Many years ago a friend posted a personal ad in my name as a joke. Back then, when (as he described in the ad) I was in my mid-20s and in great shape from mountain climbing, there were a lot of responses. I gave him the stacks of letters so he could read a few, and he resolved to not pull that kind of prank any more. There were a few "how about it, babe?" smart-ass responses, a few weepy "my wife died and I need someone to raise my five children all under the age of 7" responses, and mostly just letters from normal sounding guys. A few of them WERE in prison, and a lot of them were in the military (and back then some would see these two situations as not mutually exclusive!) Except for the fact that I was happily unattached and moving around the country as a seasonal park ranger, there were a couple that could have stood closer examination.

Finding people with similar interests by joining organizations related to those interests seems a more sane approach.

SRS