Love online

I am writing this journal to ask if it is possible to get someone genuine online for any serious relationship. There are so many networking websites out there that people post their profiles and get their match. Can anyone tell me if they are real or just for fun because there is a friend of mine who got hooked up that way in one of the sites and am fearing she might get disappointed, are there genuine and serious people out there and how can one know if what they purport to be is true. Please help me out.