Is this "woman" a scam

Hi

My boyfriend received a mail from a woman claiming she got his email address from a dating site called Fast Impressions ( it is a speed dating site not your normal dating sites), he said it is not possible and we checked he is not registered at this site.

She is from a place called SEa of Azov Ukraine she also attached alot of photo's, anyway I opened a fake email address and send a normal Hi how are you mail I received almost the exact email as the second email she send my boyfriend...............so then we got suspicious is this a scam??????

She uses the following email address :[email protected]

This was her first mail to me: (the almost exact copy of what was send to my boyfriend execpt with no romantic intentions.

Hi XXXX

Thanks for your reply! How are you doing? Good? I hope so!

First of all, I am very upset because you haven't sent me any your
pics... I would like to know you look like. And I like good pictures!

And you didn't write me in what city you live. Where do you live,
Courtney?

As for me, I live a very nice country called Ukraine. My city is
called Kerch. It's very beautiful here because I live on the shore of
the Sea of Azov. I like it a lot!

As I wrote you, I am 31 years old. Never married. And I don't have
kids because I don't want to have kids being unmarried. But I like
children, I'd like to have them one day.

I had a boyfriend, we had been living together for 6 years. We broke
up 2 months ago (Don't ask why). Now I am a single lady I don't
date anybody because I have timeout. I want to be alone for some time.

Well, I am going to come to Australia in about 3-4 weeks. Just for
vacation. I need to reload batteries I have already applied for
visa to Australia and I will get it soon.

Courtney, do you want to know something exact about me? Just ask
because I don't know what to write you in my first long mail

Oh, I work as a seamstress! I love it! My hobby is my work Do you
like your work? Most of the clothes I wear are made by me. I adore
making evening dresses!

I rent an apartment together with my friends: one of them is a
professional photographer, she makes beautiful pictures for me
Another my friend is a hairdresser, she lives with her boyfriend who
works in local police. So, we all the 4 live a big 5 room apartment. I
like it!

Well, I guess it's time to finish my mail. I hope you are not tired of
reading

Write me back soon!

Best regards,
Taissa.

Dear sandi PI,

thank you for posting this.
While we can't be 100% sure at this stage that this is a scam, there are nonetheless strong indications that something "fishy" is going on. Most importantly, you mentioned that the sender claims to have gotten your address from a site you are not registered on - big red flag ! You then replied from a fake adress ( always be safe !! ), and got an almost identical copy of the same text - another big red flag. Also, the general style of English is quite reminiscent of that which a scammer based in an African country would use.
Would you be able to post the email's header on this forum - this may allow us to tell whether this mail actually came from where this woman claims to be located.
Based on these indications I would recommend you cease all contact immediately - I would say there is a 90% chance that this is the beginning of a classic Romance Scam.

I would say that if you sent an email and got an identical email to the one your booyfriend received then it is a scam.

She is sending out her script hoping to catch someone, I would drop all contact, if you can posting the headers would help us, and may just stop someone falling for this.

This scam is still active as of today...
same email address, same lines.
asked for mobile number and photo's... etc.
told me the story of getting a visa to Australia, etc.

Here is another email: They attach good photo's in each email, pictures of a good looking blonde in different cities around the world...

Hi Shane!

Thanks for your reply! How are you doing? I am fine as usual!

Last time when I wrote you, I told you I was going to go to gym. I
went there, I attach the picture

Also today I have visited my travel agent to ask about my visa. I have
got it and now I need to wait until my travel agent receive it. She
said it won't take much of time. Then I will be able to get the
tickets!

Shane, I wanted to say, if you like, you can come to Orbost to visit me,
just for weekend or longer if you can. I don't know if you can come
and stay but my invitation will be valid any time while I am in
Australia And of course I will visit your beautiful city!

Well, today I've got a new order to sew a princess's dress for girl of
6 years old I think it will be very interesting because I like to
make such dresses I need to finish this dress very fast because I
plan to come to Australia next weekend. At least I hope so

I am looking forward to seeing Australia for the first time! And of
course, I am very excited to meet you I like travelling! See the
photos attached. The USA, France, Italy, Egypt... all the countries
are special, beautiful and different from each other. I want to visit
Japan one day! I think it's a very beautiful country! Shane, what
country would you like to visit (which you haven't visited yet)??

Well, I have to finish my work because I am going to cook some tasty
food. I am on duty in kitchen today Vegetable salad, fried fish and
mashed potatos are waiting for me! I adore sea food! What is your
favorite food?

I hope to receive your reply soon!

Best regards,
Taissa.

Yep, something sus here alright.
From yahoo says:
Current status: Offline
Name:Taissa Sh
Gender: Female
Location: Puglia
Member since: 17 Jan 2011 .

I'm on the understanding Puglia is located somewhere in Italy and not the Ukraine.

Yes Shanewiso it is the same person also tall blonde ( looks like a Russian woman) she also mentioned going to Orbost in Victoria and being a seemstress..............

