Russian Dating Agencies - How Do They Work? |
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 By
Elena Petrova (Elena's Models)
Russian dating agencies are different and you need to understand how your dating agency operates before you decide to join. Type 1: "Mother" AgencyMost Russian dating agencies are linked to a network of local "Sub-Agencies" in Russia and Ukraine, who recruit women listed with the "Mother" agency. These local agencies have total control over women's listings and communication; only local "Sub-Agencies" can make changes to women's profiles and receive their mails; the women listed have no access to their own profiles or mails. The local "Sub-Agency" makes photos and videos of women for submission to the "Mother-Agency". Women cannot delete their profiles either; they have to ask the local Sub-Agency to do it for them, and we have heard of cases where women were unable to do it. Some local "Sub-Agencies" list their female clients with several "Mother-Agencies", getting commissions for mails their women receive and send. How it works, you send a mail to a woman, which supposedly gets "translated" for the lady and you "pay for translation". Whilst it sounds reasonable to pay for translation, most Russian and Ukrainian women can speak English well enough to be able to read mails, and also there are plenty of free online translators available, where you can simply copy and paste text and get it translated instantly, so this service would be really superfluous - if the mails were indeed translated. The story goes that most "Sub-Agencies" don't bother translating mails for women but simply correspond on their behalf collecting commissions for every mail sent and received. This communication can go for months. Other "Sub-Agencies" can also have online communication facilities available for women where you can video chat with women at a cost of about $50 for a 10-minute "video date". Rumor has it that women get a cut from the "Sub-Agency" commissions and not allowed to give you their direct contact details, to prevent loss of income for the agency. You have to pay for any communication with women, either per mail or per minute, to the "Mother-Agency", which then pays commissions to the "Sub-Agency", which then allegedly pays commissions to women. Some men reported they stayed online for 24 hours and many women were listed as "Online" all the time; they were "On cam" for a number of hours (sometimes 8-10 hours straight) and then they were "Online" but only available for chat (no cam). The allegation is that talking to men on cam is these women's full-time job and once they are not on cam, someone else is taking over the communication on the woman's behalf and that the women are employees and not genuine love-seekers. Whilst the scheme may have initially evolved as legitimate, it's easy to see that a Sub-Agency has direct interest to keep women and men communicating without an outcome for as long as possible, as they get commissions for that. And what about you, since women are not allowed to give you their personal contact details, you have to continue paying the Mother-Agency to be in contact with someone you start liking very much. I am not saying the women are not real or that the women only do it because they are paid a commission. But where money is involved in every step of the way, you know someone may be tempted to tamper with the scheme. In any case, you are going to end up paying hundreds of dollars to the Mother-Agency for the privilege to communicate with any of their women, and you probably won't be able to talk to several women because it's too expensive, plus you know your communication is controlled, until you manage to get her direct contact details (which you may not be able to do at all; the agency may want you to pay them for a tour when you want to meet your lady). I have had enough threats of law suits and fake postings over the Internet trying to discredit me by certain agencies over the years, so I am not going to give you their names here - I trust you are smart enough to figure it out! Type 2: Russian PersonalsThose agencies either buy listings from the same Sub-Agencies (who will ask you to pay for translations once you contact any of their women on the Personals website) or have women joining them online. Russian Personals offer you to pay a certain subscription fee per month and you can contact their ladies. The problem with this type of Russian dating agencies is that their listings are not always reliable and you have to screen off many potential scammers or "ducks" by Sub-Agencies. Type 3: Dating Agency with Checks This is how Elena's Models work: the listings are accepted through a few local reps or online through our Russian site but every listing is checked prior to publication. Women have full access to their profiles, read and respond to their own mails, edit their profiles and able to "Hide" or "Delete" their profiles; in other words, they can operate their profiles exactly the same as you do. To contact women, you pay a fixed subscription fee which includes free mails to all your contacts, which means you can send and receive as many mails as you want