Heart-wrenching $168,000 Romance Scam Tale (YouTube)

Or Could Gerry Be the Victim of a Professional Gold Digger? You Be the Judge 

Imagine courting a beautiful woman from Belarus for over 4 years, having planned your future family together, only to be left at the altar by “the one” you thought would be forever? This was Gerry’s gut-wrenching reality that cost him a staggering $168,000. Was it premeditated by an ice-cold professional gold digger, was it a romance scam, or merely another relationship gone bad, watch Gerry tell his nightmare story on camera by interviewer Joe Rickards, live on YouTube here (and you be the judge) …

Read on to discover the details:

The True Story of Love Gone Wrong – Gerry’s Heart-Wrenching Tale of a Romance Scam

About two years ago, I stumbled upon this dating coach on YouTube who was giving some real tough love to a client of his that was searching for a Slavic bride. I was impressed by his no-nonsense, sound advice. Little did I know, I was well into the con of my lifetime, and years later, he would end up bailing me out.

 Here’s the backstory really quick. I left a comment under the YouTube video where I originally heard about this dating coach, and to my surprise, he actually responded. We ended up having a conversation about my long-term relationship with a Russian woman named Elena, as it turned out we had a lot in common. Anyways, we kept in touch over the years, until one day, totally out of the blue, he reached out to me. Frankly, his profound timing was almost eerie, you’ll see why in a minute. 

We had an in-depth conversation about the same relationship I was in with Elena, now ongoing 4 years. Then, to my surprise he called back the next day saying that his Spidey senses were tingling as he put it from our conversation, and it kept him up at night. That’s when I shared that I was beginning to have my suspicions as well, so he offered to do a scam check service out of the goodness of his heart.

I Discovered What Elena Was Really Up to with a Scam Check!

Here’s another Livestream video we did that picks up my nightmare story from here…

 Well, the results of his scam check confirmed my worst nightmare. The love of my life, my dear Russian lady Elena was just using me for what she could get and that was all. The process of acceptance took me a while, especially since I had overextended myself financially thinking we were building a future and she just took me for a whopping $60k ride. It was a devastating experience, and I was an emotional wreck for a while after, but I’m grateful for my good Samaritan’s empathy and support as it sure helped me get through it.

Match Guaranty: The Best Ukrainian Marriage Agency

The man’s coach is Joe Rickards and he’s the founder of the best international marriage agency, it’s called Match Guaranty.com. I can’t say enough about Joe Rickards or his lovely wife Anna and their staff, after all, I figure Joe likely saved me $10’s of thousands, months, or maybe years of my life and even deeper heartache. From my experience, it was clear that this Ukraine marriage agency is passionate, and purpose driven. They are truly salt-of-the-earth people who simply helped me out of the goodness of their hearts. 

I can say that this and other nasty experiences I’ve had from meeting Slavic women on the same free dating website have taught me an invaluable lesson. That is, I believe that Match Guaranty is the most cost-effective and time-effective way to find a Ukrainian wife and that their rather hefty fee is well worth it at the end of the day! Are you curious what your chances of success with a Ukrainian woman will be? Find out in minutes. Click here.

Take me as an example. I spent over six years and $60k dating a number of Slavic women on the low fee dating site called, https://russian-ukrainian-women.com with nothing to show for it at the end of the day.

Now, if I had worked with Match Guaranty from the beginning, I’d probably be happily married right now and have an extra $30-40k in my pocket.

Unlock Faster and More Affordable Weddings with Match Guaranty

Joe asked me if I’d participate in a study, he was conducting comparing how much it cost and how long it took to get married to a Slavic woman, done both ways; guys on their own (DIY) and Match Guaranty clients. Well, the result is a landslide victory for Match Guaranty, namely, $73,000 cheaper and 3.5 years saved by using Match Guaranty. 

See for yourself, here’s a direct link to the research…​​https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18v2P7C4QDCn3W8pvPlyvGxvW-cBmxqrrgIH7BRwYYI8/edit?usp=sharing

Don’t Fall Prey to a Romance Scam – Be Careful with Slavic Dating Sites

My advice, you can’t be careful enough on these nominal fee or free sites such as where I met Elena and other Slavic ladies, https://russian-ukrainian-women.com. It’s practically impossible to vet these women on your own! They are loaded with professional scammers,[1] call girls, and bottom dwellers. One fact was the last nail in their coffin. Joe’s team’s research proved that the above site shares a women’s database with 3 other sites that are notorious scam offenders. Busted!!!

