A Britannia Beach man’s search for an overseas relationship has turned into a headache – and a large bill to pay.
After being charged $8,000 in a month, he is warning others about an online matchmaking site that claims to arrange 6,000 international marriages a year with a success rate of 80 per cent.
“I don’t care if everyone knows about what happened,” said the man who wishes to remain anonymous due to Britannia Beach’s tight-knit community.
According to the website, Amo Latina, Western men are connected with Latin American women through a network of more than 1,000 dating agency partners located in cities across Latin America, resulting in 6,000 international marriages a year with a success rate of 80 per cent.
The local man provided his credit card information to the website but it wasn’t clear to him how much he was being charged for the emails that were sent between himself and women from the website.
He was billed 19 separate times from June 7 to July 3, with an average charge of $432. The total on his credit card statement, provided to The Squamish Chief, is for $8,204.
To send an email, a member of the site buys credits, which according to another website that claims to have done the math, cost $527 for 100 emails. This works out to be $5.27 an email, which, in this case, added up very fast.
The Britannia Beach resident, and a number of websites dedicated to reviewing Amo Latina, found it impossible to connect with the women in person and, therefore, no possibility of a marriage. According to these websites, the women – who are often models – are hired and not actually looking for a romantic partner.
The credit card charges from the website, www.amolatina.com, give the capital of Cyprus, an island off of Turkey and Syria, as the headquarters of the business.
Members, the website claims, can send emails and talk on the phone and then move onto organized dates and tours in Latin America. There is also the option to send a bouquet of fresh roses, perfume or a bottle of sparkling wine to “your favorite lady.”
“Each year numerous members find friendships, relationships, love, happiness and marriage…” the website says. “Interact in any number of ways and explore the possibilities with over 15,000 of the world’s most exciting women.”
When contacted by The Squamish Chief, a customer service representative for Amo Latina, who did not want to give her name, said that the website is not a scam and that many marriages are made every year. “All the prices are on the website. All the ladies have been verified,” she said. “We have many success stories.”
She said that she could not provide information on how much the average bill is, but said members don’t understand their service.
“They don’t contact customer support. We can’t give them answers,” she said, adding there will be no refund in this case.
But Rhos Barnes, with Squamish-based The PC Tech Guys, is helping the Britannia Beach man with his case. He said there is hope he could get his money back.
“Usually companies operating a less than favourable business have troubles
maintaining a merchant account which allows you to accept credit cards. A credit card company does not want a pile of complaints, so at some point companies like these, once a dispute is filed by the customer, have to issue a refund or fear losing the ability to accept credit cards which would mean they have no business,” he told The Squamish Chief.
Lauren Mostowyk, spokesperson for Mastercard, said, in these cases, cardholders needs to go through the bank that issued their card to find a resolution, but did not comment on this specific case.
“In the cases of scams, the cardholder won’t be held responsible for the charges,” she said.
