Yes they do work sumtimes,one of my closest friends is sum1 i met in a chat room around nine years ago,we’ve neva met in person tho.
You do have to be very careful though,you have to really trust sum1 to call them your friend especially if u meet in sumwhere like this. There are a lot of fakes around who are just out to cause trouble but theres those decent few who like me come in here just to chat and meet new ppl and yes sumtimes u do make sum really good friends which is why i’m here lol