and you don't have to pay for "translations" with every mail. Every subscription allows you to contact many women and be able to talk to them freely, including exchange of direct contact details. You can ask any woman for her direct email address, Skype or phone number and talk to her directly. The advantage of this system is that your fee per contact (unlimited communication and mails with 1 woman) is fixed and low, for example it's less than $2 on Gold Membership plan and you can send as many mails as you want. One thing we at Elena's Models try to promote and encourage is DIRECT CONTACT. Whilst you will be wise to communicate through the site (and it doesn't cost you any extra) until you feel completely confident in your relationship, it's talking on phone or face-to-face on Skype that will give you the best results. Mails are great to get to know some facts about each other but it's direct communication and involvement (for which you do NOT pay and you know no one gets commission on) that makes a relationship work. Time and again I emphasize that no one can "fake" a relationship when you talk to each other for hours on the phone or Skype every day. You don't pay for Skype calls, so both of you can stay online for as long as you want. It's that simple: if a person indeed likes you, they WANT to spend time with you! (And not only when you are paying for that) The disadvantage of this system is that you won't be getting responses to ALL your letters and Expressions of Interest; some women that initially said "Yes" will disappear or won't respond anymore (because they met someone else they liked more), and if you are a woman, the same applies: some men will write to you one letter and never write again, and some men will send you Expressions of Interest but will never send you a personal letter or attempt to connect. It's called "DATING" and if you are over the age of 18 (and you should be, to use this website, it's part of our Terms of Use), so if you are over 18, you should be fairly familiar with the process: you meet someone you like, you let them know you like them, they may or may not return your interest, or they may give you thumbs up and then you discover she gave you a fake phone number. On our site, this means you probably will get 10-20% positive responses to Expressions of Interest you send, and when you decide to contact some or all of these women who answered "Yes", you may find some women will return your mails and you start talking but some women will answer "Yes" to an EOI and never write a response when you send them a heart-felt letter. One thing you can be sure of with Elena's Models, we NEVER, ever answer EOI's on women's behalf: the person MUST be logged in with her unique user name and password, and they HAVE TO be viewing your personal page when she answers your EOI, this is how it looks:
She can answer "YES, I am interested" or "NO, I am NOT interested" - we at Elena's Models have no control over it, she only sees YOUR photo and profile (your whole profile is displayed with the Expression of Interest). We also specifically ASK women not to respond "Yes" when they mean "No" and only respond "Yes" when they really want to hear from you again. Still, since we all are just imperfect human beings and we don't always know what we want, it may happen you will get a "Yes" answer but she then changes her mind, meets someone else, decides she is not ready for a relationship right now or forgets her login and never enters the website again - we have no control over it and we don't know! One thing we know for sure is that people who are really interested in you will respond and will want to talk to you and spend time with you; so, the easiest thing to do is to concentrate on the ones that really like you and want to talk to you! While we do not say we are perfect, we do our best to provide the safest user experience for both men and women and we always strive to improve. We are in this business for over 12 years and have hundreds of successful marriages on our books (check our success stories). We know the process works if you are willing to give it a fair go and work for what you want and put an effort. So, if you are ready to accept that this is a DATING site and not a "Response guaranteed - just pay" website, then you can join with confidence that you know what is involved and how it works, and that we will be happy to assist you when you need help. Good luck in your search! Elena
Elena Petrova is the founder of the Russian dating agency Elena's Models and Russian Brides Cyber Guide. She has a degree in philosophy and deep knowledge of the Russian brides industry. Her agency Elena's Models has clients in 167 countries and is bringing genuine love-seekers together since 1999.
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My
husband Robert and I met through your website two years ago. After
exchanging a few mails he came to visit me in Georgia [country Georgia in
Caucasus/Europe not the state of Georgia in United States]. We fell in
love and married pretty soon. We are married now for two years and very
happy together. We now live in Costa Rica; just moved here from the
United States.