Russian cyber 'bride' costs Bay man $5000

CHRIS GARDNER
A Napier man proved love is blind when he sent a gorgeous Russian blonde he had "met" on the internet the $5000 she claimed she needed to join him in New Zealand.
He was a middle-aged Napier man looking for love on the internet. She was an attractive blonde Russian con-artist just waiting to snare him.
He was sceptical when she - a 30-year-old Russian seamstress called Natalya Bogacheva from the Eastern Russian Federation city of Bratsk - asked for $5000 to join him in New Zealand. Having seen photographs of her in a bikini he took the chance that their short cyber relationship was genuine and forwarded her the cash.
A month had passed when he received an e-mail from her telling him she wasn't coming. Her father had torn up her airline tickets after a massive row, she said, and she wanted more money to secure her passage to New Zealand.
"By the time she got new tickets organised the costs would have gone up," the man, who Hawke's Bay Today has agreed not to name, said.
"I e-mailed the embassy in Moscow and had an e-mail back saying she had never been issued an entry visa to New Zealand.
"I kept my e-mails going with her for a little while and then wrote and told her I thought it was a scam and wanted my money back. She wrote back and said she could not send me the money and would pay it back over the years," he said.
In an e-mail dated June 5 Natalya replied: "What do you speak to me? How you can accuse me? You do not want to understand me, you mean do not love me."
The divorced man began his cyber affair with Natalya in February when he saw her advertisement on the NZDating.com website.
At first they corresponded via the website but after a while she suggested they exchange e-mail addresses and it was not long before the pair had swapped photographs and were discussing marriage.
Natalya had also forwarded a scanned copy of a document she claimed was her passport but, on inspection turned out to be a Russian identity card required for Russians to travel from region to region.
"I wrote to her for about six weeks on a very regular basis, about five times a week, and then she asked for $5000 for her air fare and gave me a date to come to New Zealand - May 28. I sent her the money in April."
Having searched the internet for her name, the man discovered Natalya's appeared on a website, which warned she was a swindler.
Now, months after being disappointed, all he has left is a computer full of pictures of the girl he once hoped would be his bride, and a Western Union receipt proving he sent the money.
"I just sort of fell for her," he said.
"When you're middle-aged, most 30 year olds are quite attractive."
Since his bitter experience, the New Zealand Immigration Service yesterday issued a warning to New Zealanders looking for Russian companionship on the internet.
"If it seems too good to be true then it probably is," the warning says.