I found my way here through a link on 419eater. Great site. I think I'll be spending a lot of time here, seeing as I've decided to become mainly a vlad baiter.
I'm happily taken. Married a Russian girl a little over a year ago. And we originally met through a dating site. So that route can work really well. You just have to go about it with caution and intelligence, like most things. I also met several very nice and honest Ukrainian girls, 2 of which were wife material in my eyes.
I've never been scammed. I'm doing this partly as a public service, because there are a lot of very lonely and naïve people out there for scammers to abuse. I want to help make things harder for the criminals.
And also I don't like the damage these scum are doing to all the honest FSU women who are looking for a life partner outside their country, for personal reasons which are legitimate and which they're entitled to have. But as often happens, only the bad news attracts attention. So even though I'm sure scammers are much less numerous that the real ladies, the scammers get most of the public attention. I remember the reaction of several people around me when they found out I was talking to a Russian girl. "Russian women are only interested in two things: money and citizenship in a rich country". That's sad.
Because while I know that gold-diggers do exist there (as in all countries), I'm sure that most of the bad reputation that all FSU women have gotten is because of these scammers.
End of rant.