See the real story unfold Live:

Uncover the Tale of Gerry and Elena’s Meetup

Gerry met Elena on a dating site that he thought was one of the more reputable sites. They began communicating via the site in May 2018. Then after a few days, they went off the site and started using Viber and WhatsApp. Their chats went well and after one week of chatting, they decided to do a video chat. They spoke or chatted at least every day, and they would probably meet during those early days for video chat, maybe once or twice a week. Things started moving fairly quickly.

Their first meeting

So after about a month of this type of communication, they decided to arrange their first meeting. They chose the romantic destination of Paris. It was fairly convenient for her, and it wasn’t so bad for Gerry. It was fairly easy for Gerry to get over there and the prices were good. They were there for six days. It wasn’t love at first sight or anything like that, but he was definitely attracted to her. They got along famously and enjoyed doing a lot of the activities around the city. Despite her struggles with English during those early days, they communicated quite well. So overall it was, it was a very good first trip and first meeting, and it set the groundwork for continuing and developing the relationship.

More meetings

After Elena returned to Ukraine and Gerry went back to the US, their communications became more frequent. They arranged their next meeting in the Autumn of the same year. Gerry traveled to Kyiv, Ukraine, and stayed about 9 or 10 days. This would be the first of 4 trips to Kyiv, the other meetings being at vacation destinations. They weren’t really vacations, they were just trips to allow them to have time together and to get to know each other better. All of those trips went exceedingly well. They enjoyed the city, the restaurants, and the nightlife to a certain degree. They spent a lot of time just having casual conversations, trying to understand each other better. Her English was steadily improving after each trip. She had studied English in university, so it was slowly coming back the more she had a chance to practice. 

Unveiling the Reasons for Her Furtive Kyiv Travels. Was It Part of Her Romance Scam?

So, each time they were meeting in Kyiv, although she was from Poltava. This could be seen as a red flag as Poltava is a very small town and everybody knows everybody. Was she hiding something? Unfortunately, Ukrainian people judge any woman dating a foreigner as a “Gold digging slut who has betrayed their own men to be with a foreigner.” So, this could have been the reason.  During the initial trips, Gerry didn’t really question why they were meeting in Kyiv and not Poltava. For Gerry, going to Kyiv was such a great experience and he loved the city. However, by the third or fourth trip, Gerry asked why he couldn’t just come to Poltava because Elena was raised there and there are lots of historic sites that he would find interesting. She poo-pooed that idea and it never really happened.

Exploring Germany Through Friendship: A Journey of the Heart with Gerry and Elena’s Son

Gerry was also interested in, at that point, meeting her 2 children and he wanted to say hello to the parents too, but that didn’t happen. Elena had a teenage son and an 8-year-old daughter. Gerry first met her teenage son in Autumn, 2019 in Berlin. Elena wanted Gerry to meet her son, and it seemed the son was interested in seeing a bit of Germany. So, a trip was arranged to Berlin. They spent about 6 days together and got on great. It was important for Elena to see the dynamic between her son and Gerry. This was one of the many positives that Gerry says never made him suspect she was out to scam him. He saw it as a good sign that things were progressing.

Trying to Create a Memorable Family Introduction During Difficult Times

It was about 2 months before the onset of COVID-19. They were planning a trip to meet the whole family-her stepdad, mother, and the rest of the family. The plan was for them all to come to Vienna and spend some time together. It was supposed to be a big family introduction, but because of Covid it never happened. They met a few times on video chat, but that was it. 

Exploring the Depths of Gerry’s Emotional Journey

Gerry had a total of 4 trips to Kyiv and 5 other “vacation” destinations. They traveled to Paris, Berlin, Mexico, and Seychelles, some of them more than once. Gerry really felt like the relationship was on track. After every trip, he felt more assured of the solidity of the relationship. Despite the age differences, everything seemed good. If you’re considering a Ukrainian woman, would you like to know what is a realistic age gap for you? Click here and find out in minutes. The only issue that he really had, and this was probably from the onset, were some personality differences. Gerry tends to be a little bit more demonstrative. He wears his emotions on his sleeve to a greater extent than Elena does. Her personality is very stoic. If there’s something bothering her, she holds it in, she won’t express it, and she lets it affect her. However, if there’s something bothering Gerry, he’s going to talk about it and let his feelings be known. Not that there were a lot of issues bothering Elena. It could simply be an issue with her family that affected her emotionally.

