Hi Faith,
I do understand how you feel about sites being free because there in beta stage but unfortunately all sites cost money to run and the only way to keep these site running is to charge people for the privilege to use them... Otherwise it's just a very expensive site that is consumed with the owners and staffs time.
It's unfortunate that your finding scammers and bullies on the site these days, let me tell you, as a site owner myself, this is something we all hate seeing - but again unfortunately as sites grow and many people use them, your always going to get some bad or mean people. The best thing to do is to always report the bad people and stay a good person yourself
I hope this helps?