PPL sites are plagued with scams on so many levels, including immigration fraud. Fake messages sent by bots, gift deliveries replaced with cash payouts for ‘brides’, ‘translators’ that impersonate women from photos in written communication, false declarations on visa applications — it’s time for immigration departments and FBI to take a closer look into Russian-owned Ukrainian troll factories that have already extracted hundreds of millions of dollars from Americans via online scams.
Yet, when an article about websites of paid correspondence (PPL) is published, nearly every time someone asks a question along the lines: “Aren’t there any legitimate women on PPL sites? And if yes, isn’t there a reliable method to find them?”
Can a relationship built on fraud turn into a good one?
This type of questions reminds me statements like “Prostitutes make the best wives”. Do they, really?
- Can you build a relationship with women listed on PPL sites and make it a good one?
- Or, in other words, can you build a relationship on the basis of fraud — and then magically turn it into something wonderful?
What do you think?
Let’s see what is really going on and why PPL is a fraud on so many levels
One thing you need to remember when considering to continue patronizing PPL sites (you would not be thinking of using them if you haven’t done it before, clearly it’s a playground for fraudsters, why would you even touch it?) is the fact that all participants of PPL schemes know what happens and directly benefit from ripping off unsuspecting men.
Read our previous posts:
- My work as PPL bride: The story of 18-year-old Ukrainian girl who worked for a marriage agency.
- Working as a translator for a marriage agency in Ukraine.
- How PPL agents hire brides.
- 10 reasons why I am so strongly against PPL sites.
This information is not new (I have been investigating it for 3 years, other people wrote about it already in 2007). In Ukraine, it’s public knowledge with TV shows and news programs reporting on it for years.
Although there are genuine dating sites used by Eastern European women to connect with foreign men, PPL schemes cannot pass the test of transparency and legitimacy. Pseudo-dating websites of paid communication involve many layers filled with scams, including immigration fraud. The difference is staggering as between ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’.
All PPL brides earn money on scams
Women who are listed on PPL sites as “brides” also benefit from the rip-offs. They are, first of all, getting money from the gifts that men send.
Usually the agent has no desire to buy a gift and deliver it to the girl; too much hassle. So, normally when a girl registers with a PPL marriage agency, she is asked to make photos with all types of packages and flower bouquets, so that the agency can send these pictures as a “proof of delivery”, if a gift is ordered for her later. Receipts are simply forged in a graphic editor.
- If they don’t have a required photo, they will simply ask the girl to make an extra picture. The girl goes to a shop and finds something that looks like the item sent for her, forwards the photo to the agent, and in return she gets 40% of the price of the gift. (The agent gets the check for 80% of the price you paid, so the girl and the agent split the money 50/50.) Women who are listed on PPL sites are happy to get proceeds from the blatant fraud against men they don’t even know, who are being scammed through paid communication by translators employed by marriage agencies.
- Often girls are also paid 10% from the profile earnings, in addition to the money from gifts. In return, they are required to provide current videos and selfies, to be sent to men, in order to create the impression that “it’s all for real”. Usually these 10% isn’t much, so the money from gifts are central to the income of women who supply photos for the profiles (i.e. “brides“).
There are NO participants of the PPL system who do not benefit from it.
Everyone gets a cut, if even in the form of “gifts” from suitors.
Fake brides describe in details the gift delivery scam: They go to florist shops to take photos with various bouquets of flowers, which are used by marriage agencies as ‘proof of delivery’. The money for the gift is split between the fake bride and the agent. (Image: Stock photo)
Gifts are the main avenue for agents to earn money
Men are strongly encouraged to send presents to women by PPL sites, which are supposed to organize the delivery through their agents.
Even if a woman is getting the gift, not just simply splitting the money with the agent, she is still obtaining a benefit from scamming unsuspecting men. She is not talking to the guys (a translator-impersonator does), but she is getting material benefit from it in the form of presents.
You may think, “Well, it’s not much”. It’s not much for you to pay $200 for a bunch of flowers, but in Ukraine people earn only $275/month on average. Sharing in a couple of gifts from men gives girls as much money as an average monthly income — albeit from a fraud.
- What kind of person will happily benefit from defrauding genuine people seeking love?
