Warning: 'Visa and travel' scams from South China

I check many large dating sites, often, to look for obvious scammers, and look for new trends in scams. I'm alarmed by the large number of profiles online from ladies in South China, primarily, that I can attribute to West African scammers living in SE Asia.
Please, never send money for an asian lady, usually aged 25-35, living in China, working a menial job, to come to your country to meet you.
This is a scam.
The travel agent the 'lady' sends you to is fake, and operated by West Africans.
The lady in the pictures is not the person you email, or may talk to on the phone.
(Local asian ladies are helping the West Africans with this scam, they are not the girls in the pictures.)
You will lose a few thousand dollars, and the lady will never arrive at your local airport. You are a chump!
Don't accept a voice on a phone as proof you are in contact with the cute lady in the pictures. You're not. Ask to see a face on webcam, the scammers can't do this, or, if they do, it will be a brief recording of 'that' face, or a similar face.
Research the real method of a single, asian lady, to get a visa to come to your country. You'll find out the real process ranges from 'impossible', to a process that takes months, not the few days these scammers claim.
Many western countries do not allow young, single people from Asian countries to come there on any sort of visa, including tourist visas. They know that person is likely to not return to the home country, and violate the terms of the visa.
Most of the ladies in question claim to be in the Guangdong province of China, but increasingly I see suspicious profiles for ladies that match the traits of this type of scammer, spread out in other South China provinces.
Never send money for visa or travel! This is a distinct category of scam that is practiced by 'Russian', 'West African', and occasionally Filipino scammers.
For help, check the forum at dragonladies.org Visa and travel scams from China Please remember, the pictures used in these scams are stolen. The lady in the pictures is in no way involved, and you were never in contact with her. The people you are in contact with are Black males from West Africa, and local chinese or filipino ladies, who are paid to help them in these scams.

Warning! Chinese girls online from Zhengzhou

I am seeing an increased amount of suspicious activity on asian dating sites, where the 'girl' is either in Zhengzhou, China, or claims to be. These 'girls' will use stolen pictures of minor asian celebrities, and express interest in a man of an age that is too old to be appropriate in Chinese culture. The girl will often claim to be a teacher. The IP in emails will be correct for Zhengzhou.
These profiles are either the result of a fraudulent marriage agency, fishing for customers, or a scammer, or scammers, operating from Zhengzhou..
Please, never send money to somebody you only know from the internet, or phone calls.
Do not let a 'girl' you meet online steer you to a paid dating site where you will have to pay for messages to be translated, from, and to her. This is a scam.
Always expect to see a face on webcam. There is no valid excuse for a person looking for love, online, not to be able to use a cam. No cam, bye bye.
Keep the age gap reasonable. If you are 60 years old, real chinese ladies who are 25 are not interested in you. SCAMMERS who claim to be chinese ladies of that age, are.

agw-agency.com Another fake 'chinese' travel agency

agw-agency.com is yet another fake chinese travel agency, set up, and operated by West African scammers, operating from within China, for use in 'visa and travel' romance scams.
Please, do not send anyone you meet online, money to pay for a visa to come meet you, or air fare.
The real tourist visa process for the US bears no resemblance to the procedures these scammers use.
No cute girl is going to show up at your local airport if you send thousands of dollars to one of these 'agencies'.
Don't be stupid.
More information on this type of scam at Dragonladies.org

Chinese 'love' scams, conducted by West Africans in China

These are an ongoing problem. That pretty 'Asian' lady you met on a dating site, may actually be a West African male, living in China!
Yes, West African scammers pretend to be anyone, anywhere in the world, and often claim to be Asian or mixed ladies, but these scams are a bit different.

Most of these specific scams come from the Guangdong province of China, primarily Shenzhen, and Guangzhou. The 'lady' will claim to be in these cities, and if you know how to check the email headers for an IP, you'll see the emails came from the appropriate city.
The problem is, you are not in contact with the cute lady in the pictures they use and send, but a West African male, trying to scam you!
An additionaly wrinkle is, the scammers have asian female 'helpers' who will make or take phone calls from victims. The lady you talk to is not the lady in the pictures.
The fake 'lady' is usually Chinese, or Filipina, working at some menial or low level job. (Clerk, Maid, Nanny, etc)
See this section at Dragonladies.org for examples of this scam
She will use various excuses for not using a webcam.
'The family I work for is strict. They do not allow me to use webcam'
'I work long hours. I do not have time to go to internet cafe to use a webcam'
'My webcam is broken'
'It is not safe to go out to the internet cafe'
'I can only chat from work, and we have no cam here. The internet cafe is in a bad area. I'm afraid to go there.'

Another element of this specific scam is lady always claims the boss, or employers are supportive of her finding a 'western' man on the internet, which somewhat clashes with them being strict or protective.
The boss or employer is also used as a means to introduce the method of collecting the scam money.
'My boss is a business man and world traveler. He suggests we use this agency to buy my visa and ticket to meet you'

This brings us to the mode of extracting money from the victim...these are usually 'visa and travel' scams. The fake lady will profess love very quickly, and want to travel to meet the man where he lives, but is short of funds for the visa, and plane ticket.
The victim will offer to help, or will be urged to help. He will be directed to a travel or visa agency site, that is fake, and set up by the scammers. He'll be asked to pay thousands of dollars for the visa, and plane ticket for the lady.
Of course, no real lady shows up at his local airport....and the money is gone. See this entry for more information on these fake agencies

How can you avoid these scams?
Never send money, or pay for services for somebody you only know from the internet, and phone calls.
There's no valid excuse for anybody using the internet to find a mate to not show a live face on cam, and more than once or occasiaonlly.
Research the real methods for a single lady in China, to come to your country! They can't go to an 'agency', pay a fee, and be on a plane in a few days or weeks!

Dragonladies.org can help you with internet romance scams from Asia.