A Paris vacation turned sour for TikTok user Nathalia Duques (@nathaliaduques) after she lost money to a street scam at the Eiffel Tower, and the internet isn’t letting her live it down.
Featured VideoIn a tearful video that’s racked up over 11 million views, Duques admitted she fell for the classic Three-card (or ball) monte hustle, hoping to win back cash she’d lost the day before. Instead, she walked away empty-handed, and her plea for sympathy online was met with a flood of mockery.
In her video, the distraught TikTok user explained that she and her travel companion were charged a hefty fine on a Parisian train the day prior. They hoped to recoup their losses by winning the game. Duques said, “I was convinced it was so easy.” But she lost the game, and the scammer took off.
AdvertisementDuques captioned the post, “Sobbing because we got #scammed in #Paris!… Have lost so much money here. My Parisian ‘dream’ is becoming a nightmare. 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭.”
Social media users on TikTok and X denied Duques’ plea for sympathy.
“Is this your first time leaving the house?” wrote @mini.mico. “I’d be embarrassed to fall for a scam that’s in Tom & Jerry.”
Advertisement“I am sobbing because we just got scammed.”
Duques explained that she watched a game played by people with cups and a ball at the Eiffel Tower. After observing the game and even winning once, she assumed she could easily win. But she lost, and it cost her.
“Everybody tells you about being careful with the scams, but you just really don’t think it’s gonna happen to you,” Duques warned.
@nathaliaduques Sobbing because we got #scamed in #Paris ♬ original sound – nathaliaduquesAdvertisement
“Imagine being scammed by 3 cups in 2025.”
“The moment you said you ended up ‘playing this game,’ I was like… I can’t feel sorry for you gurl…”
Advertisement“‘We played a game in the streets of Paris,’ ‘I cant believe we got scammed’ be soooo fr 😭😭.”
The internet shows no mercy
@PicturesFoIder shared Duques’ video on X, where it has 8.25 thousand views. X users commenting on the Aug 13, 2025, post echoed the poster’s sentiment: “I can’t comprehend how people, full grown adults fall for this 😭😭.” Commenters mentioned the scam is “the oldest trick in the book,” and they can’t believe tourists are still falling for it.
AdvertisementSome commenters took issue with how Duques’ seemed to evade accountability by emphasizing the scammers’ nationality.
“You got scammed because you’re an idiot. Paris and Italians have nothing to do with it.”
A rare defender of Duques clapped back at the insensitive X poster, “Well f**k man, not everyone knows as much as you. I’ve been scammed and that sh*t is brutal. You can’t even get on dating app anymore. I can’t comprehend as a full-grown adult that you can’t comprehend how other people can get scammed.”
AdvertisementAnother sympathetic commenter offered a creative reframe, “No sis its actually magic. You just tipped him.”
What is three-card monte? The “game” you can’t win
There are three cups and one ball. The scammer places the ball under a cup and quickly shuffles the cups. The player, or mark, is meant to point to the cup that contains the ball, but there is no ball, because the scammer used sleight of hand to remove it.
AdvertisementPeople put down money to play Three-card monte and are promised they’ll walk away with double or triple their bet if they win. Losers get nothing. A false win is part of the scam, as are planted players walking away from the scene with “winnings.”
After returning from a trip to Paris, where they saw tourists falling for the scam, u/Ambitious-Note6196 shared a PSA about the “game” on a Nov 2024 thread posted to the r/ParisTravelGuide subreddit.
They wrote, “Three Card/Ball Monte is a scam, not a game… You can’t be smart enough or lucky enough or fast enough to win. You cannot win.”
Three Card/Ball Monte is a scam, not a game.Advertisement
byu/Ambitious-Note6196 inParisTravelGuide
@nathaliaduques did not immediately reply to the Daily Dot’s request for comment via email.
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