14 Innocent Souls Who Learned a Lesson the Hard Way

The challenges of dishonesty and disloyalty we face throughout life mold us, often leaving us tougher and more insightful, even when it’s hard to see at first. Those featured in this piece went through startling betrayals, whether from trusted people or surprising circumstances. Rather than being held back, they pushed through and courageously shared their experiences on the internet.

• My neighbor called at 3 a.m. He yelled, “Wake up! There’s a man in your backyard!” Terrified, I ran to the back but found no one. The next day, my dad’s Rolex had vanished. Worried, my neighbor and I installed security cams in our homes.
  Months later, the police visited me. My blood ran cold when they revealed they had found my Rolex at my neighbor’s house. His son had been caught stealing from another home just a few blocks away.
  It turned out the father and son were in on it together. While the dad distracted me with his call, his son had already snuck inside, grabbed the watch from my room, and slipped out without me noticing. I was stunned. After that, I could never trust anyone again, especially since I had known this neighbor for over 25 years and had considered him a friend.

• My wife believed a stranger on Facebook could turn $100 into $1,000 with Bitcoin. They just needed money from our bank to do it. So she sent them the money, and poof, it was gone. © mrgoodnight2 / Reddit

• I married for love, but he married for a passport.
  The trouble was that while he waited for naturalization and his passport, we had three children together. Then he started to gaslight me. He almost succeeded, but I realized what he was up to. I ended up taking my children and fleeing. © VeeBeeEll / Reddit

• A man told me that he was a boss or something at a company in another city, but he lost his phone and wallet. So he asked me for $50. I can’t believe I just gave it to him that day.
  What’s even more ridiculous is that when I went to a lady selling balloons to exchange for change, she seemed to have noticed something was wrong and didn’t intend to give me change. However, I didn’t realize that she was actually helping me. © ElsaJones315 / Reddit

• We found a videographer for our wedding online who was a good deal—not too good, but on the cheap end. They were Vegas-based and hired out their contracts to local videographers. They were “certified lovely” by a website, and we would get more details on our specific videographer two weeks prior.
  We also got a discount for paying in full—$874 upfront. Well, the two-week mark goes by, nothing. One week, I email multiple times, try calling, nothing. I then go on Yelp to see what I can find, only to discover dozens of reviews of people saying no one showed up.
  Luckily, we were able to contest the charge with our credit card company and also found a super last-minute videographer thanks to our wonderful wedding planner. © NiftyQt816 / Reddit

• Someone called my grandmother last week, saying her granddaughter had been in an accident and the police had taken her to jail. A man pretended to be an attorney and asked my grandmother to send $4,000 for bail. Her “granddaughter” got on the phone too and started fake-crying. My grandmother was so upset and almost fell for it because she would do anything for her family. © BaconAndMegz / Reddit

• I was going to buy a moped off of someone on Craigslist. I paid $400 in cash, and the guy turned over the title and signed it over to me. We also met near his house, and I had a direct line to call him. I went to pick it up a few hours later with a larger vehicle, and the dude ghosted.
  I went to the cops with the guy’s address, personal phone number, and a camera capture from a gas station, and they said, “We will look into it and contact you.” The cops never did. © randomasesino2012 / Reddit

• A Facebook account of my old elementary school gym teacher was selling a MacBook Air “for free, but you pay for shipping,” so I was like, “Oh yes, let’s get a MacBook for $50.” I sent them the $50, but never got the laptop. © DevinDelta / Reddit

• My sister was sent an offer to become a makeup reviewer, but this company offered to send her money to buy stuff and then have her send back whatever she didn't spend after taking a portion of it for herself as payment. They sent the first $2,000 check.
  It was a scam that I caught before she did anything. The check was real, but the money wasn't.
  If she had cashed the check, it would have shown in her account, and she would have spent money and sent most of the rest to the company.
  Then, three days later, the bank would verify the check and remove the $2,000 from her account, meaning she would have sent her own money to the company and spent her own money on the makeup. And the bank can't do anything about it. © drflanigan / Reddit

• Last winter, I went to buy tickets for a hockey match. I couldn’t find any within my budget, so I tried looking for a reseller on the spot. After 20 long minutes, the match was about to start, and I was getting nervous because I didn’t want to waste my friend’s time.
  Thankfully, I finally found someone selling tickets. Proud of myself for negotiating them down to $50 each, we ran to the kiosk, ready to enjoy the game. Both tickets were fake. No refund. © Pepel***fer / Reddit

• I fell for a rental scheme in April. I worked and met with the guy for two weeks. He ended up renting me a house he had lost to the bank—that’s how it worked out so easily.
  The bank is across the states from where we are. I had keys, a lease, and everything. He took my money and disappeared. It turned into a full-on investigation, still pending. © GoldIndividual1606 / Reddit

• When I was about 15 (in 2005), I tried to sell my World of Warcraft account. The $350 I thought I would get seemed like a fortune at the time. I sold it using PayPal. His payment went through, and I gave him all the info.
  Two days later, the money was gone, and I contacted PayPal, but because it was a “virtual” item I sold, they wouldn’t do anything for me. The scammer had claimed that someone stole their account, and PayPal believed them with no proof or further investigation.
  I begged and pleaded with them for weeks, but eventually broke down and accepted that I had given up my account for nothing. I’d be able to deal with it fine now, but at 15, I was devastated beyond words. It definitely left an emotional scar, and I still get angry if I think about it now. © jsalinas90 / Reddit

• I got a message pretending to be from my postal service, saying my package had a problem getting sent out, and they needed me to pay a small fee and re-enter my details. It wasn’t my postal service but some random number from the UK. I clicked on their link and told them my bank details, name, and address. © d**bwithacapitalD / Reddit

• I was driving to downtown Dallas for a job interview and pulling into a parking lot, the kind where you pay at a kiosk—$10 or whatever for the day. A clearly homeless guy on a rental bike, wearing some kind of generic “work uniform” shirt (like what you’d see a mechanic wear), saw me pull in and came over to wave me into a spot, then biked over to my window. I rolled it down.
  “Good job parking,” he said. “Now you can pay me.” He held up a wad of parking tickets. “Uh huh,” I said, knowing this wasn’t legit at all but not really wanting to start an argument with a guy who had nothing to lose and would be outside around my car while I’d be trapped inside for an interview for a few hours. “How much?”
  He said $10, so I paid him, and he handed me a parking receipt and biked off in a hurry. It actually was a legit ticket for that lot, but it had expired the day before. I had to pay an extra $6 to park there, but whatever. © sertorius42 / Reddit

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