Sending money is an option not a rule and I imagine most men refrain from doing so until they know their other half properly. A friend of mine never sent his mahal any money at all and even told her family from the offset that he wasn't prepared to help them financially. Twenty years on, he's still with her happily married.
As for dating online in the UK, I was referring to experiencing it over here first and getting to know how the online players & the fakes operate before embarking on dating overseas via the web.