Living poorly is not an excuse. Most Ukrainians don’t work in fraudulent schemes. Women from ElenasModels work as teachers, nurses, medical doctors, earning less than the average wage, and still, they don’t do fraud. They go to work and make lives of other people better, not worse.
Are there any legitimate women in PPL marriage agencies?
There is a naive belief among men who got lured into PPL webs that there are some “good” women among thousands of listings on pay-per-letter pseudo-dating sites.
They believe they just need to “explain” to these women that they should get off the PPL site and communicate directly through Skype and email.
I don’t understand the logic why would you do it through PPL sites, when you can do it without any problem on legitimate dating websites where you are encouraged to share direct contact details, your Skype and mobile phone numbers, etc.
What’s the point of going to PPL sites to secretly beg women to move out of pay-per-letter (and it’s officially prohibited by the website’s Terms of Use, to which you have agreed on registration, by the way), when you can do it openly on genuine dating portals that allow and encourage direct communication off the site?
The reason is, most likely, that the type of women who write to you on PPL sites may be much more attractive (younger, prettier) than the ones who are happy to talk to you on legitimate Russian dating sites.
- In fact, there are only 3 legitimate Eastern European (Russian, Ukrainian) large dating sites that don’t work in the PPL model. On these websites, you pay a fixed fee and can communicate with women as much as you wish without paying for each message.
- The rest of large websites listing Eastern European women seeking partners all work through PPL. (See the list of PPL sites here.)
But the only reason “nicer” women are talking to you on PPL sites is because it’s fake.
Without fake communication there is no money in PPL
All PPL sites use agents who employ translators to fake communication.
There is no large PPL website that has no fraud in it, period.
If there is a website that claims they are immune, I am happy to accompany any legitimate media representatives to show them how the fraud is actually done. Each and every one of their agents has sins and this can be found and shown. If they want to allow access, I can guide industry outsiders to prove it. I know how it works. I am working in this industry for 20 years now. I also have spent months studying forums of PPL agents where they reveal every trick in their books and make jokes about “stupid” victims.
If you are a representative of a legitimate media outlet, feel free to leave a message below in the Comments section under this post. (Although I am pretty sure none of PPL sites will take the challenge.)
Faked communication that is conducted only with the purpose of scamming innocent men for money exists on all PPL sites and comes from each and every one of their agents. Again, it’s possible to verify it, given access.
- This faked communication is the largest source of revenue for these pseudo-dating sites.
- Obviously, men wouldn’t be sending gifts either, if they didn’t believe in “feelings” professed by fake brides.
Some Master PPL websites brag that they “partner” with 500 agents.
(Funny they call them “partners” in Russian sources, but use the term “third party providers” in their Terms of Use and fully disclaim any liability for what the agents do.)
These top level agents often employ sub-agents, because it’s hard to get the coveted “admin panel” on well-known PPL sites; it’s like a license to print money.
Master sites don’t want to deal with hundreds of agents that they need to keep tame, and new agents often do stupid things, such as publishing honest ads describing what the “work” of translators and brides includes.
In fact, many large Master sites stopped accepting new agents a while ago, and the only way for an aspiring Internet fraudster to join the ranks of prosperous PPL scammers is to become a sub-agent under a top-level agent who is already working for a famous PPL site.
- One top-level agent can be employing 10-20 sub-agents, widening the spider web of pay-per-letter predators even further.
- The top-level agent gets a cut (10-15%) from the earnings of sub-agents, who manage and pay their own scouts, mentors, translators and brides.
Who is talking to you on PPL sites?
When you are talking to women on PPL sites, you are most often communicating with a “translator” (impersonator), who pretends to be the woman from the photos.
The impersonator can be a male or a female, young or old.
So, you may be telling your stories and secret intimate fantasies to a pimple-faced Ukrainian guy, who is getting paid for every new message he can extract from you. (And you thought it was a lovely Ukrainian girl who is a university student? Sorry for the rude awakening.)
Translators sit on the lowest level of these complicated structures, built of Master Sites, Agents, Sub-agents, Scouts, Administrators/Mentors, and Brides. But it is translators that perform the largest amount of work, creating individual and believable love tales for lonely foreign men.
The name of the position is rather confusing though: ‘Translators’ don’t translate anything.
