The Luxury Hotel Scam: A Romance Built on Lies

Money is a sophisticated subject because some people save it, others spend it wisely, and then there are those who end up wasting it. In this collection, we have found a series of short stories about people who lost their money in unpredicted and surprising ways.

Read the story below:

My boyfriend planned a romantic weekend at a luxury hotel. Everything felt perfect—until checkout. His card got declined, and he turned red with embarrassment. I smiled and paid for our stay.

As we were leaving, the receptionist discreetly pulled me aside and said, “Be careful, I’ve seen this guy do the same thing with other women. He comes here, his card gets declined, and they end up paying for everything. You’re being scammed!”

I chose not to believe her. We were still early in our relationship, and I trusted him completely—I had no reason not to. But over time, he started pulling similar tricks more often. I noticed he was making me pay for shopping trips and other expenses. The final straw came when he tried to steal my money by pressuring me to invest in a shady scheme.

I broke up with him. Yet the memory of that hotel stay still haunts me because it was the beginning of it all, and I wish I had listened to that girl.

Story 2:

A guy I worked with had a long-distance relationship with this girl he’d yet to meet in person. Then, suddenly, she told him she could fly out and meet him in a month. At the time, he lived in the basement of his folks’ place—not something he had disclosed earlier in their chats. In a panic, he got a new apartment.

Then he went to one of those furniture rental places and rented an entire apartment’s worth of furniture: a couch, tables, a dining set, a bedroom suite, a TV, etc. The whole apartment was filled with rental furniture, which, if you don’t know, gets expensive really quickly. So after all this, the girl finally showed up. They went to his apartment, and that’s when she told him that they should break up.

She didn’t want to do it over text and without meeting him at least once. She thought it wouldn’t be fair to him. She stayed one night and got on the plane the next day. Apparently, her stop in our city was just an extended layover as she was heading to Europe to tour with friends.

She slept in the rental bed, and he slept on the rental couch. The next day, he drove her to the airport in his rental car. I don’t know how many thousands he dropped for that one breakup date, but man… what a waste.