I, too, used dating sites more than 15 years ago when there were fewer ones and some kind of honorable practices seemed to prevailed. The site listed as the best one used to be personal and probing, and at least gave the pretense of going about the business in a scholarly way. That's changed, and they are living off their old reputation, as I find as I re-enter the singles market.
I've also connected with other "top sites" for seniors and found them to be sloppy and unprofessional. One in particular controls several connected dating sites, is based outside the US, and has a scary sign-up contract which most common users are probably not even aware of.
The bottom line is, every dating site is most eager to have you sign up to give them hundreds or thousands of your money, which you can't retrieve, with a zero guarantee of giving you anything in return. The amount of money that people give them every year must be staggering.
I completely agree with the original poster: the government should act. A good way to motivate legislators would be to promise them a percentage of the money that now goes into these scam sites, as "campaign donations".