They simply communicate with foreign men under the identity of the ‘bride’.
Some brides do their own typing, although this is a highly coveted type of specialists, which are hard to find.
Why? They could marry a foreign “prince” in a blink of an eye and live happily ever after, if they can speak English and make guys fall in love within a couple of letters, plus they are also good-looking… So, why are they typing chats entertaining dozens of foreign males with tales of love at nights — for years? Maybe she has an ailing parent she has to care for, or the ex-husband would never allow her to move out of the country with their child. Or maybe she has another dark secret.
In other words, she cannot and won’t move to another country. This is why she is typing under her own identity but doesn’t get married to anyone for years. But such women are very rare; in our estimations, less than 10% of brides type their own letters; it’s usually impersonators. Of course, if she does type her own letters, she is paid more for that, combining wages of the translator and the bride.
You need to understand that even if the bride types her own chats and mails, she is doing it for money and not because she likes you and wants to marry you. In other words, no matter who is typing letters, they are anyway fake. Love is just a plot to charge per message, feeding the long chain of scammers from top to bottom.
You may again think, “It’s not much”, but your $2-5 letters multiplied by the amount of users give Master Sites hundreds of millions of dollars every year. Even agents who hire brides and translators earn up to $10-30 thousand dollars a month, after paying their workers. It’s a big and profitable business in Ukraine.
The complicated structure of layers of providers makes it impossible for Master Sites to ensure their services are legal and free from fraud. All participants are taking their cut in the scams. (Click to enlarge)
But what if you talked to this girl on video and she was “real”?
Video calls through PPL sites are expensive. (While you can use Skype for free when talking to women from genuine dating sites.)
But if you decide to pay $50 for a video call to check how real is your correspondent, it’s easy to manage through the combination of “brides” and “translators”.
- The impersonator (“translator”), i.e. the person who is writing letters to you, calls the girl from photos (“bride”) and she logs in with video.
- How hard is that? She is getting 10% from what you pay for this call, remember? Plus it’s essential for her to continue earning money from you and all other guys who are being ripped off through her profile.
In the meantime, you have talked to the girl on camera and now you believe, “It’s real”.
No, it’s not. It’s as fake as it can be.
Some PPL brides who want to convince you “it’s real” may even agree to meet you on Skype for free, so you keep paying for communication through the site. It’s a lot of money for them. Plus you are surely going to send gifts to the 3 ladies (as they advise you to meet 3 girls on your trip, just to make sure it works), right? Lots of money for PPL agents. Of course, they will do their best to ensure you, “It’s real”.
But it’s NOT.
When you are paying for online communication, you can be sharing your intimate fantasies with a pimple-faced guy from a Ukrainian Internet troll factory (aka PPL “marriage agency”), who is getting commissions for every message.
PPL sites can only offer fraud, not relationships
Once a relationship starts involving lies of this calibre, it turns into a fraud.
You cannot call a “relationship” something that is built on the foundation of deception.
And any communication through the PPL site that is done purely to make money from a suitor, is deception.
It’s only conducted to make money on your desire to find a partner and has absolutely no relevance to any potential relationship you wish to build. Moreover, because you are unable to decipher what part was truthful and what was fake, the whole “relationship” becomes a fraud.
If you still struggle to grasp the simplicity of PPL fraud, read the short story by American humorist O’Henry, written over 100 years ago. He described the paid communication fraud very well. Modern pay-per-message fraudsters just put it on steroids.
Are there any women of childbearing age on PPL sites who want to get married?
If you still want to press for answers regarding presence of women of childbearing age on PPL sites who would like to find a husband abroad, here is the truth.
All single Ukrainian women want to get married — and PPL predominantly lists women from Ukraine. (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan have very tight controls and people there are scared to scam foreigners online; it won’t end well for them.)
So, you are usually communicating with women from Ukraine through PPL sites, although agents do attempt to lure pretty girls from other countries to provide photos, while using Ukrainian substitutes to fake correspondence.
But predominantly, at the present time, Ukraine is the place where people earn so little (only USD 275 a month) that being an impersonator in dating chats gives workers a higher than average income. Ukraine has the lowest average wage in Europe, as well as volatile law enforcement and control, making this multi-layered fraud possible.
