r/PassportBrosHQ

Apparently the Feds are cracking down on marriage fraud. It is not surprising. Love 'em or hate 'em the Trump Administration has been consistently tough on immigration.

According to the article below, federal prosecutors in New York indicted 11 people for running a decade long sham marriage scheme that helped over 1,000 Chinese nationals snag green cards. They were supposedly paying up to $100,000.

I suspect versions of this are fairly common. I have had it happen to me once. I was pursued to marry someone so they could stay in the US. It would have really been easy. I said, "No." Of course, they had a million reasons why they needed to stay in the US.

Perhaps, if they had flashed $100k I would have given in?

LOL!

Do any of you have those kind of stories?

As for this situation, this was industrial scale marriage fraud.

This girl in Colombia allegedly hit up a married guy she’d been seeing and demanded about six grand or she’d tell his wife and dump the private pics and videos online. Classic move - full blown crazy move!

But if you are married and doing this sort of stuff you are playing with fir

Police set up a sting, let him hand over a smaller “payment,” and bagged her right there collecting the cash.

For the guys who treat overseas trips like open season, this is the universe’s way of saying “enjoy the party, but maybe don’t film everything and definitely don’t assume the other person is as carefree as you are.” Blackmail doesn’t care how good the vibe was. One moment you’re the fun foreigner, the next you’re funding someone’s vacation fund under threat of domestic nuclear war. Keep it light, keep it smart, and maybe leave the camera off once in a while.

Read the article, look carefully at the photo, and tell me if you can spot the problems that got this guy in trouble.

Here is the full article.

This is a very powerful earthquake. It apparently hit at 7:34 this morning.

So far the reports say 22 47 80 people dead but with a quake that big there will be more I am sure.

Earthquakes are far and away my least favorite disaster. While I was living in Mexico I had five- none of them nearly this powerful. But a few earthquakes and you will spend more time looking for a sturdy building.

It looks like this was a good ways from Bogota, Barranquilla, Cartagena, and Medellin. Mostly it appears to be in the west of the country. But if you have a trip coming up you should check with your hotel and potentially the US Embassy before you travel.

Here is the website for the Embassy.

They should be able to give you some feed back on the situation. Often airlines are a good source too.

Here is the best early article I have seen.

EDIT: This article is updated with new info: https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/10/world/live-news/colombia-earthquake-san-jose-del-palmar

This is easily the best piece of academic research I have seen on this topic. I seems balanced and non-judgemental. Researchers surveyed 77 people with real sugar dating experience (45 women, 31 men) across the US and Canada, and the findings are more nuanced than the hype you see online.

Who Was Studied?

Sugar babies averaged about 29 years old, while the sugar daddies, who the egghead professors here call benefactors averaged 48.

Most sugar babies had done around four arrangements in their lifetime, but the range was wild—from one-time flings to 50+ for some. Over a third of them had also done other types of transactional sex work (camming, stripping, escorting), and most benefactors reported paying for sex in other contexts too.

Follow the Money

Money was the #1 driver for sugar babies, no surprise. But they also wanted emotional connection, companionship, and a lifestyle boost. For the sugar daddies? It was mostly about companionship and intimacy with women they saw as "out of their league" in conventional dating, plus the thrill of mentoring someone younger.

Here's the kicker: researchers found that nearly all arrangements involved some kind of sexual component. The "just texting for cash" myth? Doesn't hold up .

The Power Dynamic Twist

This is where it gets interesting. Despite guys holding the money, age, and status, sugar babies were often seen as having more relationship power—largely because of their desirability and ability to negotiate terms. Meanwhile, sugar daddies reported feeling more emotionally attached and were frequently unsure whether their partner's attraction was genuine or just performance .

Sugar babies worried most about physical safety and coercion. Sugar daddies? They worried about getting exploited and reputational damage. Stigma around sugar dating was rated as only moderately low, and traditional gender-role endorsement was just moderate—not the deeply patriarchal setup some assume .

I thought it was interesting about the stigma. I believe these were all American women and they didn't seem to care. I have heard that from a few very wealthy guys who stumbled into things like $20k a month arrangements. There is a number that the women will basically admit to being sugar babies.

You guys probably already knew that, but remember, the research also found that despite the age and the money the women had more POWER.

That is the main reason I push guys away from sugar relationship, because in the end a man often has no power - his MONEY does. Humans are a crazy species!

Here is the article.

Read it and let me know what you think.

