This week we at Elena’s Models got a couple of phone calls from current affairs programs, all of a sudden. The mainstream media has this knee-jerk reaction when something is published online in a popular tabloid.
Russian “brides to order” from… Ukraine!
This time it was UK’s ‘Daily Mail’ that published an article about immigration visas given to spouses and included comments on how easy it was to “rort” the system.
As an example of “rorting” the author Stephen Johnson gives a story of a 74-year-old twice-divorced Australian pastor who married a much younger woman from Ukraine, all the way calling her a “Russian bride”.
This constant confusion between “Russian brides”, who for some reason are residing in Ukraine, driven by media that is refusing to see the difference, is rather bewildering.
Guys and girls writing these pieces… Get the things straight in your head.
- Ukraine is NOT Russia.
- Russia is NOT Ukraine.
- These 2 countries are completely different and separate entities since 1991, when the Soviet Union had disintegrated peacefully. Yes, already for nearly 27 years — more than a quarter of a century. Time to adjust your maps.
I know you guys just love reusing the old material. It takes little research, no need to check facts, and you are producing content on schedule. The heading “Russian mail order brides” is going to attract clicks. You know what reaction you are going to get from the audience. It’s predictable and safe. I get it.
But it’s just unintelligent. You are a journalist, so be factual. Do at least your basic fact-checking if in-depth research is beyond your schedule at this point in time.
- Stop calling Ukrainian women “Russian brides”. It’s like calling Israelis “Palestinians”, which would get you some unsavoury emails in your Inbox and a reprimand from your editor (who also should have checked the facts before allowing such nonsense to be published).
Just saying. Going after hot phrases causes Daily Mail (inadvertently) to promote a myth benefiting scammers. The journalists would do a much better job putting attention on separating Russian brides and fake online romances from Ukraine; it’s their duty to protect the public and dispel myths, as opposed to repeating false narratives created by con artists.
Keep reading; I will explain what is going on here and why it’s essential not to confuse the two.
Russia and Ukraine are in a conflict
If you talk to Ukrainians, they will say that they have a war in their country. It is a war for them: Men are called to serve in the army in the zones where the armed conflict is ongoing since 2014.
These are areas in Donetsk and Luhansk regions on the border with Russia that are controlled by “separatists”, who want these regions to be part of Russia or have their own status and not be an integral part of Ukraine. The conflicts started in 2014, simultaneously with Russia’s takeover of Crimea. There are civilian as well as military casualties from both sides. By casualties I mean people dying and being killed because of fire, bullets and explosions.
So, yes, for Ukrainians it’s a war on their territory and they are confident that without the support from Russia’s side of the border the “separatists” wouldn’t stand a chance.
Russia insists it is not involved in the “war” and they are simply sending humanitarian assistance to the affected areas. Russia also denies being part of the “war” or sending troops there, blaming anti-Russian propaganda by the Ukrainian side for distorting facts.
The point here is that at this point in time Russia and Ukraine are just as friendly as Israelis and Palestinians.
This is why such confusions are highly offensive to both sides.
The division is also important because it is only Ukraine that is affected by PPL scams, which I will explain in detail below. Russia is not affected by pay-per-letter ‘fake relationship’ scams because of tight rules over the Internet and strict law enforcement. So, talking to a ‘Russian bride’ is very different to chatting online to a ‘beautiful Ukrainian woman’. You will understand the difference in a minute.
The myth about “mail order brides”
First, there is no such thing as a “mail order bride“. I know the media loves the term and doesn’t wish to drop it. But it simply is as real as a mermaid or a unicorn.
Yes, “mail order brides” do NOT exist.
But there is a “mail order brides” industry, which is PPL (pay-per-letter) empire of pseudo-dating.
This industry is vigorously promoting the unrealistic image of “brides-to-order” to scam gullible victims — and you, guys and girls from the mainstream media, writing poorly researched pieces, are assisting these con artists by repeating myths. By the way, this industry also advertises Russian brides but gives men ads of women from Ukraine. They love the confusion. That’s why it’s essential for the media and the authorities to point out the difference, rather than maintain the common confusion.
