Falling in love is the greatest feeling in the world and every day thousands of men from around the world contact a mail order bride agency to help them find their ideal soul mate. The sites these men visit are all very appealing, as the women on the site are usually absolutely gorgeous. There is only one problem, they don't exist. So how does someone who is well intentioned determine which mail order bride agencies are legitimate and which ones are not?
The first thing single men should ask any agency they are considering joining is whether the agency background checks the women on the site. This insures potential members that the service isn't simply putting up photos of attractive ladies on the site. Think this doesn't happen, well you need to do your homework by doing some online research. A quick Google search using the phrases, "mail order brides" and "profile fraud" will provide you plenty of information.
The next step is to make sure the agency is using a respected third party to conduct its background checks. If you allow the company to do their own checks, they'll likely tell you whatever you want to hear. Also, many married women join these agencies with the hope of fleecing foreign men out of a significant amount of money. So when they enter the office of a mail order bride agency, they provide the agency false information because they want to "qualify" for membership. These women already know in advance that the agency will not check the information so they have no worries about getting caught.
In 2008, Louis Theroux, a famous TV journalist from the UK, investigated the Thai mail order bride industry. During his research Louis meets Lake Palmer, a client of a well-known mail order bride agency in Bangkok. While following Lake around for an afternoon, Louis is surprised to find out how quickly Lake is moving in proposing marriage with the women he meets through the agency. A couple of days after being introduced to Lake, Louis finds out that Mr. Palmer has gotten married to a woman he knew for only a few hours. Unfortunately for Lake, he cannot return to the UK with his bride because he needs to file for a marriage visa first. In the months that follow, Lake sends his bride thousands and thousands of British Stirling(tens of thousands of dollars), only to find out by immigration officials that his "wife" is already married. Upon receiving this news, Lake also finds out that his bride had another foreigner on the side who was sending her money. You would have thought the mail order bride agency would have known this yet they never had a thorough background check done on the woman.
The one thing that people should keep in mind when choosing to use a mail order bride agency is to do your homework. You are hiring them to help you find you a soul mate, so you should check their references and make sure the women have references as well, otherwise you could find yourself heartbroken and bankrupt.