Blacklist Page 16

Women on this Page: - Rimma Ivashevskaya

Individual Caution: Rimma Ivashevskaya
ADDED:19th July 2002
Last Updated: 12th August 2002

Name(s): Rimma Ivashevskaya & Lena

Date of birth: Not given

Address given:
Chkalova St.,25-77,Izhevsk ,Russia,425398
also now , Chita, Russia
Phone given:

Agency(s) : Now on MSN Personals nickname : 'ushilove' member number MG122675

email: Rimma77@talkmatch.com,rimiv@hotmail.com,
evwilfine@yahoo.com & ushilove@yandex.ru

Bank information supplied:
Western Union

Complaint:
Dear Saul,
It's official, I've been scammed. Here's my story:
Her name is Rimma Ivashevskaya. I originally saw her ad at Match.com last February. At that time, her Email was Rimma77@talkmatch.com. Immediately she moved to overly-romantic letters, photo after photo of a beautiful young lady. I offered to go to Izhevsk to meet her, but she preferred coming to America, since we would be living there. She told me we were in luck: she had a friend Nikolay who worked in the American Embassy/Consolate.

The tourist visa would cost $450. By that time, her Email address changed to rimiv@hotmail.com. Since we were writing to each other virtually everyday, and because I wasn't aware of the prevalence of marriage scams, I sent her $300 and she said she borrowed the other $150 from her parents. In the meantime, I found her photos on Absolute Agency under a different name. I confronted her with this, but she professed ignorance and that she coudn't help it if someone was stealing her photos off the Internet.

After I sent the money, she told me that she would need another $1000 to get the visa. The purpose of this money was to show she would have spending money while in America. I was peeved that she didn't tell me about this additional money before I sent her the original $300. At that point, I asked her to first send to me via Western Union the $400 she raised as her contribution to the needed $1000. I told her it would be a sign of good faith, and I would immediately upon receiving it, return it to her, along with my $600, to get the $1000 she said she needed to pick up the visa. I explained that it would be a sign of good faith on her part. She balked, claiming she couldn't trust me with $400 (although I had already sent her $300). Her argument was that I was making things too difficult, her sending me money and then I return it. At that point we called time out. I thought if she was a scammer, she would give up on me at that point. She didn't. I then found your site, read about the impossibilty of someone in her circumstances getting a tourist visa, and decided to try and ferret out the truth.

We were now into May and I asked her to send me a photo of herself with her parents. She responded that she would and offered to scan her passport and Email a copy of it. Now we're into June. Her email had changed again to: evwilfine@yahoo.com. I did receive her scanned passport (attached) and ran it through Photoshop and 3D Studio Max. It was a forgery. Or rather, there really seems to be a Rimma Ivashevskaya, but the face on the passport didn't belong to this woman, but was pasted on. Not a good forgery. The neck was too thick for the head, the pixels were a different size, and you could see it was sloppily cut out and pasted onto someone else's neck. A few day later, I did receive the photo of her parents that she promised. The problem was that she was not in it, just two older people.

At that point, I finally broke the news that I knew she was trying to scam me out of $1000 (in addition to the $300 she did get). I explained how I knew the passport was a forgery and I related the INS policy on Tourist visas. Instead of responding to my charges, she said she didn't want to write to me anymore, that I obviously was not sincere "about us." There was no attempt to refute my claims. I subsequently asked for the original $300 back, but haven't heard back; and I'm sure I won't. I did inform her I would lodge a complaint with Western Union, with your antiscam site, unless she returned my money.
Here is the address I was given:

Rimma Ivashevskaya, Chkalova St.,25-77,Izhevsk ,Russia,425398

Thanks. Sincerely,
D S

Has now been found under the name of 'Lena' on MSN personals
Saul Hudson
saul@antiscam.net