A tourist was outraged after shelling out for a hotel room with sea views and realized she had fallen for a blatant scam.
The influencer Clarisa Murgia had paid a ton for the room because of the spectacular views it offered in the ad as part of an unforgettable vacation in Europe.
But when she arrived at the hotel and was shown to her room, she quickly discovered that the stunning balcony views showing the blue sea, a sailboat and a mountain range were not what they seemed.
Instead, a giant beach sign had been taped to the wall of the building outside his window, and the entire ocean view was a huge rip-off.
While filming the scene, Clarisa showed how from one angle the sign looked real.
At first glance, Clarisa Murgia’s balcony seemed to offer stunning views of the sea.
But as he moves to the side, the footage shows that it’s just a huge image on the other side of a dingy alley.
The actual view is a crumbling white wall and rows of white barred windows.
He then shared a video of the massive scam on TikTok on May 18 in a clip titled ‘Expectation vs Reality.’
Calrisa, an Argentine national, added: ‘Someone rented a B&B with sea views. I feel cheated, guys.
‘No one has ever fooled me like this before, hahaha.’
The video quickly racked up over 2.5 million views and viewers were left in hysterics over her unfortunate situation.
One TikTok user said: “That’s why I always look at the location so I don’t fail.”
Another commented: ‘Not even my ex lied that much.’
And a third added: ‘My luck in life is summed up in this video.’
But upon closer inspection, the “sight” comes from a giant sign hanging on the side of a building across from the tourist’s hotel room.
The giant image of the beach is seen attached to a ruined wall, next to a barred window.
The brazen scam comes after tourists slammed Booking.com last month, accusing the platform of failing to crack down on “appalling” scammers who have duped customers on its official app.
Posing as hotels they have booked rooms with, scammers trick travelers into handing over their banking details by claiming they must pay immediately or risk losing their reservation.
A family had to cancel their dream holiday to Thailand after scammers scammed them out of £465 and were unable to get a refund from Booking.com, the hotel or their bank.
Another victim had almost £1,200 stolen from her account by scammers after tricking her into believing she was interacting with a hotel she had made a booking at.
Booking.com told MailOnline that its systems “have not been breached” but that some of its accommodation partners have been subject to “very convincing and sophisticated phishing tactics.”
