Complaint Review: Tatyana Platova Aka Diana Yagafalova Aka Ani

I contacted "anisweetani" through thunderboltcity's on line dating service website as she had advertised that she was looking for a husband.

Thereafter she gave me her "electronic postal box" which was her email address. After corresponding for a while she said she had fallen in love with me and wanted to meet me.

Ani, as she introduced herself gave me her home address as 45 Lenin Street Izhevsk and sent me several photographs, one of these being of her with her "parents" another one with her "mother" Being a father myself I realised it would be difficult for the parents to see their daughter leaving them so wrote to them. I also sent Ani a beaded S.A.flag. later when she telephoned me on my cell phone I asked if she had received the beads and if her parents had received my letter. She sounded hesitant but said yes they had been received. The letter to her parents was such that I thought it warranted a reply. I never did get a reply.
At the time Ani said she was working as a bookkeeper in the factory that manufactured AK47's She at first said she would sell her apartment but would obtain credit from the bank. On weekends, she never contacted me and said she had been visiting "the grandmother" who had given her good advice. She was not going to sell her apartment.

Then she said she still needed E1000 to come to me in South Africa, all the time pouring out loving messages. I sent her this money by moneygram through Rennies Travel in Musgrave Centre Durban
Suddenly she said she was staying at an hotel in Moscow. We communicated through emails and on occasion she telephoned me but her voice was indistinct. She sounded more mature than in her pictures. I asked for the name of the hotel or some other way of contacting her but she never provided this information.

At first Ani said she needed E2000 to cover "living wage" while she was in South Africa on a two month visa which she said she had been granted. I sent a fax to the S.A.Embassy in Moscow saying I had invited her to S.A. and would guarantee to pay her expenses here. I also sent a copy to Ani. which she said she had taken to the Embassy. She (Ani) was happy that that it had been sorted out. In all I have sent four faxes to the S.A.Embassy but have not had any replies.

When she complained that using the internet at the "internet of cafe" was expensive, I told her to let me have the email address of the cafe and I would see if they could bill me.

Following this, she told me she would need E1000 to pay for the rest of her airfare of which she had paid half plus the cost of staying at the hotel. I asked for a copy of her passport which she emailed to me.

I sent her $1200 via the same route as before but her passport name was different. She explained that Ani was short for Diana but her real name was Tanya, a name she did not like so asked that I call her Ani. The moneygram had to be changed twice due to the name in her passport being different.

The passport number is 80 05 856634 issued on 20.02.2003 Her date of birth is given as 18.09.1982 and the name in the passport (in Russian) is TATYANA PLATOVA
While the changes to her name on the moneygram were taking place, she urged me to hurry as she had run out of money. In the menatime I received an email addressed to me as Adam. This was wrong as she had always called me Graham. She also signed off as Tanya, a name she said she did not like to be called. I put this down to confusion but when I questioned her about it she did not answer.

In my correspondence I informed Ani that she would not have to work once she came here as we would live well and would spend our time touring the country or going to the beaches.

During our corespondences I made out that I knew a hitman living in Moscow who was half Russian and half Greek and I gave a description of this man as someone who was big and who looked a bit like Stalin. I told her not to be scared if someone of this description approached her as I had asked him to look after her. She made no reference to this.

Later after she stopped emailing me I said all my emails were linked to Interpol and they would start an investigation after 60 hours of no response from her. I still did not get a reply despite my urging.
In all I lost about E2000

Graham
durban south africa
South Africa