If you are talking to a woman from Ukraine while paying per message, you are absolutely wasting your money and feeding scammers — the probability of these messages being fake is higher than the chance of sun rising tomorrow morning over the horizon.
Back to thesis “All single Ukrainian women want to get married”
I wrote about it in detail here:
In short, the reason is in the society’s values: A single woman over 25 who hasn’t managed to find a husband and bear kids is seen as worthless. A woman over 25 should be married with kids.
So, if a woman is single, you can be sure that she absolutely dreams to be married…
But probably NOT to you.
Just like single women in your country, most likely, want to get married — to the right guy.
The same with Ukrainian women. They want to get married to the right guy, if they are single. Someone they are genuinely attracted to.
The trick is that “brides” from PPL sites (actually, translators-impersonators from their profiles) contact unsuspecting men regardless of whether the girl from photos in the profile wants to meet someone like this guy or not.
- Once again: Read the accounts of girls who work for these sites.
Impersonators (aka ‘translators’) are given explicit orders to contact men over 40, because they are more likely to get involved in paid communication. “Translators” are told to send letters to 200-500 guys daily.
If they get a response, they start communicating. Again, regardless of what the girl from photos would like or want. The probability is rather high that she is NOT looking for someone like you.
And absolutely ALL marriage agencies employ translators to fake communication of women they list. Because women themselves would never talk to guys they don’t like, which means, the agent would not make money.
The agents themselves admit that most often they don’t make money on profiles of women over 30. They often can’t even get back the money they spent on making professional photos and the video for the listing on a PPL site (it’s a requirement, to have good quality photos and a professional video).
To get back the money that an agent invested in a set of professional photos and the video, they need to start scamming men, or they will lose money.
In other words, any woman listed on a PPL site was used as a bait to scam some men for money.
She knows that and she is okay with that. You want a woman like this as your WIFE? You think she is only scamming some “other men” and you will be safe forever in such a union?
Well, if this is the case, I can only say, “Good luck.”
It’s your choice and you are making it with eyes wide shut
Just to repeat once again what you know by now, so you are truly content with your decision.
- All women on PPL sites are willingly and knowingly participating in scamming men, by benefiting from the rip-offs financially and materially, without any ethical concerns for the wellbeing of their victims.
- The essence of these schemes is well-known in Ukraine. Nearly all Ukrainian women know someone who is working in such schemes as an impersonator or a bride. (Russian women usually don’t know about such scams, unless they’ve read an article somewhere.) Just shows you how widespread this fraud is in Ukraine.
- Men using PPL sites are seen as imbeciles by agents and their employees. It seems silly to women that someone can believe in such a transparent setup and waste so much money on it. They openly say, “If a man is so unintelligent to believe it, he deserves it. Smart men would not use PPL agencies, when there are so many other ways to meet marriage-minded Slavic women.” (Read women’s comments to a recent article in Russian about the job of a translator in a marriage agency. Use Google Translate to read what the ladies wrote.)
Still want to try your luck and attempt to find a “legitimate woman of childbearing age” through PPL websites?
It’s your choice and you should never complain later that you “have been scammed”. You were not. You decided that you can trick the system, because you believe that you are smarter than the people who had created layers of trained specialists, whose goal is to effectively extract money from foreign suitors seeking love and affection. If you lose money, it would be because you have willingly took a bet and got outsmarted by professional fraudsters.
Or, and just one more thing…
PPL is also an immigration fraud
Because there is no truth in the foundation of your initial connection with a woman — even if she accepted your marriage proposal and decided to move to your country to be with you, unlikely as it is, — if you were to file for immigration (fiancée or partner visa), you may be committing immigration fraud.
Because your bride will be probably saying it was her who wrote letters to you, which would be a lie, the time of your true acquaintance will only include face-to-face dates. You will be making a false declaration if you didn’t include the fact that the communication was conducted from her side by a paid impersonator.
Now that you know for a fact it’s highly likely that the PPL part of your communication was conducted by an impersonator, the responsibility for making a false declaration also lies on you — check what is the punishment for that under your country’s immigration laws.
If it was her writing to you and she was paid for that, you also ought to disclose this fact to the immigration authorities during processing of your fiancée (partner) visa, or you are lying by omission, because this information is relevant to your application. If this fact was known to the immigration officers processing your visa application, it might affect the outcome. This means your hiding this fact would be equal to a false declaration.
