Love and the mail-order bride

So for those of you single people out there (or you unscupulous married types), I am assuming most of you have forayed into the fabulous world of online dating.  I first messed with it about 10 years ago and have had some success, especially in my thinner days.  After my last engagement went bellyup in 2002 it was years before I could think about dating again cause I was all messed up.  I still fear women with every fiber of my being (which is many, many fibers these days) but I figured awhile back I'd throw a profile out there and see how it goes.

One thing I've noticed is people seem to be addicted to these sites anymore as a social activity.  Thats ok I guess, but personally I want someone who is interested in focusing their efforts on trying to get one thing right rather than playing the "how many people like me????" game.  But if nothing else, its a way to get out every now and then.  Even the dates that haven't worked out are at least friendly so its company anyway.

Anyway, I'm also too cheap to drop the $30/month or whatever for memberships, so unless I get an email address in the responses I get I can't respond.  No biggie I suppose.  But I've also noticed these mail-order type (for lack of a better term) of profiles contacting me now and again.  A few years back a friend of mine and I used to joke about looking into this, and the little bit of info we got was that it cost an assload of money and seemed kind of scammish.

So last week I get an email that I have a new message on my profile on this particular dating site.  I go there and am greeted with the profile name and a picture of an amazingly beautiful young woman.  Now, I have a pic of me up there and I'm thinking either this chick is blind or its one of those mail order scam things.  So I read the message and there's an email in there, and sure enough by the broken english and distinctly eastern European name I am sure its mail-order.

Normally I just delete those messages, and if I forget to delete them I see within a few days that the profile has been deleted by the service.  In this case though, I copy and paste the email addy I was sent and use one of my alternate email accounts to send an email to it.  Nothing major, just a "hi, got your email" thing.

So the next day I get a response (and more pictures...woohoo) from a young (late 20s) Russian girl who is apparently so smitten with me that she's already referring to herself as my new girlfriend.  Alrighty.  And btw, I am typing this whole part tongue in cheek so don't worry that I've lost my mind and have bought into this.  So I play along and answer some questions she asked about me.  The next day I get another email with another picture (whoever this is in the picture, she is seriously hot btw) and more qujestions, along with a request for pictures of me.

So I email back asking what she was trying to accomplish.  I mean, she's in Russia and I'm in Chicago (suburbs)...as I told her, thats a long drive.  So I asked her what the deal was.  I asked her to explain to me exactly why she was emailing me and what she was hoping I would do.  My guess is send money, which?  Heh, if you knew me you wouldn't need to wonder...that ain't happening.  I also mentioned I liked the pictures, and if she had any of her in a bathing suit (or less), by all means please send me those.  I also attached a picture of me (not a pleasant sight, especially with the weight I put on after herniating that disc) and my cat.  I figured that would be the end of that.

So a day goes by and no more emails.  Heh, figured.  But then the next day lo and behold I get one, with another picture (of her with her mother, who isn't bad looking either heh) and this email telling me about how happy I make her and how she has told her mother all about me, and how she is going to visit her grandmother some 90km away to tell her all about me too.   Oddly enough, none of my questions were answered.

Ok, now at this point I am torn between ROFL and feeling particularly sad.  Its either some numnuts playing around and getting a giggle out of it, or its some really messed up chick and I may be messing with her head, which if thats the case it doesn't seem it can take much messing with.  So I respond asking her to look at my last email and please answer the questions I asked.  And oh yeah, please send more pics!  Even if these aren't of her, I likes them!

Now the question I pose to anyone reading this....do you know anything about these scams?  I actually know a couple people (online friends) who have done like Filipino mail order and actually seem to be happy.  They're probably being slowly poisoned on a daily basis too, but thats their problem I guess.  So how does this work?  I'm not sending anyone money, so thats not a concern.  What should I expect to see in the near future?  Money requests?  Personal data requests?