How's My English?

[buencamino]

Was sitting with some gringos and Colombians the other day in a centro comercial. One of the Colombians has an online "marriage agency". It's one of those ones where you communicate by email with the girls via the agency. In other words you write to the girl at the agency which forwards your email to her. Her response is also delivered to you via the agency. One of the gringos was questioning the agency owner and asked him if he himself actually wrote the responses to the guys. He admitted that in fact he did then showed the gringo a couple of the responses and asked "How's my English?".  I laughed all the way home!

[AndyLee]

Very interesting story, thanks for sharing. What city were you in?
thanks

[buencamino]

Cali.

[benjio]

A scam that's even more effective when a guy has a team of attractive girls he trains to communicate with foreigners online in order to eventually ask for money. There are some men out there that have made a good living from knowing exactly what to tell some love starved foreigner to get him to stand in line at his neighborhood Western Union. All this before he's even considered taking a trip to visit a girl. It's a practice that originated in Nigeria but I know for a fact is happening in Barranquilla and other cities in Colombia. Funny...but sad at the same time.

[robert angel]

A scam that's even more effective when a guy has a team of attractive girls he trains to communicate with foreigners online in order to eventually ask for money. There are some men out there that have made a good living from knowing exactly what to tell some love starved foreigner to get him to stand in line at his neighborhood Western Union. All this before he's even considered taking a trip to visit a girl. It's a practice that originated in Nigeria but I know for a fact is happening in Barranquilla and other cities in Colombia. Funny...but sad at the same time.

I've seen girls work four guys at a time on separate web cam feeds in internet cafes. They typically keep a poker face demeanor, making little 'Mona Lisa' like smiles occasionally, in case some guy says something that's supposed to call for emotion. They make a good bit of money for their efforts, I'm sure, but the more experienced operators learn to wait a while before trying to 'set the hook', usually getting a better 'catch' for their efforts as a result. And yes, there are guys who will run groups of women.

Lots of scammers still from Ghana too.

[Gavan]

A scam that's even more effective when a guy has a team of attractive girls he trains to communicate with foreigners online in order to eventually ask for money. There are some men out there that have made a good living from knowing exactly what to tell some love starved foreigner to get him to stand in line at his neighborhood Western Union. All this before he's even considered taking a trip to visit a girl. It's a practice that originated in Nigeria but I know for a fact is happening in Barranquilla and other cities in Colombia. Funny...but sad at the same time.

What I find incredible is that there are even dating sites that look totally legitimate and professional, but are complete scams. One example is Amolatina.com. I signed up for this site once and I never even completed my profile or ulpoaded a photo and still got bombarded with messages and chat requests from very hot Colombian women. I looked online and apparently these women are being paid to chat with men and they even have contests to find out which of the women chats with the most men.

[benjio]

What I find incredible is that there are even dating sites that look totally legitimate and professional, but are complete scams. One example is Amolatina.com. I signed up for this site once and I never even completed my profile or ulpoaded a photo and still got bombarded with messages and chat requests from very hot Colombian women. I looked online and apparently these women are being paid to chat with men and they even have contests to find out which of the women chats with the most men.

Yep! AmoLatina is a COMPLETE rip off. The girls in the pictures aren't even the ones you're talking to. I got into an email exchange with a so-called manager from there a few years ago and this person absolutely refused to be honest. Even though I provided him with dozens of links where unsatisfied customers were complaining about getting ripped off. According to them, these were posted online by the owners of websites that were competing with them. The site is actually pretty professional and nice but when they had the audacity to put a profile on the site for Johanna Maldonado (a famous Colombian model), I had to say something. They used her real name, age, birthdate, city she was born in and everything.

[bcc_1_2]

People with a hands-on approach will figure out the lay of the land pretty fast. Anyone that wants the full-service coddled experience are just asking to get reamed. A middle-man "translating" communication is bad news especially with the translating software out there. It's insane how much is spent on exchanging letters between "Frank" and "Tatiana". I have little sympathy for the sob stories anymore. If some tool from Cali can part you from your money without providing the real service then you are a fool to begin with.

[robert angel]

People with a hands-on approach will figure out the lay of the land pretty fast. Anyone that wants the full-service coddled experience are just asking to get reamed. A middle-man "translating" communication is bad news especially with the translating software out there. It's insane how much is spent on exchanging letters between "Frank" and "Tatiana". I have little sympathy for the sob stories anymore. If some tool from Cali can part you from your money without providing the real service then you are a fool to begin with.

Good post and too true. As untalented at learning new languages as I am, I'd still try and learn some better Spanish, but I'd for sure have some technology like Google translator--at least something before I'd hire some opportunist to string me along, interpret letters and try to get a leg up on me. (The piss would likely be next)

 A fool and his money are soon parted!

