Bullshit. Have you ever online dated? Since my divorce in 2005 I have met more women online (okcupid, match, craigslist dating, bumble, tinder) than you would probably believe. There were a small few matches on bumble or tinder who claimed to be prostitutes in early messages (they probably weren’t even that and it was a scam where they asked for a deposit or something) but effectively all of them were actual local women looking to date or hook up.
The Philippines thing though, very likely to be some kind of scam. There may be some legit dating services out there to connect Americans with foreign women but I wouldn’t trust any of them.
Sort of related, one of my favorite all time SDMB threads is linked below. It’s long but you only need to read the posts by the OP to enjoy it.