Regarding your face-to-face dates, if they happened in the presence of a translator, who “interpreted” her words to you and your words back to her, it’s likely you had NO actual communication, because these “translators” can say anything, just to make it sound legit, so that you are happy with what you hear and continue to pay money for communication on your return home.
If you only ever talked through a translator (or in the presence of a translator), it’s not a real relationship
You have NO idea who your “bride” really is, what she thinks.
- The letters, chats are written by a “translator” (impersonator).
- Her words conveyed to you by a translator.
The woman may be saying, “He is fat and looks too old”, and the translator may tell you, “She is also happy to see you”, and you won’t know. Waiters in restaurants, frequented by translator-bride pairs accompanying foreign suitors, report it’s what often happens.
The same waiters report that “brides” and “translators” often swap places: Today she cannot speak English and needs a translator to interpret for her, and tomorrow she is the translator in the pair and the other girl pretends she can’t speak English, playing the “bride”.
This way, they can make more money from you, as you are paying for 2 dinners (they get kickbacks from restaurants for bringing clients and ordering expensive meals and drinks), plus you fork out probably $25/hour for the translator. Not a bad deal — a free dinner with a friend in a luxurious restaurant, and all they need is to smile at you from time to time.
Multiply it by 3 — most agents advise you to pick 3 women, so that you “don’t waste money for a visit”, what a lovely amount the agents and their mobs of subordinates get. $1,000+ for communication with each “bride” before the visit, plus meals and translation fees for all three. Ask yourself what do you get for that.
- Still want to fill in the fiancé visa application? Before finding out what is true and what is fiction?
- You may want to try Russian roulette instead — it may be safer.
Your biggest problem is that PPL scammers are organized
It’s a system.
- “Brides” and “translators” are recruited and trained by “mentors” (read the story of the “bride” and the “translator” how it works). There is a whole process of how employees of marriage agencies are trained to do what they do.
- “Mentors” are trained by agents — people who directly get money from Master PPL sites (the ones that claim they “don’t know anything” about scams on their sites). Most often “mentors” are former translators or brides, who are highly skilled in psychological manipulations to extract money from unsuspecting love seekers living in foreign lands.
- PPL Master sites fine agents mercilessly, if any information about scams gets out. The agent will lose all the money he made on a profile that is confirmed to be a fraud (for instance, a girl confessed to a guy she is getting paid for dates), plus the agent gets a 2-5 thousand dollars fine on top of that. For some girls, the agent may lose US$30,000 made on the profile in the last 2-3 years; it will be deducted from the current and future earnings. Of course, they will fiercely deny everything and pressure employees to keep it under wraps as tightly as possible.
Agents control and manipulate ‘translators’ and ‘brides’ to cover tracks of their deceitful activities and ensure they can continue with the fraud.
It’s actually a criminal gang, which works in unison. People are assigned roles, monitored and controlled to ensure that they do what they are told. They get advice on how to deal with any potential “hiccups”, how to increase profits, what to say and do. You are being manipulated from the moment you say the first “Hello”.
It’s a completely different type of encounter to dealing with an individual, such as a woman who is simply seeking a partner online, which is what happens when you meet someone on legitimate dating sites.
Remember: When you are dealing with a PPL-supplied ‘bride’, you are dealing with a gang.
It’s you against their system.
- You are NOT “courting a woman”.
- You are being manipulated for the maximum financial benefit by a gang of professional fraudsters, highly skilled in the art of making victims to part with their money “willingly”.
How to withstand against fraudulent PPL systems
To defeat organized PPL gangs would require another strong and powerful organization of the federal level, such as FBI online fraud investigation unit.
Then this whole scheme is easy to disassemble and squash. It’s all in the computer code, recorded communications and money transactions of these websites. With so many people involved in so many layers and the level of negligence typical for such arrogant frauds, it’s a child’s play for professional investigators. If (when) they find time to pursue the lost hundreds of millions of dollars, paid by Americans to Ukrainian troll factories, many of which are owned by Russians.