[mambocowboy]

People with a hands-on approach will figure out the lay of the land pretty fast. Anyone that wants the full-service coddled experience are just asking to get reamed. A middle-man "translating" communication is bad news especially with the translating software out there. It's insane how much is spent on exchanging letters between "Frank" and "Tatiana". I have little sympathy for the sob stories anymore. If some tool from Cali can part you from your money without providing the real service then you are a fool to begin with.

Absolutely!

[robert angel]

Yep! AmoLatina is a COMPLETE rip off. The girls in the pictures aren't even the ones you're talking to. I got into an email exchange with a so-called manager from there a few years ago and this person absolutely refused to be honest. Even though I provided him with dozens of links where unsatisfied customers were complaining about getting ripped off. According to them, these were posted online by the owners of websites that were competing with them. The site is actually pretty professional and nice but when they had the audacity to put a profile on the site for Johanna Maldonado (a famous Colombian model), I had to say something. They used her real name, age, birthdate, city she was born in and everything.

Yea--if that's the same site--and I'm pretty sure it is, when I looked on there, they had some profiles where they pasted in pictures of international celebrities, including some TV and movie actresses, top fashion models, including some of Sports Illustrated top swimsuit models, porn models, sports stars etc., totally creating profiles to go along with the pilfered pictures, all just to lure suckers in--NO shame!


And I'll bet some of the actual 'working class' girls have profiles on there so many years old that they've maybe been happily married off or maybe been through four or five marriages already and the site's still running their original pictures and profiles--whether the women want them to or not. Once you get into some of these shadier sites, it's nearly impossible to get your profile deleted.

[bcc_1_2]

At one time the ownership here had some very heated issues with Cali Charm which I think was about him not being truthful and a single male owner of the agency. Be that as it may the most popular agency around here falls into that category as well, so I didn't make that much of it. The point being that Cali Charm was a real service and affordable for those people that felt they needed to use an agency (and planned to travel to Cali). 

The clueless gringo traveler could fly to cali, get picked-up, and stay there and meet girls pretty cheap without incident. That sort of service just doesn't seem to be around in Cali anymore. The best option for Cali is to do your own legwork online and via the newspaper. 

[robert angel]

From the outside looking in, for those who need a bit more help, I am most impressed with Jamie's outfit. Too bad the sniping around here pretty much made him sign off--he shared some good info here. From Benji, Father Time, to the really green between the ears newbies, the people who actually used his operation seem to speak pretty good about it. Sounds like if anything, he tends to paint the overall picture TOO realistically--steering some guys from babes out of their league or just not a good fit for other reasons. Not that it's really TOO much to do that sort of thing--people ought to know the pitfalls and landmines out there from an insider--if they can bear to listen and not be blind, rendered deaf and dumb by some chica's beauty.

It costs more than a lot of folks might have or want to spend, but it sounds like he's legit and maybe in the long run, might even save guys grief and money by keeping them out of train wrecks.

[mambocowboy]

From the outside looking in, for those who need a bit more help, I am most impressed with Jamie's outfit. Too bad the sniping around here pretty much made him sign off--he shared some good info here. From Benji, Father Time, to the really green between the ears newbies, the people who actually used his operation seem to speak pretty good about it. Sounds like if anything, he tends to paint the overall picture TOO realistically--steering some guys from babes out of their league or just not a good fit for other reasons. Not that it's really TOO much to do that sort of thing--people ought to know the pitfalls and landmines out there from an insider--if they can bear to listen and not be blind, rendered deaf and dumb by some chica's beauty.

It costs more than a lot of folks might have or want to spend, but it sounds like he's legit and maybe in the long run, might even save guys grief and money by keeping them out of train wrecks.

I didn't use an agency, but got some very good info from the advice on his website before I started the process. He seems to know the culture and the process of looking for a potential bride really well. It's too bad he doesn't post here. Think he'd probably add a lot of insight to the site...

[AndyLee]

From the outside looking in, for those who need a bit more help, I am most impressed with Jamie's outfit. Too bad the sniping around here pretty much made him sign off--he shared some good info here. From Benji, Father Time, to the really green between the ears newbies, the people who actually used his operation seem to speak pretty good about it. Sounds like if anything, he tends to paint the overall picture TOO realistically--steering some guys from babes out of their league or just not a good fit for other reasons. Not that it's really TOO much to do that sort of thing--people ought to know the pitfalls and landmines out there from an insider--if they can bear to listen and not be blind, rendered deaf and dumb by some chica's beauty.

It costs more than a lot of folks might have or want to spend, but it sounds like he's legit and maybe in the long run, might even save guys grief and money by keeping them out of train wrecks.

I'm one of the ones who thinks that Jamie is a stand up guy. In my opinion his web page should be "must reading" for anyone interested in foreign dating. His web page is what I would call "information rich". Page after page after page. Whether you ever use his agency or not, what you can learn from his articles is pretty good background for planning your own trip here. Plus, the photos of his trips around Colombia and the flowers and trees are excellent.