Here are the header of the lastest email:

From Taissa Sharpe Mon Feb 7 20:05:27 2011
X-Apparently-To: xxxx@yahoo.com via 98.138.85.159; Mon, 07 Feb 2011 12:40:58 -0800
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received-SPF: none (mta1487.mail.mud.yahoo.com: domain of [email protected] does not designate permitted sender hosts)
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X-Originating-IP: [85.192.32.16]
Authentication-Results: mta1487.mail.mud.yahoo.com from=yahoo.com; domainkeys=neutral (no sig); from=yahoo.com; dkim=neutral (no sig)
Received: from 127.0.0.1 (EHLO bsd06.best-hosting.ru) (85.192.32.16)
by mta1487.mail.mud.yahoo.com with SMTP; Mon, 07 Feb 2011 12:40:58 -0800
Received: from li216-195.members.linode.com ([173.255.206.195] helo=UT)
by bsd06.best-hosting.ru with esmtpa (Exim 4.72 (FreeBSD))
(envelope-from <[email protected]>)
id 1PmXVm-00017B-Tx
for xxxx@yahoo.com; Mon, 07 Feb 2011 23:16:58 +0300
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2011 21:05:27 +0100
From: Taissa Sharpe <[email protected]>
X-Mailer: The Bat! (v3.99.3) Professional
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
To: xxxx@yahoo.com
Subject: Fwd: hello xxxx!
In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>
References: <[email protected]> <[email protected]> <[email protected]> <[email protected]> <[email protected]> <[email protected]> <[email protected]> <[email protected]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
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Removed recipient's details for privacy - CF

The funny thing is the first email went into my junk mail inbox, it looked professionally done so I was curious as to how long I could play it out with these scammers. They wanted photo's of me as a child, my mobile number.. one of the emails even said that I could meet her in a rural town in melbourne, I wonder who would be there waiting for me...? lol. If the blonde in the photo ever reads this post,... geez you are hot, but you dont know what your missing out on...I am a self established owner of a software company not a retard!!

Scammers in the former Soviet Union don't work quite the same way as African scammers, and in addition to the style, the English puts this person in the FSU (different types of mistakes/phrasing than an African scammer). The IP confirms it.

85.192.32.16 Moscow Russian Federation

But, when the scammer is from the FSU, there is an even more important clue.

X-Mailer: The Bat! (v3.99.3) Professional

That right there says it all. The Bat! is a professional mass mailer, and the favorite mass mailer of this particular type of scammer. It basically allows the scammer to send the same scripts to dozens, maybe hundreds, of people, while slightly customizing it (I'm sure the software was used to merge your name in at key spots). A real person looking for friendship (or love) does not use mass-mailing software. As soon as you see the Bat! in the headers, you know they aren't real.

Chances are very good that it is a man on the other side of those letters, and the female in the photos was a model who was paid to provide a variety of pics..

The ip number points to Best Hosting LLC 3rd floor, 12-6 Kostyakova str, Moscow.

Shanewiso I received your exact email that you have posted above today with the pictures of her in the gym, and NY and so on...............what a laugh...........but I am playing the game now as I warned her to leave my boyfriend alone in not very friendly words and yet "she" ignored it so ................

My question is just how do they get hold of the email addresses?

She also wanted photo's of me and my child and phone numbers wich I am not going to send to her will see how long before the money comes up.

But thanks you guys the input here are great!!!!!!!!!!

Have you heard of 'web spiders' sandi PI ?

The expression amuses me, as it sounds so sci fi, but they have been used for a long time and they're automated programmes that scan the internet looking for e-mail addresses, and they automatically harvest them. So, anywhere you have posted an e-mail address, it's liable to get picked up by a 'spider'.

Thanx GomerPyle

Def a scam! got the same darn emails! at first i wasn't too sure if it could be a scam, as i wasn't aware of the site she mentioned getting my details from, but i decided to just go along with it. when she finally requested for my bank details, it became clear that it definitely was a scam! That's when i decided to research on the so called scammer and found this thread! thanks guys! made my work so much easier.

Yes 14th Feb 2011 and still going strong.
All the previous emails were the same.
This person is a bit different from the usual as she does answer the odd question rather than run a full on generic letter with just the recipients name changed but she? doesn't have facebook which I thought odd for someone this age.
Still waiting for a phone call requesting depature tax or some such bs .
And me cute lmfao .... I'm a 55 year old motorcycle person that looks like something off Australias most wanted. Trouble is I like playing with these peoples heads

Cheers and remember there are pretty young girls out there who really do like us oldr guys (for our Harleys of course), it's just hard (fun) wading through the crap to figure if they're real or not.

First of all, HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

Thanks for your reply and photo! You are cute! How are you doing? I am
fine as usual!

You didn't write me your phone number... does it mean you don't want
to talk to me over the phone?

Last time when I wrote you, I told you I was going to go to gym. I
went there, I attach the picture

My sister and her husband are abroad because of work now and they will
come back home only in 4 months. They are working on the ship.

Also today I have visited my travel agent to ask about my visa. I have
got it and now I need to wait until my travel agent receive it. She
said it won't take much of time. Then I will be able to get the
tickets!

I wanted to say, if you like, you can come to Orbost to visit me,
just for weekend or longer if you can. I don't know if you can come
and stay but my invitation will be valid any time while I am in
Australia And of course I will visit your beautiful city!

Well, today I've got a new order to sew a princess's dress for girl of
6 years old I think it will be very interesting because I like to
make such dresses I need to finish this dress very fast because I
plan to come to Australia next weekend. At least I hope so

I am looking forward to seeing Australia for the first time! And of
course, I am very excited to meet you I like travelling! See the
photos attached. The USA, France, Italy, Egypt... all the countries
are special, beautiful and different from each other. I want to visit
Japan one day! I think it's a very beautiful country! Simon, what
country would you like to visit (which you haven't visited yet)??

Well, I have to finish my work because I am going to cook some tasty
food. I am on duty in kitchen today Vegetable salad, fried fish and
mashed potatos are waiting for me! I adore sea food! What is your
favorite food?

I hope to receive your reply soon!

Best regards,
Taissa.

Welcome to ScamWarners bbahawal and psyman. We do not recommend continuing contact with scammers especially if they have any of your personal information. i.e., your regular email address, your name, your phone number or your address.

If you are knowingly messing with the scammer, you are doing what is known as scam baiting. We do not support that here. If you want to learn about this activity please check out our sister site.

We appreciate your participation here.