Online dating services can be a great way to meet people and most of them are legitimate, however, there are a number of phony websites that offer to find that special person for you, but only end up breaking your wallet as well as your heart.  In particular, many of the scams are based outside of the country.  The Russian Republic of Mari El is renowned for its scam romance websites that lure unsuspecting people into sending money to bring over their new loves from overseas only to learn that the entire thing was a scam.

TIP

Check out any dating or romance website with the FTC, the Better Business Bureau or even one of the simplest scam tests is to Google the name of the website with the word “scam” next to it and see what comes up.