Discovering How Elena’s Introversion Impacted Their Love Story

But these issues ended up affecting their relationship because she just internalized those things and shut down. When she was with Gerry in these moments, she would become quiet and introverted. This made Gerry feel like maybe he had done something wrong, but once he gets the full story, he finds it wasn’t him at all but something else. He tried to get her to open up to him so he could help her through whatever it was, but she never did. This was the only issue that Gerry saw in their relationship. He couldn’t help her, it was just her nature. Things were progressing and he was falling in love with her. 

A Timeless Love Story: How Gerry Proposed to Elena

Gerry proposed early on in the relationship on their third meeting, a year into the relationship. Everything seemed so right, and he wanted to show Elena that he had serious intentions. After the initial shock, 15 seconds later, she said, “Yes.” However, Gerry knew the K-1 Visa process would take some time which would allow the two of them more time to see if this was what they both wanted.

Uniting the Whole Family: How Gerry Brought Everyone Together

It was Covid time, and many countries were not allowing foreigners into their countries. Mexico was quite lenient, so Gerry met Elena and both of her children there. It was the first time the whole family was collectively together, and they had a great trip. Gerry just wanted to make sure that the dynamic was okay because his trepidation was that he was sort of the outsider. Here’s this family unit that’s been the three of them for a number of years and he felt like maybe he would just be sort of this hanger-on. But that wasn’t the case at all. Everything went really well. It was a great trip. 

Create Lasting Memories on a Fascinating Family Trip!

Gerry felt like he was bonding with the children. In the beginning, the little girl was processing him so to speak. But after a few days into the trip, everybody was fairly comfortable and by the second time they met, she was used to Gerry and even started teasing him. Gerry thought everything was going great. He met them again on the next trip that was to the Seychelles. It was a wonderful family trip that lasted about 2 weeks. They spent a few days on each island, renting bikes and fooling around. Gerry saw it as a  perfect holiday, and everything was working out fine.

Gerry was well aware that his bonding with Elena’s children was a huge test. Every time Gerry interacted with the daughter, he could see Elena watching extremely carefully to see how both he and the daughter responded to each other. The little girl didn’t have much English, but Elena and her son would translate. He noticed a smile on her face, so she was obviously happy with the interaction. This made Gerry feel good about his relationship with Elena.

Defying Distance: Bridging the gap to Keep Love Alive in Times of Crisis

Gerry and Elena video chatted at the weekends and talked on the phone nearly every day. That was how it was until the war started. Then their communication changed drastically. Gerry still can’t understand why she “wasn’t able” to leave Ukraine when lots of other people were doing that. He says the US hadn’t started “The Uniting for Ukraine Program ” at that time and he was in the middle of the K-1 Visa process, so it wasn’t straightforward for Elena to go to the US. Gerry even tried to get her to leave about a month before the war started and go hunker down in Warsaw. Elena refused to believe the war was going to start, and she stayed put.

Escaping Ukraine: Elena’s Story

When the bombs started dropping near her residence, she agreed it was time to leave. Initially, she went to Romania and then to Warsaw in Poland. It was difficult to find a place to rent for her because most of them had been taken up by other Ukrainian refugees. She even ended up in Ireland for about 2 months like a lot of other Ukrainians. By mid-summer, the US had “The Uniting for Ukraine Program ” up and running, but Elena didn’t want to go immediately because she wanted a month to tie up some loose ends, including changing the title of her flat. So after one month, all was arranged for her to come. Surprise, surprise something came up that stopped their plans (as is always the case with scammers). She claimed she had received a summons for non-military service as she was a former police officer.

The Betrayal of a Traditional Values Culture: A Romance Scam

Gerry started to support Elena and her children about a year into the relationship. Gerry had already proposed to Elena as a gesture of his good intentions. Now the culture in Ukraine, being a traditional values culture, means Gerry was expected to support Elena in any way he could as she was now his fiancé. In fact, if a man doesn’t step up to the plate, he will lose a Ukrainian woman as she will see it as a lack of caring on the man’s side. So, when Elena, a former police officer was not receiving her salary, he stepped in to help her. He supported her for three and a half years. Gerry had no idea he was being taken for a ride. He saw it as his manly duty to support her and felt good about doing it.

How Gerry Was Duped by a Romance Scam

It started out as $500 per month to cover her unpaid salary. Elena said she couldn’t manage this amount as she likes to give her children the best. She talked about the IT classes for her son, the private English lessons for her daughter, and the sports activities that both children were involved with. So, Gerry started giving her more money even to cover medical expenses when any of them got sick. After about a year, he was giving her $1,500 per month. This was before the war broke out.

