A college student invests $5,000 of friends' money in a fake boat party that never happens. Years later, the same scammer resurfaces in Miami and offers a penthouse stay as repayment, leaving the creator unsure whether he's being helped or conned again.
I call the marina where the boat is and the guy's like, "Yeah, we don't have that boat here." And I'm like— I found out I got completely scammed. The guy stopped answering me. And now I owed people money. Listening. We were in college, you know, we were throwing events and someone approached us about a boat party and he's like, "Yeah, you know, if you invest $5,000 you'll make back $10,000 or $15,000." You know, I'm in college, I don't have any money. I don't even remember how much I lived on. It was like almost nothing. And I raised money from my friends that had like a couple thousand dollars, and we put together the $5,000. And then when I was supposed to be in Miami on Memorial Day, and I flew out to go to the boat party, and the guy who was throwing it wasn't answering my calls. And then I'm like, I call the marina where the boat is, and the guy's like, yeah, we don't, we don't have that boat here. I'm like, I found out I got completely scammed. The guy stopped answering me, and now I owed people money, and I had to freaking hustle my way to paying them back. Funny enough though, the guy who scammed me has continued to try to be my friend to this day. He did pay me back in a different way. It was a couple years later when I lived in Miami. He gave me a penthouse for a year, so it worked out. Quite stressful in the beginning.
How to track independant creators' performance for the products you're selling
