BEFORE THE 90 DAYS David says scenes talking with Lana cut by TLC, insists he wasn’t catfished, explains how dating website works

May 4, 2020 Before the 90 Days, Catfish, David Murphey

90 Day Fiance Before the 90 Days David and Lana scam response

On the current season of 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days, co-stars Yolanda and David are racing each other for a gold medal in the Chumpolympics. Yolanda seemed to all but seal a victory with her incomprehensible denial of obvious facts in regards to her “British” boo The Williams, but what David lacked in blind naivete, he more than made up for with expended time, effort, and money. The two have yet to cross the Season Finale finish line, but on this week’s episode, David surged back into the lead by demonstrating that he possessed the same skill set as Yolanda when it comes to incomprehensible denial of obvious facts.

In case you missed it, David traveled to Ukraine to meet his online girlfriend Lana for the fourth time, and for the fourth time she stood him up. So, David drove across the country to Lana’s hometown to find her. She agreed to meet David at a local restaurant, but once again stood him up. David then looked up an address that Lana provided in order to book a cruise they never went on. When David arrived at the address, a man about David’s age answered the door and informed him that Lana didn’t live in the apartment or even the apartment building.

A very dejected David packed up his solid color polo shirts and flew back to the United States. Despite being stood up by Lana once again, David says that he still wants to try to find her so that he can talk to her face-to-face and get the real story. Two of David’s friends shake their damn heads and encourage him to move on, but David is determined to continue throwing money away as he hires a private detective in Ukraine to track Lana down.



The Ukrainian detective did the same research that 90 Day Fiance fans did and discovered that Lana has multiple dating profiles on multiple dating sites, some under different names. He was unable to track the actual Lana down and he tells David that she was most likely scamming him. This is the point where David blows by Yolanda in the race as he dismisses the detective’s findings and continues to insist that he has been talking to the real Lana. He also claims that she wasn’t making any money off of the website that he reportedly spent roughly $100,000 communicating with her on over the past seven years.

After the episode aired, numerous bloggers and fans were collectively shaking their damn heads and calling David out for being so gullible. He came to his own defense by claiming that producers edited his segments to play up his gullibility. “They edited it like she doesn’t exist,” David explained to one commenter on his Instagram account. “All parts that have her speaking to me and on camera have been cut I have been told.”

In another comment, David references the time that Lana stood him up due to a death in the family and says that producers edited out the part where the private investigator confirmed the timing of the death. “The PI verified that her brother died when I knew he did,” David says. “Unfortunately that scene appears to be cut. Kind of gives you an idea how they want my narrative to go. I don’t control editing.”


 
 

In regards to his claim that Lana didn’t make any money from him despite the large amount that he spent on the website, David attempted to explain in a series of responses to comments made on an Instagram post by @90DayFiancetoday:

@90DAYFIANCETODAY: Dave says the PI didn’t expose anything Dave didn’t know already. How these sites are supposed to work is the women go to an agency that opens the profiles. Doesn’t mean people can’t take those pics to create fake profiles. If that’s common, is there a chance Dave isn’t talking to the actual Lana?

COMMENT: Can he walk over to Yolanda’s house and have her kids reverse image Lana’s pic for him? Please.

DAVID: You people are funny with your crazy theories. Anything but the truth. You can’t handle the truth. So your brains must come up with a simple theory.. hahaha….image search all you want. What does that prove. Think about it….nothing. It’s Lana, and with my experience I never talk to a woman that I can’t see on camera. So again, it’s Lana.

COMMENT: He hired the guy, something is wrong with this old dude, I’m starting to feel sorry for him.

DAVID: Don’t feel sorry for me. I haven’t wasted anything and have no regrets.

COMMENT: You are either the greatest 90 Day troll ever or something is wrong.

COMMENT: $100k and no wife feels like a waste to me.

DAVID: Well I don’t control the editing and you don’t know the entire story. That Starbucks you had last week seems like a waste to me also.




COMMENT: He has been to the Ukraine many times. He has dated women from this country. Do NOT tell me he has no idea this scam happens. This whole story line needs to just end. TLC needs to replace the Davids the Yolandas and Darceys with “legit” couples. Way more entertaining and less annoying. It amazes me how people will portray themselves for the 15 minutes.

DAVID: The clueless speaks.

COMMENT: Lol the fact he said that she doesn’t make money from the website.

DAVID: Making up lies doesn’t make them true. Of course she does not get paid. That would be fraud. The websites are USA companies and can be sued. Murder is illegal. That does not mean it does not happen. So a scammer can get by and the websites deal with them swiftly.

COMMENT: Explain how the website works that you met her on because maybe I am confused. Don’t you pay the website in order to be able to contact her?

DAVID: Yes I pay the website to access profiles of women that belong to marriage agencies in Ukraine. We pay for access to not be scammed. If you are communicating through a free site or from a social media invitation, you are asking to be scammed, but even then you will not be if you never send money. Don’t ever send money. Seems to me that most of the people on the show meet from a social media invitation. If these people are happy with marrying someone that is transparent in that they just want to come to America, then more proper to them. Using the legit sites is not cheap. But for those of us that can afford it, it is wonderful fun.

