Not sure if this is a scam or not.

At the end of january I began to recieve emails from a girl claiming to be in Russia. She said she was reponding to my ad from craigslist. The ad said that I was a single dad looking for people to meet and hang out with. The first email came from a different address and contained the message "Good evening" and a picture of a beautiful girl. After I responded with an almost sarcastic "good evening to you too, who are you?" I began to recieve email from a girl telling me that she read my ad and that recently joined an AU Pair program. She said she wants to come to my country to work, possibly working with little kids. She also talks about how she wants to find a good friend before she comes out here, and maybe even a soulmate. I responded (hopeful) and was amazed when she said she wanted to come to where I am. Now the first email from her came on 01/27/09 and by 02/03/09 she said she was in Moscow trying to get things in order to leave and come here. But on 02/04/09 she emails me (in a different font) and tells me that she does not have enough money to pay the agency to come here. She has $300 USD and needs $920 more. She asks to "borrow" it from me and says she'll pay it back when she starts working here. At this point I felt it was a scam because she asked me to send the money via Western Union. I told her there was no way I could send that kind of money, and that I felt like it was a scam. Within 5 days she emailed again. This time saying she got some money together and now only needed $450 USD and she assured me that she is not trying to scam me. I again told her I couldn't, but I wish I could (again still hopeful it is not a scam). 02/09/09 was the last email I recieved until today. Today she writes and says she sold her jewlery and her parents sent her money and now all she needs is $250 USD. Through it all she has sent me long in depth emails about therself and her family. She included where she lived in one of them, but either she spelled the city name wrong or it doesn't exist. I am looking for anyones help to help me figure out if this is a scam or not. Please let me know


David

Hi David, I hate to be the one to tell you this...but this is a typical Romance/Love scam. It is good to hear that you did not send "her" any money. In fact, the "girl" you have been exchanging emails with could very well be a man. Here is the link to an overview of Love Scams.
http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=25

^^^^
Agreed, I'm sorry to have to tell you. What sort of photo? Does she look like a professional model? Scammers often send photos found on Internet modeling sites.

Hi Diesel, no doubt it is a scam.

If you could provide some details we should should be able to prove it for you.

It's hard to show hard evidence but I know it's a scam. It doesn't make any sense. A russian girl putting her faith in your hands (a total stranger). She asks for money, you say no (but yes if you could), she lowers the amount, you say no, she lowers the amount, you say no. If she's for real, why she keeps trying you? (because she's trying a dozen more).

All of a sudden I had a flashback to Get Smart!, remember the TV series?

"I'm short 920 us$, would you believe that? 920 us$"
"mmm... no, I don't think so..."
"would you believe 450 us$?"
"mmm... nope..."
"would you believe 250 us$?"
"no..."
"would you believe 10 us$ and some candy wrapper?"

I can imagine this kind of bargaining among friends. You ask me for an amount, I can't get that much, I offer you what I can afford, we work it together. You don't do that with someone you don't know just out of the blue.
Try to see it from a natural economy point of view. Let's say that she's so desperate in need that she has no other choice to ask you for money, she would have exhausted all her resources first to get to that point. However, it seems that she always has one more card under her sleeve. Or, she prefers to keep her resources and abus... I mean, ask you (a total stranger) first. Definitely, not the kind of girl you want around you.