[PLUG] Is there a russian romance scam?

Michael C. Robinson plug_1 at robinson-west.com
Fri Mar 25 06:32:54 UTC 2011


I'm getting email from fili_olga at yahoo.com .

The emails include lovely pictures of a woman who claims to be Russian.

So far, all I have to go on is that I have received a few emails from
this person, bot, whatever where the story so far seems to be
reasonable.  I've tried to suggest another medium to verify what I'm
being told, Skype perhaps.  I'm wondering if anyone else has received
email where they are told to reply to fili_olga at yahoo.com ?

What can I do considering that email is completely untrustworthy to
verify or refute what these messages say?

The woman, assuming this is a Russian woman in Russia, is supposedly a
teacher who wants to come to the U.S. on a special work abroad program.
The claim she makes is that she has no opportunity in Russia.  Another
thing she says is that she wants to make a friend before she comes to
the US.  She evidently wants to stay in the US long term.

I've emailed back to the address given that I have concerns such as,
I can't verify that you are who you say you are, etcetera.

Yeah or nay, sharing pictures is a good idea or a bad one?  I offered
her a picture of myself and a very old picture of family.  I did not
tell her in me message the family members' names.  I figure I could have
a page up on the web with family photos.

I asked her if she really is a teacher and suggested she come up with
ideas on how we can verify the stories going back and forth without
endangering ourselves.

This email exchange is exciting, but I'm worried that it could be
dangerous.  What options do I have to make sure that this isn't some
clever scam?  If this is a scam, what is the goal of the con?




More information about the PLUG mailing list