in Ukraine.

Step 3

Performing a flower delivery to this person's place of residence in order to take a picture of the recipient (with the flowers). If all other checks have failed to indicate any scam, this last part will provide you with an opportunity to verify that the person on the pictures is actually the person who is corresponding with you. 

We have been using this plan for the last 1.5 years, and so far it has proven 98% effective against the regular, garden-variety visa-and-tickets scams and 95% effective against the fake translation agency scams.