it can't possibly be worth it, when you compare the time and costs involved with staying in the hobby.  also, one sets oneself up for blackmail, once you have signed up for the various overseas brides sites. I have never done it, but someone I know has and it has been a miserable, expensive, sometimes scary experience.

That's because, no matter what agency you find, or how "reliable" they're reputed to be, the only thing that matters is the motivation of the women using the service. And that's where the problem lies. These women are looking for a way to get out of their country and hopefully find a better life. Many (most) will do whatever it takes, say whatever they need, play whatever role they have to, in order to achieve that goal. As long as the agency gets paid, they don't give a rat's ass about her motivation or story and any claim otherwise is BS. The agency will also charge your friend for facilitating communications with the women and will also try to get him to buy a travel package to visit in person. It's all marketing to convince him that she's "the one" and drain his wallet of serious cash. Assuming he meets a woman, brings her to the US, marries her and gets her a green card. Unless he's rich and handsome (if that's the case, why an agency?), he's got at best a few years before she's eligible for a permanent green card, after which she no longer needs him. If he wasn't smart enough to get a prenup, she'll walk away with a chunk of his money and/or assets. Another potential risk is that, if she's smart and ruthless enough, she'll know she can get a permanent green card without waiting by claiming abuse. For that to happen, she'll need to file police charges against him. That's worse for him because she still walks away but your friend will be left with a permanent criminal record. There are plenty of places in the US with a large number of E. European women (Brooklyn, Greater SF Bay Area, etc.), many of them new immigrants and either having green cards already or with the process in motion. At least if he dates one of them he won't need to worry about whether they're just using him to get to the US. I haven't used one of these agencies but I've seriously dated multiple Russian and Ukrainian women and was engaged to one. Some  of them told me sobering stories about matchmaking agency scenarios. And, as smart and sexy as these women are, unless you've got your shit together and are at the top of your game, you run the risk of being taken to the cleaners. I don't have as much experience with other E. European (Polish, etc.) women, although some of the most incredible nights I've ever spent was with a Hungarian babe in Cyprus. But I know enough to know that your friend needs to ask himself some serious questions before walking down that path.

You lost most truly intelligent people into your second sentence in. You are our distressed manic Whitman stuck in your own leaves of grass.  Spewing more words to feel alive.  Pretty sure you are more fond of your verbiage than most here. Keep it up. An empty wagon rattles the loudest. Thanks to our red flyer.😇

Great thoughts Steve! Better still would be to shelve the whole idea of the mail order bride even on the transactional level and stick to hobbying. The benefits of that outweigh the risks.