Dating Site Elena’s Models banned 3 Ukrainian locations due to scams. Profiles of women from Odessa, Kharkiv (Kharkov), Zaporozhia (Zaporozhye) are no longer accepted by Elenasmodels.com.
Why Elena’s Models Imposed a Ban on 3 Ukrainian Cities
Pervasive scams in these 3 Ukrainian regions caused the ban. Large PPL dating sites have their offices and multiple agents in these cities, which caused certain deceiving patterns of behaviour to become ingrained: Women date foreign men purposefully to extract financial benefits. The spread of dishonest schemes widely used by agents led increase in scams against foreigners seeking love.
The majority of complaints Elena’s Models received due to women from these 3 cities (Odessa, Kharkiv, Zaporizhia) habitually requesting men to move to PPL sites. Certain PPL sites seem to purposefully use this deceitful tactic to attract more clientele.
3 other popular scam patterns:
- Commissions for accommodation: Women ask men to visit them and offer help with getting cheap accommodation (apartment). On arrival, the cheap apartment is somehow “not available” and men are forced to rent a more expensive apartment. Women get commissions from landlords.
- Shopping: Women take men to a shopping centre and ask them to pay for their purchases, motivating it by cultural traditions to buy gifts when dating. The items are usually returned by women for a refund.
- False engagement: Women say they would like to get engaged and ask men to buy an expensive engagement ring. The money is often pocketed by the woman who arranges to return the ring and split the money with the shop owner.
In the most elaborate patterns women engage collaborators who pose as their family members: parents, siblings, or friends. If collaborators are used, it could be them suggesting to purchase expensive presents, buy a ring and offer marriage, take the “bride” shopping.
Men who are considering visiting one of these problem locations (or any other Ukrainian city) are encouraged to download Elena’s anti-scam book at: https://www.womenrussia.com/book/.
It describes fraudulent patterns used by agencies and women from these cities in details and gives you tips how to avoid potential traps.
Elena’s Models ban 3 Ukrainian locations: Odessa, Kharkiv, Zaporizhia.
Elena’s Models Guarantee
Once again, Elena’s Models make it clear that we will not be tolerating scams and deceitful tactics of conduct on our site. Protecting our members from dishonesty and ensuring that only genuine members can use our services is our definitive goal.
Elena’s Models do not pay commissions to agents for profiles or messages. No payments per letter — unlimited communication and freedom to share your contact information.
Elena’s Models Integrity Disclosure:
- No bots or mailing software used on the site to incite communication between members.
- No chat bots are used on the site or app.
- No profiles are accepted from agents in exchange for payments.
- No commissions are paid to women or agents to communicate with men.
Unlimited communication, freedom to share, and transparency are our principles on which we have built our work since 1999. Members are free to share their contact details and exchange email addresses, mobile numbers, and accounts on other sites.
While the majority of dating sites in the Eastern European (Russian, Ukrainian) sector have chosen the path of hiring agents and paying them commissions to recruit women, Elena’s models continues working directly with members, without mediators. Simple membership (Platinum, Gold, Ultimate) structure doesn’t require payments per letter/chat.
On Elena’s Models blog for men we publish current information on situation and events in Ukraine, Russia: salaries, cost of living, economic prospects.
Women find tips and advice through Elena’s Models blog in Russian and on our site Zamuzh.com.
Both male and female members receive weekly newsletters, allowing them to form a better understanding of the realities of international dating. More information and links are published on Facebook, YouTube, and Russian social networking sites VK, Odnoklassniki.
Read also:
- Elena’s Models Scam Warning — Part 2
- The ugly truth about PPL dating sites for Ukrainian women
- Help for Men Dating Russian, Ukrainian Women
- The Common Sense Pill
Even having been stung by a dating / apartment scam in Zaphrozhye I can say safely that this is a great shame. I met some lovely people in this city and it was a pleasure to be there. Even though I spent a not insignificant sum of money the adventure of being in such a wonderful place and the gifts this area gave me I will treasure. I would have loved to go back to Zap city to meet my future ….. It is so sad for the few women who truly want to find their husbands on this site… Read more »
Well. I am from Zaporozhye and Ican asure you there are actual real girls here who are looking for love. So I would not generalize locations to scam. I know there are several fake agencies that hire girls to “work” as brides-to-be, but it doesnt mean ALL of people of almost a million-people-city are scams. So. I suggest everyone should be free of judgements based on only one criteria.
