# What might this Russian woman's scam be? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 7, 2010, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-might-this-russian-womans-scam-be/563316 "2010-12-07T19:53:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-might-this-russian-womans-scam-be/563316/41 "2010-12-08T18:11:20Z")
Could it be a longer term plan maybe? Marriage, followed by an American passport and then divorce, and the sharing of your worldly goods. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-might-this-russian-womans-scam-be/563316/42 "2010-12-08T18:16:14Z")
> [@SpeedwayRyan](#): > > [Take the test!](http://www.romancescam.com/cgi-bin/scamtest.cgi?areyoutalkingtoarussianscammer) What’s with references to “The Bat”? I googled it and it seems to be a mail client. Does it have special anonymising features or something? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-might-this-russian-womans-scam-be/563316/43 "2010-12-08T18:52:13Z")
> [@Aversin](#): > > To the OP, I’d say the scammer either still believes you might pay up OR they could be gathering information for identity theft. Even with just an email it is possible to gain personal details on some people, did you use a burner email? How much personal information have you given to this person? I’m not sure it’s an attempt to get information via e-mail. I got one of these about 3-4 years ago. (Actually, I’ve gotten tons, but now I just delete them.) With the first one, though, I was reeled in a bit at first. “She” refused to go to e-mail and insisted on IMing. Like **TGWATY** , I wanted to see how far I could take it without losing any money. In this case, she claimed to be from my city (complete coincidence, I’m fairly sure), but was in Africa to visit her poor sick granny. We would finally be together and happy and in LUV once she got enough money together for a plane ticket. I asked her if she wanted me to give her money for it. She actually refused, so that wasn’t part of her game. She even acted all butthurt that I’d accuse her of that. No, she had the money. Or her uncle did. And her other uncle could wire it to her. But uncle #1 couldn’t get the money to uncle #2 and I would I be a dear and walk the $10,000 in cash from one uncle to the other? That’s when it got too weird and I stopped all communications with her. I didn’t want to risk finding out more. But I do wonder what would have happened if her profile didn’t put her in my city. I’ve gotten dozens more e-mails like that, from “girls” claiming to be from California, Alabama, Africa, and China. But never from a couple of miles away. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-might-this-russian-womans-scam-be/563316/44 "2010-12-08T19:53:44Z")
I came to recomend TinEye. Would love to hear the result. another useful site: [http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx](http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx) Send them the full header info of the e-mail address and see what they say. (No answer doesn’t mean you’re in the clear, just that they are very busy people.) ---
**Author:** ![SpeedwayRyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@SpeedwayRyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpeedwayRyan)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-might-this-russian-womans-scam-be/563316/45 "2010-12-08T20:04:54Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > What’s with references to “The Bat”? I googled it and it seems to be a mail client. Does it have special anonymising features or something? Found via a google search… > [@](#): > > You will also appreciate the high security that The Bat! provides. Options include S/MIME and OpenPGP, remote image blocking, an interface to anti-spam and anti-virus tools as well as automatic encryption of local data. Images in emails can be enabled for trusted hosts from which they are retrieved. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-might-this-russian-womans-scam-be/563316/46 "2010-12-08T20:12:00Z")
> [@Scubaqueen](#): > > yanno… \*\*BMax \*\*brings up a good point i was considering while reading this thread. > > suppose your ‘new russian friend’ is a whiz at computers ala the cyber geeks on ncis or criminal minds and CAN backtrack your ip to find out where you are. i don’t know zip about computers, but is that a possibility, those of you out there that know computerspeak? could they track down the op and his physical address that way or have i been watching too much tv? :eek: There’s a reasonable chance that the IP address might locate him to, say a particular metropolitan area. Unlikely to narrow it down much beyond that. But so what if they did? I mean, OK, this guy in Russia now has the name and address of someone in the U.S. Well, for the cost of shipping a phone book there, he can have thousands of names and addresses. What could they do with TGWATY’s address that they couldn’t do with Joe Random Phonebook’s address? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-might-this-russian-womans-scam-be/563316/47 "2010-12-08T20:51:33Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > There’s a reasonable chance that the IP address might locate him to, say a particular metropolitan area. Unlikely to narrow it down much beyond that. > > But so what if they did? I mean, OK, this guy in Russia now has the name and address of someone in the U.S. Well, for the cost of shipping a phone book there, he can have thousands of names and addresses. What could they do with TGWATY’s address that they couldn’t do with Joe Random Phonebook’s address? If you are communicating with someone, or making plans to scam the scammers, they may pick up on information about when you are away, and steal everything you have. Then if caught, and they claim you gave them everything valuable you owned as a gift, they have the history of emails to show your involvement. Thats why you should stay away from people like this. But TGWATY won’t fall for that, he’s got it going on. He has no need to fear con artists. Really TG, nobody could pull one over on you. ---
**Author:** ![Add99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/977dab/32.png) [@Add99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Add99)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-might-this-russian-womans-scam-be/563316/48 "2010-12-09T01:59:00Z")
[http://www.romancescam.com/album/](http://www.romancescam.com/album/) Wait. Am I the only one here that clicked on “Tired of scammers?” The internet never fails to amuse. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-might-this-russian-womans-scam-be/563316/49 "2010-12-09T02:10:36Z")
> [@Lips\_Obsession](#): > > You’ve been watching too much TV. Most of what they do on NCIS and Criminal Minds is pure hogwash. It just don’t happen that way. Best you can get with an IP address (in most cases) is a general location… Nitpick. You’re generally correct, but your IP address contains a lot of closely-identifying information. I am constantly surprised that they can tell not only _how_ some local woman lost weight–no matter that it’s some exotic berry–but _how much_ she lost. Or that they know that local moms are earning big bucks on the Internet. Simply amazing. Just a bit of triangulation between people and I’m sure they know who I am. Actually, I bet they’re using some of my recent successes–one’s I haven’t even share on line–to market services to my neighbors. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-might-this-russian-womans-scam-be/563316/50 "2010-12-09T02:27:11Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > …Or that they know that local moms are earning big bucks on the Internet. Simply amazing… That ad, with that same picture, appears with a different “amazing” amount every time I see it. Wonder who her accountant is, Mr. Random Figure? ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-might-this-russian-womans-scam-be/563316/51 "2010-12-09T03:50:41Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > That ad, with that same picture, appears with a different “amazing” amount every time I see it. That’s amazing. ---
**Author:** ![TGWATY](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5e925/32.png) [@TGWATY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TGWATY)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-might-this-russian-womans-scam-be/563316/52 "2010-12-09T14:15:28Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > You know TGWATY, you’ve really impressed me with the way you’ve approached this. You knew from the begininning it was a scam, and you moved ahead, risking nothing, and gaining amusement. I misjudged you initially, I can see you are bright, quick, and impossible to con. I’d really like to get to know you better. I know lot’s of gorgeous, Russian redheads, who just love American men, and don’t play all the games that American women do. They are free-spirited, and just don’t have any sexual hang ups. You should really get a chance to meet some Russian women who aren’t trying to scam you. You’d really appreciate the experience. We should get together somehow and go out on the town. Don’t worry, it’s all on me, you can leave your wallet at home. I’m just a friendly guy who likes to hang out with solid guys who really have it together the way you do. You could probably teach me a few things. So let me know where and when we can make contact. We can just talk by phone if you’re uncomfortable letting me know where you live. It’s not a problem. You can even come over to my house. LOL [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-might-this-russian-womans-scam-be/563316.md?page=2)