ringer? or legit?

[mudd]

Hi all,
I received this letter a few days ago.  How she got my address, im not sure. Anybody recognize the letter and photo?  Looks like a line to hook a foreign man, and ask for money later.


Dear Mark
My name is Maria. I live in Russia. Now I have a chance to get acquainted with you. This is a new way for me to meet people so I am not sure where to start, but I will try.
 
A bit about me: First of all, I'm young russian girl, who wants to change the life, wants to love and to be beloved. I'd like to meet the Gentleman, strong and clever man, who can make me happy and to which I will present my heart and soul.  I'm 24 years old. My height is 169sm, weight is 53kg. I live with parents. I have one older sister Elena, she is marriage and lives in Lyon, France with her husband ( french on a nationality ) and with a little son Alexander, he is 2 y.o. I am an ecologist as my sister. This year I have finished University. During last 5 years I lived and studied in city St-Peterburg. Now I work at a very big factory in our city, I love my life and my work. At my free time I like to draw. I draw for a long time and rather well. I like classical music and the opera, but also ballet. I have been playing the piano since I was 5 years old, also wanted to become a pianist.
 
I always was interested in cultures of other countries, many cultures and religions intrigue me. I am fond of learning of English language. My other interests in include traveling, sports, and I love to cook.  I often will cook a gourmet dinners outside for my friends and just enjoy the evening talking, eating good food. I am very active and enjoy doing anything that's different and fun. My friends describe me as intelligent, easy going, active, adventurous, caring, fun, and with a good sense of humor.  I also consider myself loyal, respectful, passionate, and very romantic. I have very good freinds, but now I have no most intimate man. I feel the two people together should be soul mates and partners in life.  Do you know what I mean? Each person should respect and trust each other completely.  I hope this gives you a better idea of the kind of person I am. My personality is very honest and dependable and I am looking for a soul mate who I can trust and care for the rest of my life...
 
I love life. I try to enjoy every moment of it whatever it brings. I am an optimist and I believe that I can control my life. I want to find happiness and I am sure that I will. I have the easy-going character, I love to communicate with people and I feel that people enjoy the communication with me as well. I am kind-hearted and open, sometimes romantic and dreamer. People who don't know me well find me very mysterious lady, they say I have a special charm... . But I can't be judge here. I seek for man who is trustworthy, intelligent and with the sense of humour, who is independent and feels confident in his life. Appearances is not of great importance for me, soul of the person is much more important. I think that the main thing that I want to see in my Man is having the same values in life that is happy family and children and warm relations with them.
 
But first of all I need someone I can give all of my love and who will also love me honestly. I want to feel the warmth of mutual understanding, the heat of deep love, the fire of passion, and finally, the everlasting gladness of my own family!
 
 I would love to hear more about you, your life, and what you are looking for in a woman.   How would your friends describe you? I hope to hear from you soon and learn more about you.  Feel free to ask me any questions you like. Take care.
Maria
[img]

[Montrealer]

If the message was unsolicited, then it would be a safe bet that it is some kind of scam.  To what degree, who knows.

I suggest playing along, but reply from a different email address.  See if she picks up on it.  If not, then the same email was probably sent to hundreds just like those Nigerian bank scams.

Worst case scenario, you have a little fun and you can tell us how she tried to make the scam work so others will be informed as well and more aware of how this works.

Best case scenario, she ends up being drop dead gorgeous, a swallower, a good cook and cleans the house spotless all while you go out late with your friends, coming home drunk and smelling like perfume.

But I don't think the best case scenario is something to hope for too much.

Have fun and keep us posted.

[mudd]

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/miavelli/my_photos

[Montrealer]

Her last name speaks for itself.  Pro Hor, meaning she's a professional whore.

But realistically, she emailed you out of nowhere, and then attaches a photo of herself in a slip/nightgown.  This is obviously spam at it's finest.  Like I said before, set up a new email account and have some fun.  Let's see the process.

I got an email a couple days ago from "Chase Bank" telling me that they are in the process of updating there online system and that I needed to login and provide my account information, my check card number and re-confirm my pin number so that I can contnue using my card.  They had a very professional copy of Chase's website, including a reasonable domain name so that it looked like it was coming from Chase.  Alot of people actually fall for this scam and provide there information, then they find there account cleaned out in the next few days.

The Nigerian scam was my favorite to play along with.  I got an email in my business account, not addressed to anybody in my office inparticular, jusr sir/Mam.  I shared about 5 emails with them before they asked me for the first batch of money, not much, about $800 for a bribe.  They were trying to free up 21 million USD out of there country of which I would get to keep 5 million or something.  I made the authorites aware and sent them $8 by western Union.  Unfortunately, they never went to pick it up because they were probably aware that the authorities were looking into them and that I only sent $8.  Either way, it killed alot of time and I had a good laugh at there attempts.

Have fun and play along.  You may get a simular laugh out of it.

[doombug]

She's a fraud.  And that's a simple form-letter trick that's been used by countless money-grubbing cons for years now.  "She's" fishing for bait; for someone to trigger the next sequence of letters to go out.

Notice how the only time she mentions your name is in the greeting, where names can be most easily edited out should "she" generate hundreds more of these.  She never mentions your name in the body or the closing of the letter.  

Normally, run like Forrest--and "block" her email address.

But since there's a 2.67% chance that I'm wrong, I'm also curious to see how much more of this unfolds should you stay the course.

[Ken2]

You have a bio posted  (or no) or youve been marketed by an agency you workd with in the past as a seeker.

[YEP]

The english is simply to perfect .... even my g/f who's a teacher has errors in her writing and old ways of expressing herself

But hey who wouldn't like a nice young sample that speak english perfectly  

That mail is very likely SCAM

[Montrealer]

I think we're all in aggreance that this is a scam.  However, this email was sent to someone who is involved with the Russian International dating scene, which seems really convenient.  This should be worrysome that a company is selling there clients names and email addresses.  What could be more of a problem is what if they are selling the clients payment information (i.e. credit card, checking account, etc.).

In the future, if anyone gets one of these emails, take a look at the agencies, etc that you have dealt with and make people aware of it.  Perhaps after a couple people come forward we can narrow it down to one agency in particular that is selling your name to these types of scammers or maybe the agency themselves is doing the scam.  Then we can all work together to shut them down.

[dennislevy]

Its a scam. You think?

But, have some fun.

Write Maria back, tell her you need a quick $5,000 for your penile implant to make a young woman like her happy) and see how quickly she gets back to you.