I am aware of what you say, which is why I said it is a great shame…
I agree with Rob’s sentiments: it is a shame for the ladies from those 3 cities (Odessa, Kharkiv/Kharkov and Zaphrozhye) who had sincere intentions, but as Elena indicated, the amount of hassle involved in dealing with fake profiles from scammers operating out of those 3 cities meant that action needed to be taken. In fact, I just logged on this morning to a message from a lady from Odessa asking to take communication off-site because “she hardly logs on” – keep in mind, this is only the second message we’ve exchanged – a phrase that Elena has indicated in a… Read more »
Ryan, Unfortunately it’s not a “minority” anymore. The scale of “foreign men should be taken for all we can get from them” attitude is so ingrained in these cities, it’s all-permeating. The behaviors were highlighted in our last year report “Odessa: Life of Ukrainian women in 2015“, and they spread like a virus. One woman gets involved in the scheme, all her friends and acquaintances are in the know (girls share tips). Normalization of predatory tactics (commissions on apartments, restaurants, shopping trips) drives women to consumer attitudes towards foreign men, who are only visiting for a short time. If you… Read more »
Hi, Elena,
I have been stung by a very eleborate apartment scam in Kyiv. I can send the details (and names) to you personally. What’s the best way to do so? Thanks.
John, If you wish to call someone a scam, you have to put all the facts on the table. How you met people, what happened, what was the agreement, step by step. What made you realize the scheme was fraudulent. Facts only. We are just a dating site. If we become aware of someone violating our terms and conditions (i.e. using contacts to extract financial gains rather than simply trying to find a partner), we check and remove the profile. You obviously met someone who you say is running an apartment scam in Kiev, in a certain way on some… Read more »
It is sad article and very tough decision. I live in the city of Odessa, I had interview with representative of your agency on Skype and provided data of my passport. I am very surprised with your decision. I believe and I know that there are deceivers always and everywhere, but I want and I will speak only about myself. I am no swindler. Dear men be please vigilant, but I also want that all men knew about our fears as well. There are a lot of male writers, men who ask money for treatment, men who in Skype /… Read more »
Oksana,
You are OK. The profiles that are already approved on the site will remain. We just stopped accepting new listings from Odessa, Kharkov, and Zaporozhye.
In regard to problems with male members, if you had been approached on our site (asking money for treatment, inappropriate behaviour, etc), please ALWAYS immediately contact Help Desk. We do not tolerate any type of abusive conduct on our site.
I understand that scamming is a big problem and have read this article and others about how to avoid some scams, but I have the following questions:
– Is a woman who has profiles on multiple sites more likely to be a scammer?
– Are women who are older (say over 36-38) less likely to be scammers?
– Are women with children less likely to be scammers?
I understand that anyone can lie online, but when you do meet someone and they are older and/or have children are they less likely to be scammers?
Thank you.
Jonathan, FIRST, you need to read this message to the end. SECOND, the answers to your 3 questions: NO. There is NO portrait of a scammer. The PPL system in itself is prone to abuse. You still think it’s women who scam. They are not the ones organizing the multi-layer system! They are employees in a system. And women who work individually learned from this system: how to extract money from foreign men. Understand 1 thing: it is a system. It’s organized. By people who profit from it. Women and their photos most often used as tools. They are manipulated… Read more »
As I have already said above, I live in Zaporozhye and am very aware of a problem. Girls I know personally either work for agency that pays them for posing on cam time-to-time to their “future partners’. and for meeting them in real life. As far as i know they are paid a tiny amount of money for that. most of them do it for FUN (young girls looking for attention and presents). Agency arranges a photoshoot, collects ID details and writes letters and descriptions for you. And the second type of scam is just separate girls that earn this… Read more »
Sasha, I appreciate your comment. This is exactly the problem as we see it: it’s not about relationships but about extracting money from men seeking relationships. “Earn something first”. About your friend who thinks that building a relationship is “boring” and “pointless”. She is wasting a lot of time, because she is doing nothing but “waiting” for a relationship to be delivered to her on a silver platter. Ask a friend to go to a shop and buy a dress for you. Then see if you like it. Even the most well meaning friend who knows your taste is unlikely… Read more »
“As you grow older, these things hunt your consciousness. ”
Amen to that one Elena !!
I will admit that in the being, I had no clue about what I was doing or how bad this industry is truly. I looked and signed up on a few sites to get an idea. Fell victim to one such site, but learned quickly and did not waste much money. But once I realized it was a scam, I went digging into Pandora’s box and started opening the lib. I traveled to Kyiv in July for 2 weeks. I wanted to see the city and get a feeling for things and do some investigating into these PPL’s and the… Read more »
If you’re going to ban new profiles from Odessa and Kharkiv, then you should probably ban most of the other big cities too because they all have PPL agency offices. Even Kiev is bad now, and especially Nikolaev. I found a scam victim forum and was amazed by what people information people were able to dig up. No one really posts there anymore but some of info is still recent. Here is the link: http://scamvictimsunited.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=21&sid=17ab22483b6ab945290fbae831bab408 With the economy in such a bad state, the frozen war in the east, and now the Ukraine government starting to fall to corruption, I… Read more »
Chris, You guys should be not chatting in forums but lobbying for the Federal Trade Commission to look into these matters. Forum groups where you complain to each other aren’t going to change anything. Gather evidence and go to authorities, record their responses. Then go to media. About banning Odessa, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhia: Sure, all Ukrainian cities have PPL agents. And the majority of Russian cities have them as well. However, just like the cultures of New Yorkers and inhabitants of Anchorage differ, there are differences in the attitudes of people in certain cities. We had more complaints about women… Read more »
That’s drastic, but what will keep the scamming scum from claiming they live in another city in Ukraine?
