roommates.com

Is paying roommate matching websites to look for Roommate worth it and safe ? Hi, I have tried putting up classified on craigslist and backpage, but most of the ads have attracted a lot "United Nations" and "World Bank" Employees who want my account number to "deposit money" or people who would not qualify for the apartment. I have registered on multiple roommate websites * http://www.roommates.com * http://www.roomiematch.com * http://easyroommate.com and keep getting matched up with potential roommates. The only problem is that I have to pay up to contact them and even start a conversation. I need to find a roommate but I don't know if I should trust these websites with my credit card details. And besides, even paying will still not guarantee me a roommate. My questions are: (1) Does the service really work or are they simply generating random matches just to lure me into paying them ? (2) Will I be risking anything by disclosing my credit card information to them ? (3) Has anyone used these successfully ? (4) Could I still be scammed by the potential matches and the website itself ?