Gerry did some research and even contacted Joe from Match Guaranty for some information about the cost of living in the different cities and towns in Ukraine. Gerry even discussed it with Elena, and they went through all the expenditures together. It all added up, but were specialized IT lessons and private English lessons really necessary? Gerry decided it was just the lifestyle that she was living and why the cost was so high. Gerry realized he was probably being taken advantage of, but he paid it anyway. Looking back, he felt like Elena manipulated him into paying more and more when she presented him with certain “costs.”

The Unexpected Costs of Love; How Gerry Lost $168,000 in a Romance Scam!

After the war started, Gerry found himself giving her $2,000 per month. This could be seen as legitimate considering she was no longer in Ukraine and expenses in Europe are more than in Ukraine. Gerry reckons over the four and a half years that he supported her; he gave around $168,000. This included emergency medical costs such as dentists. He even supported Elena’s father for one month after he lost his job at the beginning of the war. It must be said that the $168,000 did not include any of his travel or vacation expenses that he shelled out during his relationship with Elena. Gerry particularly remembers the Seychelles trip as a very expensive vacation costing around $10,000. All in all, Gerry figures he spent about $30,000 on those vacations.

Find Out Why Gerry Felt Strange About Elena’s Move

While Elena was out of Ukraine, her communications with Gerry were just about as often as they had been before the war started. However, when she returned to Ukraine, the communications were diminishing. Gerry figures the communications dropped by 50-60%. Gerry justified this in his mind by saying that her city was having electrical problems and the internet had become sporadic. He noticed that it could take up to 10 hours for her to receive his messages, so there was no real-time communication. It was difficult to know what was really going on with Elena.

What Gerry did notice was when he talked about the preparations, he was making for her and her children to come to him in the US, she didn’t respond as enthusiastically as she should have if she was serious about the move. He also noticed that she never initiated any conversation about her impending move to the US. Gerry was the one doing all the talking about the move. Gerry began to feel strange. He had an uncomfortable feeling in his gut. Something just didn’t feel right. Again, Gerry made excuses for her as she was in a stressful situation being in the middle of a war.

The bombshell

That’s when Elena sent a message to say she couldn’t leave Ukraine as she had been summoned to perform non-military duties. It was at this point that Gerry consulted with a Ukrainian lawyer to see what the situation was for single moms. It turned out that only if the father of the children was contributing to their upkeep could she be classified as not being a single parent. This would mean that she would not be exempt from the duty. Gerry and his friends thought that Elena should just leave Ukraine regardless, but the lawyer said if she did that, she wouldn’t be allowed back into her country. Elena said she was devastated that her life had been turned upside down.

Don’t Let Red Flags Go Unnoticed – Learn from Gerry’s mistakes

Joe, the owner of Match Guaranty, an international marriage agency, said the first red flag was the fact that she never invited Gerry to visit her in her hometown of Poltava. Anna, Joe’s Ukrainian wife, agreed. She said the reason she always met Gerry in Kyiv was to keep their relationship private. This would allow her to have many relationships with foreign guys without the folks in her hometown finding out. The next red flag was that Elena took about 15 seconds to answer Gerry’s marriage proposal. As Anna says, if a woman really loves a man, she will answer immediately. Anna even went as far as to say that Elena must have loved it when Covid set in as she could continue her scam without fear of having to move to the US (visas were frozen for 2 years due to Covid). 

Red flag: Elena’s angry reaction

Anna also pointed out that Elena’s angry reaction when Gerry suggested she leave Ukraine before the war started was a red flag. This is not the way to react when a loving man is trying to help you! What it really meant was she had no intention of leaving Ukraine at any time. She became angry because she couldn’t think of a genuine excuse to not leave and go to a safer place, especially with her 2 children. 

Red flag: Elena’s lie

The next red flag was the lie Elena told Gerry about not getting paid for 3 months in her job as a police officer. Anna says this is plain and simply a lie! Only when the Soviet Union crashed were salaries unpaid for months. The economy was doing fine, and people actually joined the police profession because it was a good stable salary. Guys have to sympathize with Gerry here because he was just fulfilling his duties of supporting his fiancé. The mistake he made was to be too generous with that help.

Red flag: Communication wanes

The fifth red flag was the falling away of their communications. Anna says she was able to communicate with co-workers in Ukraine without any problem. As for the problems with the electricity cutting, people charge their phones when electricity is available. The reason it was all coming to an end was because Gerry had bought tickets for her to finally go to the US. She had no intention of doing that and so began the diminished communication.

Red flag: Lack of enthusiasm

The final red flag was her lack of enthusiasm when Gerry talked to her about all the preparations, he was making for both her and her children to come to the US. Gerry even talked to the state school board about a distance learning program that her son wanted to finish. There were no excited questions from Elena. This was the point at which Gerry started getting some very bad gut feeling about the relationship.