COMMENT: So the website is responsible to verify the women are legitimate?

DAVID: No, the websites are separate from the agencies. The agencies are local to the cities over there and there are hundreds of them across Ukraine. The agencies sign up the women and vet them. This means they have to prove they are single and a few other things. This is easy because the passport in Ukraine has the marital status and it has to be renewed if the status changes. The agencies also provide an office filled with computers if the lady does not have her own. Lana does not have her own but her agency provides a laptop for her to keep at home. The agency also facilitated gift purchases if a man wants to do that. This is not really wise as gifts cost triple what the actual gift price is. The agency also provides translation services if they are required. The agency also provides the photo shoots and videos for the women. And the agency also provides the clothes, not to keep, for the said photo shoots if a woman does not have cool clothes. In Lana’s case all the photos are in agency clothes. None of them are hers.

COMMENT: OK, so the agencies are matchmakers? That’s very interesting I didn’t know it was such an involved process.

More interactions with David in the comments of his own Instagram post:

COMMENT: Hi David, I hope you will meet the girl in the photos just to realize that she’s an employee who has to make men pay for chatting. No love or sentiment is involved in this story. Her profiles are still available and online in several dating sites.

DAVID: Of course they are. Women on the sites do not remove profiles from their agency until they have a visa in hand. It is a long process and 95% of men on the sites are not serious and will never travel to see them. And of the ones that do go, they are not guaranteed to have a marriage from that meeting. It is a long process.

COMMENT: It is painful to watch you. If you are acting obtuse on purpose, please have more self respect. You come across as lonely and desperate, holding on to a dream that wants nothing to do with you.

DAVID: I don’t control editing.

COMMENT: Editing? You still said the words David. Facts are facts. 7 years, $100,000, stood up 4 times, tracked her like a rabid dog then hired a PI. Editing didn’t make you look stupid, you did that on your own.

COMMENT: David, I hope you learned your lesson with fake Lana! You have now made yourself a target for scammers all over the world! People are going to come after you to try to scam you. Before you go back to online dating please, educate yourself about online scammers. Don’t give out your money, date of birth, SSN or your address! I hope you find true love!

DAVID: Too bad for them I am too smart to be scammed. Bring them on.

COMMENT: …I’m watching season 3 with Caesar who seems to be going through a similar situation and I find myself wanting to give him a shake too! I’m excited to find out how this all wraps up and how the season ends!

DAVID: …Caesar does need a shake. ))

For a slightly different take on how the Ukrainian dating and matchmaking sites work, we had a woman who commented on our Instagram post about Lana’s numerous online dating profiles who claims to have participated in the process when she was 18. Here is the original post followed by the woman’s comment with some grammatical corrections. (You can open the original post and scroll down for her original comment.)

https://www.instagram.com/p/B90MgZRHWeN/

* * * * * * * * *

I am Ukrainian and worked on this type of website and I will tell you how it actually works. There is a website called AnastasiaDate.com. [This is the website that Caesar used to meet Maria.] They make the process look very legit and put the men applying through a background check and so on.

Then there are the girls on the other side. They get paid for being featured on the website, and also get a percentage cut of the revenue from text messages and gifts that are purchased for them.

In addition to the men looking for women and the women featured on the site, there is also a third party involved in the interactions — the person who does the actual chatting. That was me. I know many men who pretend that they are female to chat and get paid.

The rule of thumb is that you have to be always online and try to get as many men as you can. Some of us working with successful profiles set up shifts to be online. So, the girl seen on the profile is aware of the set up, but she doesn’t know what the conversations are about. That’s why there is a video chat with no sound, so that the guy can’t ask questions.

If the man decides to meet the woman, she can says she doesn’t speak English and ask to bring along an interpreter, which is the person who handles the chats like myself. When the couple meet and talk, the interpreter doesn’t actually translate, but instead has the actual conversation.

Normally, it’s not long after the meeting that the relationship ends because the man will ask for a phone number. When asked for a phone number via the website chat feature, the girl and/or chat person knows to say that there are restrictions and that she could have her account blocked if she gives out her number.

Basically, the girl doesn’t really know the guy and she is not interested in meeting him. But, until she actually meets him and the relationship ends, she has a steady stream of passive income.

* * * * * * * * *




I have no way to verify that this commenter actually worked as a chat person for Anastasia Date, so it could very well be that she is frauding us. But, it was very fascinating (and very believable) nonetheless!

So what do you think? Is David really as gullible as he is being portrayed on the show? Or is he a professional Ukraine dater who fully understands how the process works and who is getting the short end of the TLC editing stick?

To find out how David and Lana’s story ends this season, be sure to tune in for the new episodes of 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days airing Sunday night at 8/7c on TLC! Based on previous very similar story lines, I’m going to predict that David will not give up his search for Lana and will propose going back to Ukraine yet again. I believe this is a tactic that TLC often uses because it rials up fans in an entertaining way, plus it leaves the door wide open for them to have Dave back for another season depending on how fans react.

Asa Hawks is a writer and editor for Starcasm. You can contact Asa via Twitter, Facebook, or email at starcasmtips(at)yahoo.com


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