Friday 22 October 2004

From Russia With Not Much Love....

The Department of Labour’s immigration service is warning New Zealand men looking for Russian female companionship on the internet that if it seems too good to be true then it probably is.

In the last few months, the New Zealand immigration office in Moscow has been contacted by around a dozen Kiwi men who have sent money to Russia to pay for a trip to New Zealand for their new female friend only to discover the woman vanishes once the money arrives in her bank account.

The scam involves Kiwi men being asked to send money so that Russian women they meet over the internet can apply for New Zealand visas and purchase air tickets.

In order to reassure their hopeful beaus, the women often send a copy of their Russian passport. The document often turns out to be an internal passport, held by all Russians but useless for international travel.

The scam has come to light with recent queries to the immigration service in Moscow from Kiwi men concerning the fate of the visa application of their prospective partner. Invariably no visa application had ever been made.

While the service is unable to assist the men recover lost money, it is keen to prevent the situation from occurring by highlighting the fact that applicants do not need to purchase air tickets before they apply for a visa.

“It appears that this version of the con has been going on for some months and New Zealand is one of many countries being targeted by the Russian fraudsters,” says operations manager Anita Reedy.

“We are consequently urging all men involved in an internet relationship of this kind to be very suspicious about sending money to women they have never met. New Zealanders are honest, open and friendly people and sometimes naively expect the rest of the world to be the same. Unfortunately it isn’t.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>