Is this a scammer?

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Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2007 8:20 pm

I picked this up on an external link listing dating scammers/vlads. I baited and got the following reply. Even though I am really cynical I wonder if she really is real. Text and headers follow.

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From: Ludmila Gurman <[email protected]>
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Subject: =?koi8-r?Q?Re[2]=3A_hi?=
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X-Mailer: mPOP Web-Mail 2.19
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Date: Thu, 04 Jan 2007 22:57:46 +0300
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Reply-To: Ludmila Gurman <[email protected]>
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hi, Jack,

Interesting that you've found somewhere my profile. I don't even imagine where could you do it.
O.K. I'll tell you a bit about myself. I live in Belarus, work in a newspaper. I'm interested to make new friends and also would like to find another half of mine.
Whom are you looking for?
Tell me also about yourself.
I send you some photoes. Though the traffic is very bad and I don't know weather you get them.
Till then,
Ludmila

Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2007 9:09 pm

She sure sounds real, please invite us to the wedding.

Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2007 9:10 pm

A quick tip is to look in the headers for something like this

Quote:

X-Mailer: mPOP Web-Mail 2.19

Or The Bat! or Becky! or something that says it wasn't sent through the web browser, but rather a mail program. Most scammers from Russia and the surrounding areas (as opposed to Nigerian ones) claim to be in an internet cafe, when in reality they have their own computers with net access. It's a good indicator that you're dealing with a scammer.

Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2007 9:18 pm

Cheers for that. This is my first non-lad so wanted to be sure.

You'll all be my guests of honour at the wedding Laughing

419Eater is my life Joined: 12 Dec 2003 Posts: 482

Looking up that IP reveals at least she's telling the truth about being in Belarus:

Quote:

IP Location: Belarus Belarus - Minsk - Minsk - Republican Unitary Enterprise Beltelecom

netname: BELPAK
descr: Republican Unitary Enterprise BELTELECOM
descr: BREST branch
descr: Republic of Belarus

On the other hand, google of her e-mail addy reveals she's been reported as a scammer at the DotSilver dating web site, URL here:
http://www.dotsilver.com/dating-scam/2007-december/7248.html
Using this photo in her "profile":

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 12:37 pm

This one has gone a bit strange....

We exchanged quite a few eMails and I suggested meeting up, expecting the 'send me money' etc.

She said she didn't mind coming to London or my going to Minsk. I said I can get flights any time and she suggested this weekend.

Kidnap when arrive in Minsk do you think?

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 4:38 pm

Possibly a pro dater. Meets you, spends as much of your money as she can, then cleans her teeth and brushes her clothes down ready for the next man to arrive.

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 11:24 pm

Cheers Wayne but I'll drop it if there's any likelihood that it's not a vlad. Much as I enjoy baiting them there's something that makes me sense that she could be real.

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 11:37 pm

Does she claim to write from an internet cafe? If she does she's a scammer. Write to her from another account and compare the emails sent to both. If they're identical apart from the names you can be sure it's a scammer, especially with Mpop being in the headers. It'd be a shame to drop her if she's a scammer, especially this far into a bait. Also invite her to visit and see if the money request comes for travel (scammer) or she tries to persuade you it'd be better if you came there to her (pro dater)

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:55 am

Ask her if it's her on dotsilver whould love to see the response Smile

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 8:11 am

If you do that and it's a scammer she'll just change her address and the information there will be useless. It's never a good thing to educate them about things like that.

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 8:27 am

I don't know Wayne I'm sure I don't think it's educating to ask the obvious(I hope) vic's would sometimes see this sort of stuff, which is really great and twig Smile

, I've baited several who just seem too love to keep the same email adress even though they are listed on plenty sites.
On balance I guess we have a potential scammer who has been listed once, a question, is this a scammer?
I'm sure they don't pull their hair out when a vic twigs, they move on to the next vic. They are playing a numbers game after all.

Just like us Smile

my vote yup she is Thumbs up

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 8:52 am

I've asked her if she's posting from an internet cafe, so I know the best time to be at my PC for her messages.

That was the thing, she's been listed once somewhere with no further info as to who she scammed.

I'll feel like a right sh*t if she's genuine.

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 9:08 am

Quote:

I'll feel like a right sh*t if she's genuine.

Rule number something or other - if it's out of your comfort level - bail.

No one would like to inadvertantly cause distress or problems with a real person.
Play along a while more, the you come here or I'll come over is proberly just feeling you out to see if you are genuine.
Do a little research on the weather where she is, the political/social scene and quiz her on everything to establish cred.
Vlads are pretty scipted to if you can get two or three pages of honesty bait someone else Smile

Hey maybe you got a live one. There is just sooo many hot hot babes trying to flee russia Smile

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 3:57 pm

the sole reason dotsilver lists people seems to be they detect the person sending massive amounts of internal messages to members
we are talking hundreds at a time, not a big handful

dotsilver is operated by a company the sells dating site software of some sort, and they've built in some means to detect the massive messaging of the scammers

sure, a desperate lady may do the same, but not real likely a real desperate lady would spend a day manually messaging all male members at a dating site.
the scammers may be using some automated means to do the mass messaging. don't know.

like wayne said, this can be a scammer or opportunist of another nature.

it may be hard to pin it down without actually meeting her.

I've seen some reports of some women, sometimes with various diseases you do not want, using this method of travelling, getting gifts, etc, as wayne said.

its kind of a gray area, but sometimes reports pop up on the net.
keep googling, keep watching her headers.
sometimes all you'll end up with is that she is not telling the truth to you.

not real productive baiting, but still worthwhile if you uncover some dirt and post it in the appropriate place.
Smile