Anna, looking at the whole situation and some of Elena’s final communications with Gerry, comes to the conclusion that Elena never had any intentions of leaving Ukraine. She took Gerry for whatever money and travel she could get out of him. Anna says their ladies on Match Guaranty, a reputable Ukrainian marriage agency, are vetted thoroughly. They are asked questions such as, “Why do you want to marry a foreign man?” and “Are you OK moving to his country?” The last is the most telltale of all. If the woman answers very quickly it shows she has ulterior motives and she will not be admitted to their database. A genuine answer would be if she loved him, she would consider it.

Finding the Hidden Positives Despite the Painful Negatives

All that happened to Gerry came as a complete shock. He recalls some of the many positives he found in the relationship that countered any possible negatives that could be taking place. He genuinely believes they had genuine moments and sincere feelings. It was tough for Gerry to process all that had happened. He had been head over heels for this woman. He remembers how he didn’t need to prod her to do things during the K-1 Visa process and how she would talk about the places she would like to visit when she got to the US. She asked when she would meet his daughters etc. 

Mixed signals

Gerry ended up confused, and Joe had to admit there were mixed signals. Joe has heard so many of these kinds of stories and said it was a very complex case and very professional what Elena did. The biggest red flag for Joe was that Gerry never met her parents in person for the whole four and a half years of their relationship. Family is very important in Ukraine. If you don’t meet the family, something is wrong.

Joe and his team decided to do some digging. They found she was registered on a number of sites and was actively dating other men. She had even dated other men during Gerry’s relationship with her. There was also evidence of her being on a web modeling site. When another man she was dating sent some pictures of her on the site, she became very rude and aggressive.  

Discover the Key to Moving On: Gerry’s Journey to Letting Go

Gerry decided to cut off the support immediately, but was he able to let go or did he need to see Elena eye to eye just one last time to get closure? Gerry doesn’t have any desire to go to Ukraine, and it’s not because the war is still continuing. He feels he has enough information but says if some new information comes to light in Elena’s favor, then he might consider continuing the relationship. It’s so hard on Gerry. He has invested his heart and 4 and a half years of his life in Elena. It’s a lot to process for him. What is difficult for Gerry is the apparent abrupt change in her behavior after so many positive experiences. This is what Gerry can’t get his head around, but what is clear is that Elena is no longer interested in Gerry.

The healing process

Gerry toyed with the idea of taking a vacation to help his healing process. It’s going to take some time for Gerry to heal completely. He also said that when he is ready to get back on the horse, he will get in touch with Match Guaranty, the reputable Ukrainian marriage agency run by Joe and his Ukrainian wife, Anna. Gerry says Joe and Anna have been there for him in an unsolicited way for a long time and he really appreciates the help and support that they have given him. 

Rekindle Your Soul with Joe’s Matchmaking Wisdom and Meet the Perfect Ukrainian Bride

Joe says from all his experience of matchmaking and seeing foreign guys trying to find a Ukrainian bride, he can tell who will succeed and who will not. He says Gerry will have no problem. Gerry is good-looking for his age with many redeeming manly qualities. Gerry is also a tender man who will share his emotions. This is a quality that Ukrainian women want. They want men who will share their emotions with them. Joe says Gerry will be successful, but he needs to take time out to heal first. Would you like to know your real chances of marrying a Ukrainian woman? Click here.

Be Wary of What Lurks on Free Dating Sites

Beware of the free dating websites or those that charge a nominal fee. Even on the best of these sites you have to do your due diligence and read between the lines because many women come for nefarious reasons and try to take advantage of foreign men. It’s almost certain that PPL sites, which charge clients per letter or to open photos, are scams. 

Watch out for the boutique agencies!

Western men need to be very wary of the thousands of small boutique agencies that operate in Ukraine. It sounds cheap to meet a Ukrainian woman for $100 but look where it got Gerry. He lost $168,000 – hardly cheap, is it? These small agencies cannot survive on their own and plug into a number of “motherships” (the large agencies). It’s impossible for these large agencies to vet all the ladies they have on their databases, so the potential for scammers is very high. Even Match Guaranty with all their stringent vetting processes fell victim to a scammer from an affiliate agency. This is why Match Guaranty no longer deals with small agencies and only has its own well-vetted ladies on its site.

References

[1] 5 Clever Tactics To AVOID Online Dating Scams To Find Your Ukrainian Bride Today – UkraineDating.ca