They did indict 13 Russians for attempting to influence American elections through troll factories in St. Petersburg in February 2018, but these giant Ukraine-based multi-layer webs of impersonators, for some reason, for over a decade are flying under the radar of online fraud investigators, as well as immigration departments responsible for allowing only good quality people into the United States. No questions are asked, no companies are questioned.
In fact, some business associations are openly patronizing PPL schemes, offering special industry conferences for them in convenient locations. (Looking for a platform to speak up against PPL scams? This may be the perfect place.)
But you alone have little chance to win the battle against a multi-layered gang, where everyone plays against you — including the women with whom you are trying to connect. (Let’s overlook for a minute they take part in defrauding other unsuspecting men willingly.) Don’t forget, you are an outsider, and she sees herself as part of the organization and fears prosecution for her role in the fraud. Of course, everyone in the scheme knows it’s a fraud!
It’s not a secret in Ukraine, as we already explained earlier. However, all the participants of PPL schemes, top to bottom, try to insist “it’s not a fraud, because the women actually want to get married” (just not to the men they simply scam for money).
But this we have already discussed previously — all single women in Ukraine want to get married to a man of their dreams, but not all of them are allowing their photos and data to be used to defraud foreign men seeking love, in exchange to financial benefits.
So, the fact that women would love to find husbands is not an excuse to scam men through fake communication. In fact, Master Sites have failed the duty of care to protect their clients from fraud.
Moreover, Master Sites are directly benefiting from the fraud, as it’s the fake communication that brings them the multi-million dollar revenues. And it’s easy to see if investigators check their books.
Not only that, Master Sites don’t even inform their clients that they pay commissions to providers of the content — agents — for messages, chats, and photos. If you used PPL sites, were you aware that someone’s wages depend on the amount of messages you send and receive? If not, you were misled.
The government has the power to question companies and implement measures that protect consumers. For instance, Western Union was found complicit in fraud and fined USD 586 million in January 2018 that went to compensate the victims. You are able to get some money back if you complain and give federal authorities reasons to investigate. Take an action, if you want something to change.
In January 2018 Western Union had to pay $586 million for failure to maintain effective controls and aiding wire fraud. (Image: Justice.gov)
Finally, a ray of light in the gloom of PPL scams
This all may sound really upsetting and emotionally devastating to men who realized they were defrauded by a gang of Ukrainian trolls. Let me finish on a more optimistic note.
Fortunately, there are legitimate dating sites that have nothing to do with multi-layered gang-style PPL schemes.
- When you meet a woman on Elenasmodels, you are not dealing with a gang, you are talking to an individual.
This is why on Elenasmodels.com women who belong to any PPL agency cannot get a profile. If we find that the lady has an active listing on any pay-per-message website, her application is rejected.
Once a woman’s photos and data are owned by a PPL agent, they can pop anywhere. Someone can get scammed through her data at any time. The profile can be sold and re-sold for profit, especially if the woman got married and no longer wants to be listed anywhere.
- On Elena’s Models, women join in the same way as on any dating site such as Match.com or eHarmony, without agents.
- It’s you and her, one-to-one.
- Privacy and security, no mediators.
- No charge for correspondence, no commissions paid to any agents.
In short, it’s just a normal dating site, where people come to meet a mate, not to make money.
And if you are lucky to find someone special, it’s a relationship. A real relationship.
Happy marriages with Ukrainian and Eastern European women are possible when you are dealing with an individual via a genuine dating site without PPL. Photo: Happy couples that met on Elenasmodels.com.
As the base for these agencies is in Ukraine and as the conduct of them is abreach of the criminal code, should not the Ukraine government with the police take action too? Ukraine want to join the EU. It has already had to change laws to fight corruption. These agencies and the women working for them are in a corrupt enterprise that will affect the future of Ukraine’s membership of the EU
Chris,
Owners of PPL Master Sites are based in the EU and USA mostly. Computer servers with data are in the USA and EU.
Only workers are in Ukraine.
But Ukrainian “agencies” cannot exist without the money collected by Master Sites, which enable the fraud and cause it by paying commissions per message.
It’s Master Sites that take your money under misleading advertising.
See how and where to complain.
You can’t fix it from the bottom, only from the top.
But under Articles 190 and 192, it is the girls themselves who. Commit the fraud. This is all the more so where the site is not PPL but does exclusively use girls from an agency. They are wntering into commission arrangements knowing that their income from this is obtained by fraud.