PPL industry is turning over around 200-300 million dollars annually worldwide, flying under the radar of commercial and immigration watchdogs, corrupting souls and breaking hearts along the way.
PPL recruiters join all major dating sites such as RSVP or Match.com to get hold of their future victims, Australian men included, just like Nigerian scammers do. So, Australian men don’t even need to go to the websites “advertising Russian brides” — PPL recruiters lure them away from general dating sites that everyone uses.
PPL is the giant elephant in the room of international dating that the media refuses to notice.
PPL brides
The “brides” are hired by PPL agents to provide photos that will be used to scam men online under the guise of women seeking partners. But these photos are just as real as 1-900 pics in classifieds offering hot phone chat at the rate of $3.99 per minute. The communication that comes from that is just as genuine as the stories one hears via ‘phone sex’ lines. Unicorns and mermaids, we have talked about it already.
But that’s not the point either; let’s get back to Stephen Johnson’s article promoted under the title, “More than 900 foreigners move to Australia on spousal visas EVERY WEEK — amid fears ‘mail to order’ Russian brides are leaving their partners as soon as they’re let into the country”.
47,000 migrant visas granted to spouses and prospective partners are definitely not the result of Australian men marrying “mail order brides”.
If 4,000 of them (10%) are the people who met online through international dating sites, I would be surprised.
I am not a population or immigration expert, but I am working in the online dating industry since 1999. Lots of people chat on international dating sites, a few couples meet in real life or visit each other, and it’s a miniscule number of people who actually get married.
And anyway, these people have a relationship. If it’s about a 74-year-old man marrying someone 30 years younger, that’s obviously not the type of a relationship you or I approve, but that’s not any of your or my business.
I don’t approve of Geoffrey Edelsten’s marriages to young women 40+ years his junior and it’s hardly surprising to see his unions ending up in a few years — or even months — in divorces. But is it any of my business? No. Geoffrey Edelsten lived his life and he has the right to choose what he wants to do with the rest of it.
The holes in the Australian immigration system
The biggest hole in the Australian immigration system are student visas, as I see it.
In the USA there is an age limit to get one, but in Australia you can be 60 and apply for a student visa. That’s the simplest way for people to get into Australia, if they want to sneak in, definitely not via a dating site, where results are highly unpredictable, as I explained above.
If the immigration authorities or the media pushing for an overhaul of the rules for migrants have the intent of cutting down the influx of people, putting attention to student visas would give weightier results faster. It would also reduce the number of spouses brought on partner visas by ‘students’ who applied to stay.
I totally support the idea about limiting the number of foreign spouses one person is able to bring to Australia. An example of a guy who brought 9 foreign spouses, as quoted in Stephen Johnson’s article, is shocking, if this is a real case. However, it’s not such abnormal individuals that affect general immigration numbers.
The requirement for a foreign spouse to speak the language is perfectly justified, in my view, and should be implemented not only for wives and husbands but for all migrants, as the immigration minister proposed. There are such requirements for foreign spouses in Denmark and some other European countries, as I am aware. This will assist new spouses with adaptation in the country, finding a job, and being able to communicate with authorities.
The Australian values test, proposed by the government, is also a great idea, in my view. In the USA people who apply for a citizenship attend courses to pass the test, where they learn American history and values. It would be great if there was a similar system in Australia.
Hysteria about “mail order brides” is unhelpful
But the hysteria about “Russian brides” from authors of articles in tabloids is definitely not helpful in resolving issues of systematic abuse.
Mail order brides are not a problem, as they do not exists.
The problem is fake relationships created by the PPL industry, where a man is made to believe in something that doesn’t exist. He thinks he is in a relationship with a beautiful woman, and there is none: It’s a paid author who communicated with him, to earn commissions.
This is only possible because the man pays for each message. In other words, if there was no pay-per-message system, it would not be possible to hire a writer to create fathom relationships.