We know where they are 🙂
I went to Zaporozhye in 2013 and met a girl on this site, Alyona. Such a waste of time except for the fact I saw Ukraine for the first time. I notice something wrong when pizza, taxi rides, and movie tickets cause $100usd. Funny thing was she also asked me to buy her a dress for 500usd which made me laugh. Simple answer was no. Her demanding this that was a big turnoff and I hope no one can experience what I did. I think the problem is bigger than those 3 cities.
Ethan,
Things changed in Ukraine since 2013 a lot. The reason why we banned these 3 cities is because the major PPL sites (paid correspondence sites) are based there. Girls learned to date “for money” and this is why these locations are a problem. Other places don’t have this plague of hundreds of PPL agents.
Women in Ukraine today (after the events of 2014 and Ukraine’s fall out with Russia) are really serious about finding a good foreign man.
i have recently returned from zaporozhia after visiting a woman i met on elanas models ,and although i have no reason to doubt her intentions , reading this today has shocked me , i am at the moment talking to her and have been for a few months on whatsapp ,we are planning my return in january for christmas and there is talk of meeting her mother and cousin ,should i be worried about any future meetings with this woman , i really would appreciate any information you could help me with she has never asked for much although i… Read more »
Andrew, if you are a customer and have a query, please contact Help Desk on the site.
Excellent information. I have long trusted Elenasmodels website. I believe Elena the founder to have a strong sense of integrity and works hard to keep her business trusted and respected!! Thank you Elena and your staff.
wrote to a nice girl and got a lovely letter from her then when trying to find out more saw she was a scammer all she got from me was my email address and a letter but its a shame as i was interested in her and would have kept up correspondence if she was genuine.if she does write back what should i do
Paul,
What makes you think “she was a scammer”?
I would say Odessa is by far the worst of the three. The women there are parasitic, you’d be hard to find any guy who is in a successful relationship with an Odessa girl
I used agency in kharkov payed 1600 euros for meet 8 girls they all wanted expensive restaurant like Nikas 30 euros for 100 gram beef! i say next time not too expensive restaurant and not news
not answer on phone. maybe they get money for every meeting.many rich and nice mens in kharkov they don’t need us really
and company sell too much this girl one girl old 37 years meet many guy she say maybe 100 since one year.
Fred, yes, girls are paid for meeting; about $5-10 per hour (it’s a lot, knowing that the average hourly wage in Ukraine is under $2). And the agency gets kickbacks from restaurants, that’s why you are taken to expensive places. Girls pretend that they do not speak English (they do), so you “need a translator” and have to pay for 2 people on every “date” + wages to the translator (the agency profits from all the money you pay). Why are you guys still use PPL marriage agencies? You cannot read?! The Internet is full of such stories! You are… Read more »
Odessa is the number 1 scam city! Im happily married with a Ukraine woman now but first time I went there 2013 it was Anastasia scam all over! Restaurants give 40% kickback to the women if you go there! Warning restaurants is TRIPADVISOR.COM Trattoria Soldi Grecheskaya St., 1A, Odessa 65014, Ukraine TRIPADVISOR.COM Salieri Restaurant Lanzheronivska vul. 14, Odessa 65026, Ukraine Scam Restaurants of Odessa, Ukraine Palladium Italiis’kyi Blvd, 4, Odesa, Odes’ka oblast, Ukraine, 65000 TRIPADVISOR.COM Hookah-Cafe Khabibi Zhukova vitse-admirala prov. 3/7, Odessa 65026, Ukraine TRIPADVISOR.COM Selfie Bunina St., 35 | Derebasovskaya St., Odessa 65026, Ukraine Scam Restaurants of Odessa, Ukraine… Read more »
Michael, thank you for the feedback and great tips! Yes, PPL sites created such breeding grounds for scammers of all types, it’s insane. When dating in Kiev the same advice applies, pick your own restaurant, and anyway, $300 dinners are way out of the realm for Ukrainian women and men on normal wages. Right now the average monthly wage in Kiev is just over USD 400, in the whole of Ukraine