Like many others I have tried Internet dating and like many others encountered scams, some childish, some a bit sophisticated.... I don't need to repeat the golden rule: a decent and reliable person will never ask for money! If I can give a piece of advice based on my personal experience and judgment (I have been working with law enforcement for nearly three decades and encountered hundreds of crooks in my career..), if you have doubts on the person or just want to make sure she is sincere, use her phone, call her unexpectedly (mind the time difference of course!), use snail mail to be sure her address indeed exists and in some cases Google can be a very efficient detective. My GF introduced herself to me as a recently graduated licensed nurse and this was indeed confirmed by the governmental listings you can access to through Google. Just an example..
Now, as far as the scams are concerned: "my sister wants to sell our computer, and if I can't access a computer how can we communicate Honey?"..... I did not respond. One week later: "my eldest sister died, we need 10.000 Pesos for the funerals". That time I received photos of a funeral with people nearby a coffin, the whole family sobbing in the church, etc.... I sent the 10.000 Pesos. There was one chance out a billion that the story was true... one week later, I got a message about a Social Security check she could not cash because she had no bank account.... I did not respond and in the end she quit. Good luck!
More recently another one wrote me that because a cousin had forgotten something on the stove the whole house had burnt down.... I sent some money again and after she told me that if I was good enough to "lend" 50.000 Pesos she could buy a small house..... well again I decided not to respond. I don't like being a sucker, eventhough this happens to me from time to time.
That's about it, you know what to expect if the girl raises the financial issue..........