I’m sure that a prosecution across PPL and AgencySites would make.some girls think twice about working for such a site.
Chris, Great idea! Are you going to be the one pursuing it in Ukraine? Just do it then. In addition, you can still complain to UK online fraud unit about Master Sites (some are registered at British Virgin Islands, others in EU, USA) about failure of due care and processes, because Master Sites KNOW about these scams and allow (+ financially encourage) and actually make them possible to continue. Proof: Fines and internal instructions. It’s all in the code, accounts, books, Partner Agreements. They don’t mind it’s fraud; they just don’t want anyone to know about it. Check Elena’s Models… Read more »
Chris, you are over complicating the issue and where to resolve it. Wasting time trying to search, track down and gain evidence on workers (maybe 10,000) communicating for small amounts of money would waste resources. Simply the companies are public and registered, heavily advertised in the USA, UK, Europe and Australia. Cut the head off the snake. They will find other work when they don’t get paid.
Chris, you sound very academic in your thinking and impractical, irrespective if the communicators are breaking laws. To me focus on the owners and shut down those sites.
Benjiman,
You are actually right. When I was reading the forum of agents, they were talking about one PPL site, “Zolushka.net” (“Hot Russian Brides” skin for men), which stopped paying money to its Ukrainian providers of chats/letters. Slowly all agents reported they quit working on the site. Some still kept requesting their PPL workers to login hoping to get back the money owed, but most of them stopped after 1-2 months and moved to other PPL sites.
Agents joked in the forum, “Zolushka is the only site that really fights scams… they stopped paying money” 😀
I’m not sure that I’d the case after the high profile of the Cambridge Analytica Case in the US and UK where the women used in a honey trap were all from the Ukraine and all from agencies. I agree that accumulating evidence takes time and money, but passing a photo and a name to the immigration service of the US, UK and EU in the current climate will result in entry being refused according to my EU contact. The photo can easily be checked against the biometric passport when it is used. In the case of the US and… Read more »
Chris, There are 35,000-40,000 workers involved in PPL multi-layered fraud that involves, among all other violations, false declarations on immigration applications, and only a dozen of companies developing PPL software, bots, commission schemes, controlling agents. Until a government agency of the level of FBI looks at actual perpetrators (organizers at the top) and the scheme itself, nothing will change. It’s over 10 years that PPL fraud has been going on. Go for the “low hanging fruit” 🙂 Once the companies (organizers) are questioned properly by media and government agencies, the “house of cards” will fall over on the spot. The… Read more »
Hi Elena, I would think based on the evidence that any attempt to address this issue in the Ukraine would be futile. It’s clear a massive industry is structured behind this and likely leading to corruption within Ukraine itself. What is clear is that the fastest solution to have a credible impact is the western major authorities can target the master website- the website that fronts all of the activity that a man uses. Simply those websites are obviously owned by small groups of individuals likely to have offices in the USA and Uk. They can be named, shamed and… Read more »
Sebastian,
My understanding is that one cannot run a long-term large scale scam in Ukraine unless there is a “roof” provided by law enforcement structures.
200 million US dollars yearly in revenue (it’s a very conservative estimation), $16.7 million monthly, from that let’s say 50% goes to 500 Ukrainian agents who organize the layers of “content” providers. It’s $16,700 per agent per month, which is about right, according to reports from agents about their earnings.
It can’t be fixed any other way but from the top down.
In your words: “This is why on Elenasmodels.com women who belong to any PPL agency cannot get a profile. If we find that the lady has an active listing on any pay-per-message website, her application is rejected. Once a woman’s photos and data are owned by a PPL agent, they can pop anywhere. Someone can get scammed through her data at any time. The profile can be sold and re-sold for profit, especially if the woman got married and no longer wants to be listed anywhere.” Out of pure curiosity, how do you guys spot fake profiles? What’s the process?… Read more »
Carlos,
You can read how we approve profiles and why we refuse them.
Most importantly: we actually TALK to women. There is a huge difference in how regular women answer questions (and which questions they ask) and how fake “brides” try to pass the interview. Our administrators are experienced and they know patterns.
It’s also easy to find accounts on PPL sites, there are only a few of them under different skins.