Hey Reddit . I hope Yall doing okay! Im a US army veteran I been traveling the world for the past 7 months now backpacking. What have your experiences been in Lima Peru? Example: Mira Flores or. Barranco?? I would love to read and hear the stories you may have. And have anybody heard much about Chile?? I met a woman last night from Santiago she was the nicest sweetest woman ever. And we went and got breakfast the next day. I talked about it and showed my experience on my Youtube Vlog. https://youtu.be/2i1np-De1P0?si=5pa0GDYCnIkrLdCA

Comment below and thanks

Everyone says the photos are the key to a good dating profile, but they are also be the single most powerful tool you have to filter women. But most guys barely look at the photos!

I know.

You're saying, "He doesn't know me! I look at the photos on dating apps like a hungry dog looks at the meat in the window of a butcher shop. I look and sometimes even bark and howl."

Yes, on one level men look at boobs, hair, and awesome abs. You look at toned legs, glowing eyes and a sweet smile, but those are usually not the main things you need to be looking at to determine if she is a gold digger or kind.

So, lets go through the indicator you should notice.

LOCATION

First, stop and look at the location of the photo. If it shows a super hot Ukrainian girl in front of the Eiffel Tower or standing on the balcony of a luxury high rise in Dubai in a tiny bikini. That is screaming: "I have had foreign boyfriends and love luxury!"

In Asia and Latin America it is not quite so clear, but photos of high-end restaurants, fancy nightclubs, and event openings are a sign of a girl with certain high-end goals. She is posting those photos because that is what she is looking for in a relationship.

I am not saying all these women are scammers, but I am saying they are putting their expectations front and center. This is the lifestyle they are looking for. If you are unable to provide that lifestyle or don't enjoy that sort of life - do NOT communicate with them.

Normal girls will have "glamour" photos in park or by a local beach or lake. They will post photos of dingy apartments in Eastern Europe and cinder block rooms with tin roofs in Asia. These girls are much more likely to be serious.

School and work shots are also great because she is showing you what she believes is important. This is who she is and what she values. Usually, she is much more likely to be legit.

CLOTHING AND ACCESSORIES

What are they wearing?

Actually, sexiness is not the biggest issue. Most really hot girls have put in the work and want to show you they are hot. That is not a big deal because often it is just flirtatious behavior.

What is more important is how expensive the clothing looks? Even if the Louis Vuitton bags is a fake it is showing her goals.

Look at her jewelry. A cross is often a girl who is pretty serious about her religion, and a ring on her left ring finger is a big red flag almost everywhere. Of course, maybe she is not in a relationship anymore and I have known single women who wear wedding rings to avoid unwanted advances, but it is a warning sign everywhere.

A lot of times you can see this is a poor girl pulling out all the stops to look amazing. That is very normal. They are not going to post bad photos of themselves.

TATTOOS

Tats are not an awful sign in Eastern Europe. There it is much more about fashion, but in most of Asia and Latin American large tats are a HUGE red flag. This is why Findmate asks about tats.

It does not always mean they are bar girls. It might mean they had a dumb foreign boyfriend or possibly a local guy in a gang. Or maybe... it might mean nothing at all, but you should take it into consideration.

On Findmate, if they say they don't have tattoos and later turn out to have tattoos, it should be a FULL STOP for you.

EXPRESSIONS

Often women in Eastern Europe will not post a photo of themselves smiling. I really hate that, and I think it is a bad sign. But I have friends who claim it is all cultural. I have been having this argument for years.

Yes, during the Soviet period, smiling was particularly frowned on - literally - by society as base and undignified today that has shifted. I believe she should have at least one photo with a smile or I move very carefully.

She is choosing the photos she is posting. She is saying, "This is who I am." If you don't like serious women who are going to be demanding - don't click on photos of women who are not smiling.

Again, there are exceptions, but you need to be aware.

HOBBIES

Standing next to luxury cars is pretty common. It is an aspiration usually. In Ukraine, photos of horse girls are a pretty recent deal and usually a sign of an actual upper middle class girl. Not every girl on AFA or Findmate is actually poor; many of them are middle-class and upper-middle-class.

Gym photos are great, because this shows they are willing to work on something to improve. That is very important.

Cooking photos are also great, because she is saying, "I will cook great food for my man." This is not rocket science. It is right there in the photos.

FINDMATE'S VERIFICATION VIDEOS

Findmate's verification videos can be especially useful because they are actual recent videos of the woman. Often you can see how she is really living. You can see how she really looks and that can tell you a lot.

CONCLUSIONS

Look at the photos closely before you start communicating with a woman. There is so much information there.

Usually, one photo does not give it all away but take together they give away a mountain of information.

What do you see in the photos above?

NOTE: I haven't met any of these women personally, but I know they were all vetted by AFA's exhaustive vetting system.