PPL industry creates these fathoms to extract money from men, not to run immigration scams, of course.
But the authorities and the media for years fail to warn the public about these scams or put any blocks on the way of PPL con artists fleecing their victims via fake online romances.
And no one in the mainstream media wants to write about it. The government, too, fails to inform citizens on websites with warnings about romance scams.
The media is quick to attack individuals who have no money to go to court to defend themselves, but it won’t delve into a corporate scamming scheme that turns over hundreds of millions and destroys mental and financial well-being of thousands of people. This conduct borders on complicit — especially given the fact they have been tipped about what is really going on.
Where are the roots of abuse?
“Dr Bob Birrell, the head of the Australian Population Research Institute, said the existing rules were open to abuse”, Stephen Johnson emphasises in his piece for Daily Mail.
What is open to abuse is the fact that Australian men are not warned by the government or the media about PPL’s deceitful tactics, so pay-per-letter scammers have a field day.
In fact, they’ve had a whole “field decade” since the first whistleblowers started to write about pay-per-letter scams in 2006-2007.
But the mainstream media keeps writing about fictitious “mail order brides” and not about the empire of falsified communication and billions of dollars lost by its victims.
No one investigates. Not the media, not ACCC. Immigration authorities happily allow PPL brides into the country, not even asking who was writing all these letters that Australian men paid thousands of dollars for, to pay-per-letter websites.
It is the media and the authorities that allow this scam to prosper on the daily basis, by turning a blind eye
I have talked about it with many reporters, who call Elenasmodels from time to time, just like this week producers from two of the most popular current affairs TV programs in Australia were given this information.
Until now no one has published anything, no investigations by authorities, just the usual cries about deceitful “brides to order”.
What’s the reason? PPL scams are not as sexy?
We have talked to TV programs from ABC, SBS, Channels 7, 9 and 10 in Australia — all top-rated channels on Free TV — and none of them apparently thought it was worth a segment. There are no stories on 60 minutes, or Today Tonight, or The Project, to inform and warn consumers about PPL online dating scams. One of the victims of PPL scams reported to us that he contacted ‘A Current Affair’ about his plight (he was recruited on a general dating site and lured to a PPL platform via a fake romance) and they weren’t interested either.
But they keep reiterating ideas of “mail order brides”, which, by the way, are exactly what scammers exploit: The notion that a young, beautiful woman would marry an older man just to get into Australia (USA, UK, etc.) simply because she “wants to escape hardships in her country”.
The media seems to purposefully keep their eyes shut, just like Dr Phil TV show also didn’t get into the essence of the pay-per-letter scam. Which is extremely simple.
I stopped writing about PPL scams because no one seems to be concerned or believes there is a problem. I even explained how PPL scams lead to immigration fraud. Am I the only one who is able to connect the dots? My feeling is that the media and the authorities simply think that men who got scammed “deserve it”. The same attitude that PPL fraudsters from Ukraine have towards their victims: If you are so gullible to believe in such a blatant scam, then you need to be taught a lesson.
Once again: Without PPL sites paying commissions that depend on the amount of communications exchanged, the pay-per-letter scams would not exist. The problem is ridiculously easy to fix, both from the side of authorities and the PPL sites themselves, which keep insisting they are not harbouring fraud.
It’s like the problem of refugees was easily resolved by the Abbot government by changing immigration rules that no migrant who arrived illegally by boat would be allowed to settle in Australia. “Stop the boats” policy worked. The amount of boat arrivals instantly dropped, because people smugglers couldn’t charge would-be refugees for transportation, promising them a happy life in Australia. People smugglers were the main problem — the organizers of an illegal scheme.
In the same way, PPL sites are the organizers of the deceitful scheme of paid communication that leads to scams and fraud. Simply go to the roots.
Stop crying about treacherous ‘mail order brides’ and start fixing the real problem
It’s time for the media to stop fake cries about problems with “mail order brides”, if they don’t wish to put attention where it belongs.