Do some men and women who met on PPL sites get married, with the woman moving to the man’s home country, such as the USA, Australia, or some other European country?
Scott,
Criminals in jails get girlfriends who write to them and get married. Hookers get married to their clients. So what?
For every man who gets married through PPL sites there are thousands of men who get financially fleeced and left emotionally ruined.
Even suggesting that these structures have any legitimacy puts psychological and financial well-being of millions of single men around the world at risk.
Elena, I was looking at a potential PPL site recently and they answered question after question I posted. They claimed that none of the girls they list were being paid. This merely informed me they were capable of telling a bald-faced lie because they also refused to explain with any real good answers the more detailed and particular questions I asked. The technical based questions were never answered to my satisfaction about why so many Ukrainian women were awake and posting chat invites to me literally as soon as I would be on the website and at all hours of… Read more »
Roger, I feel it’s safe to meet women in all ex-USSR countries except, unfortunately, Ukraine. We still have couples with men marrying Ukrainian women but most our success stories lately come from Russia. (Well, it’s 146 million people in Russia and 42 million in Ukraine; 1:3.5 proportion, it’s probably right, we have 3-4 women joining from Russia for every lady from Ukraine.) I have nothing against Ukrainian women but I feel the whole dating culture is poisoned by PPL. One thing for sure, everyone knows about this fraud. For instance, recruitment portal Rabota.ua won’t take any vacancies from any dating… Read more »
Bonjour, Sorry for the translation from French to English. You should add all the pre-recorded chat videos: The women are there on the screen pretending to type on their keyboard while smiling stupidly. If you ask them to get up, to check if they really chat live, the image will cut, they will stand up a little and sit down, the image will cut again and their video showing them sitting and smiling stupidly will start rolling again. It even happened to me that one of their agent made a mistake and gave me the video of another woman from… Read more »
Dear Elena, thank you very much for your welcome information and I apologize for so many questions. Why are Ukrainian women angry? Or can we even say, somewhat stressed? I can explain you better, maybe you can help them change this. I have already found websites that only use the photos of the ladies, I can prove this, I mean the website XYZ.com [name removed for legal reasons]. You mean that all the profiles of the ladies of these sites “PPL” are false profiles? Some of these sites when they have the credit card number, refuse to cancel and stop… Read more »
Wilson, 1. Read the article again. 2. Read all posts through the links in the article + comments under posts. 3. I did not give numbers of “good” or “bad” websites. What I said, there are only 3 legitimate large sites listing Eastern European women seeking men abroad that don’t work through PPL. All other large sites listing Russian, Ukrainian women work through PPL. 4. Any PPL site uses AGENTS. Any PPL site PAYS COMMISSIONS TO AGENTS. Any PPL site disclaims liability for what agents do. All agents use FAKE COMMUNICATION via impersonators. Do not use PPL sites if you… Read more »
“I don’t understand the logic why would you do it through PPL sites, when you can do it without any problem on legitimate dating websites where you are encouraged to share direct contact details, your Skype and mobile phone numbers”
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Actually there is a big problem, Elena….for USA citizens….that you are probably aware of…it is the stupid “International Marriage Broker Regulation Act” (IMBRA)….
Edward, We at EM issue on average 3 IMBRA letters for fiancée visa applications per week (for instance, we sent 5 letters last week) to our USA clients. It’s not a big deal. You can meet a woman in a shopping centre in Kiev or through Facebook, and immigration will be OK with that. In fact, you can meet anywhere and it will be fine, as long as you are not lying on your application. The problem is that fake communication from impersonators, typical for PPL, leads you to false declarations (immigration fraud). That’s what you should be thinking about… Read more »
I can prove with a woman I have met in person that at least 3 PPL sites are scam. Elena, you might want to drop me a short line on the current case as well as some other information! Thanks
Georg,
I don’t pursue immigration fraud or PPL scams 🙂
(I understand there is nothing to smile about, just to keep the spirits up.)
It’s FBI online fraud department, consumer affairs TV programs and other federal agencies that deal with organized criminal structures that scam Americans, Australians, Brits, Europeans, etc.
Find out here how to complain to authorities.
My purpose is purely educational.
For some reason, there are still guys that believe they can meet “legitimate women” through PPL sites.