Have you been thinking about online dating with a Russian woman? Have you considered a Russian Bride site or even started a relationship with someone special but you're having doubts about her? If so, you need to read this article about Russian Internet Bride Fraud and Scams.

Over the past several years as more and more people go online to find love (among other things), more and more women from around the world are taking notice. More women from economically challenged countries are learning a new trade but it's not one to be proud of.

Some Russian women, it's hard to say how many, are preying on innocent men who are only looking for friendship, love, a soul mate and ultimately marriage. The following is just one of the scams that they're pulling. Ill discuss more in other articles, which you can find on my website.

The Girlfriend Scam, here's how it works:

A man finds the so-called girl of his dreams on a Russian bride site. This also happens on sites promoting women from China, Philippines, Brazil - you get the picture. The gent signs up and does whatever he has to do to get in touch with the woman he's interested in. In many cases, he pays for correspondence and translation services to communicate with her. Assuming all goes well, and the bride site itself is legit, he starts a relationship her. They start courting through letters and maybe translated phone calls and soon the man grows very fond of her.

After several weeks of beautiful letters back and forth between the two, as they confess that theyre falling in love, the girl suddenly has a financial crisis. Of course the man knew she was financially poor to start with but when he hears what happened to her, he feels compelled to send her money to help her out.

The man has his doubts but what can he do? He doesnt want to offend her and whats a few hundred dollars to him? So he goes ahead and sends her some cash. What happens next?

No, she doesnt disappear on him. She thanks him and in broken English exclaims how he is her hero and that she will love him forever.

Then a few weeks later she picks up the courage to politely and humbly ask for a gift or two. Since she cant be with the man physically, she says she wants to know how he feels all the time with a gift she can wear, like jewellery.

The relationship continues and she keeps sending the man glowing letters of undying love and speaks of plans to marry him as soon as possible. But first she wants him to come visit and take her on a holiday away from her home for the first time.

Now on one hand this story doesnt seem to be that bad it sounds like a real relationship (at least the beginning of most relationships before a couple starts fighting).

The nab is that she is not in love, and she is doing it all to get the mans money and shes doing it to more than one man at a time. Thats the scam. Shes making a living off being a gold-digging girlfriend and she doesnt even have to physically meet the guy.

Its happening every day and this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are more ordinate and organized scams run by teams of men and women.

If you have any suspicion at all, you should probably trust your gut and find out the truth. If she seems to good to be true and shes asking for money, chances are its a scam.

Future articles will dig a little deeper into the fraud that's going on, who's at risk and how they can protect themselves.