If there is poo on the ground, the problem is not the poo but the person who put it there.
The issue of fake marriages where a man is under the illusion that the other person has feelings for him isn’t going to be fixed by increasing the limits on how long the couple needs to communicate before getting a visa (currently 2 years, according to Daily Mail) — this will only give scammers more time to extract money from the victims.
Because PPL is after money for communication, not marriages.
Fake “brides” participating in the scheme are also victims, not perpetrators. They are conned by PPL agents to participate in the scheme with promises of a relationship, while the only concern of the agent is to make money from their photos for as long as possible — preferably forever. So, agents only target men who are likely to pay for communication, not someone the “bride” would like. Agents don’t care what brides want or what men want. They are in the game for themselves, just as organizers that created PPL sites.
Tightening immigration requirements for spouses won’t deter scammers, who only will be happier if the game lasts longer. But it will hurt genuine couples in relationships.
What will deter “mail order bride” scammers is the spotlight on pay-per-letter pseudo-dating industry.
If they can no longer charge millions for falsified relationships, there won’t be fake online romances, masterfully created and maintained for years by paid writers on commissions.
Don’t write about the subject if you are poorly informed
We started with journalists confusing Russia with Ukraine and ended up with pay-per-letter fake “mail order brides”.
It’s quite logical. Reporters like Stephen Johnson from Daily Mail are simply poorly informed to make judgments about the real situation, but they are still trying to write something on the topic, and fail miserably as the result.
Any author attempting to discuss international dating in connection with immigration — without understanding how PPL (pay-per-letter) works — is like a man on a boat without a compass in the middle of Pacific Ocean.
The major reason for immigration fraud of “mail order bride” type is not some deceitful individuals, whose motives are unclear and behaviour unpredictable.
It’s a giant and well-organized industry employing over 30,000 people only in Ukraine (similar schemes exist in Asia), working in a predictable and effective pattern, that a single Australian man is against.
Who do you think is going to win — unless the Australian media and authorities do something to protect him?
Featured photo: Depositphotos.
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There’s more going on here than has been reported. Russian immigrants are a big benefit to Australia, or any other country.
Yes Paul, agree with you. I would say (being married to a Russian with Kids) has the same beneficial economic and social benefits as any Australian and family. Frankly that article is so profoundly ignorant and baseless a “Dr” as he labels his credentials should be embarrassed of his input to the topic. Even the purported and inferred idea that partner visas are being rorted greatly had no breakdown of who how many what countries even as a minimum piece of content to the article. It creates a thought to the reader that anyone can apply for a partner visa… Read more »
Haha Goerge, good point about university funding from international students, I didn’t think of that. Makes perfect sense why academics refuse to look at actual numbers how many people arrive and stay in Australia on different visas and where is the low hanging fruit to tackle issues of extensive immigration. Anyway, the topic of “mail order brides” is sexy and safe, and both reporters and academics have reasons not to attemp to investigate real issues. I just think any PPL brides and grooms need to make a full disclosure about the nature of their initial “relationship” (paid communication, most likely… Read more »
Anyway, they’re just pretending. While there are indeed issues with immigration, Russians aren’t one of them. Writing from Tiraspol, OMG Russian women are beautiful…as in…do I pick myself up off the ground knowing I’m going be falling right back down again heh heh.
It’s amazing topic, Elena. You are brave to start it, and I imagine you have a good reason to! I guess we needed a real provocation to have the topic to be heard, finally. Russian ladies and Ukrainian ladies are not the same. World changes. There are many things that happened starting from 2014 in Ukraine that will never bring these two nations together. We, in Russia, always saw Ukrainians as our soul sisters. Then it all stopped and pink dreams of being one nation, like we have with Belarus, fell into painful zero. Russia and Belarus are same. We… Read more »
Yana 🙂
Wow, Yana. What a heartfelt statement. You communicated more than just the words. And quite helpful for me personally. Thankyou.