Florida woman posts engagement photos with Hinge match. Then she gets a DM from a stranger: ‘Do not marry that man’

Red flags aren't always obvious the moment you meet your prospective special someone. Sometimes, the warning signs only make sense in hindsight.

One woman relayed a relationship horror story about that precise kind of jumpscare.

‘But he was really, really hot'

Indianapolis attorney Salma Qaddourah (@salmayourlawyerbigsis) shared a story sent to her via DM by a Florida woman. Qaddourah's video has since accumulated more than 238,000 views.

“So this girl was telling me about how she lived in Florida, started talking to this guy on Hinge, right?” Qaddourah said. “He had just moved there … and he was a ‘free spirit,' okay? Take that what you will, meaning, he worked a lot of odd jobs.”

Qaddourah said the man was “trying to be an entrepreneur.” Though he “did have a college degree,” he “just didn't really want to use it,” so he worked as a swimming instructor and airport worker in the short term. 

“But he was really, really hot and … he had all these business ideas that he was trying to get off the ground,” Qaddourah said. “Mind you, she was like really, really successful, had a job that paid six figures.”

Qaddourah said there were no obvious red flags early on. The man never asked the Florida woman for anything at first. Over time, she began offering to cover dinners and other costs, and he grew “more comfortable” letting her. He would apparently tell her he wanted to take her to do expensive things but couldn't yet afford to. So, the woman “would buy sports tickets or concert tickets … and just invite him as, like, a good gesture.”

Meeting the family: ‘Weird vibe'

“She then started introducing him to like friends and family,” Qaddourah said. “And they all just got this weird vibe from him. Something was not adding up, but they couldn't quite pinpoint it … There's like, no other red flags other than the fact that he's not super financially secure.”

Around the six-month mark, Qaddourah said the man proposed with what he described as an “heirloom ring.” He said it belonged to his grandmother, who'd supposedly raised him. The man pushed for a small, “intimate” wedding rather than a big one, citing his business ambitions. He also insisted on splitting the costs 50-50.

According to Qaddourah, the Florida woman agreed to these terms, but still hired an expensive photographer without telling him. When the photographer later shared the resulting engagement photos for her own portfolio, they went viral.

And that's when the tables turned.

@salmayourlawyerbigsis I love when people DM me their stories to share! I am always honored when you choose me. Also I know a lot of you have sent me DMs. If I have not responded, I am still working through them. I also know I have said I would share some of your other stories and I will – it just may take a bit and I will confirm before I post! #divorceadvice #breakupstory #storytime #redflags #breakup ♬ original sound – Salma

‘Look, I have receipts. The same man you're marrying also proposed to me'

Another woman reached out to the photographer, insisting she urgently needed to speak with the bride-to-be. The photographer connected her to the bride-to-be, who was then told, “You cannot marry this man.”

“The same man you're marrying also proposed to me a couple years ago, and everything he told me was a lie,” the other woman told the Florida bride-to-be. “I ended up giving him this business loan, and I have sued him.” 

Qaddourah said that he proposed to her with an “heirloom ring” from his grandmother. 

“And these rings were really just rings that he thrifted or somehow got for cheap,” Qaddourah said. “His parents were, in fact, still living. His grandma did not raise him … Before the wedding, a lot of times he would start asking them for business loan money to help him with his entrepreneurship. He was very tactical about how he was gold digging.”

The Florida woman confronted her fiancé, who “switched up on her so quick, started calling her every name under the sun.” They are no longer engaged. 

Is there a name for this kind of scam, and how common is it?

What Qaddourah described falls under what the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) classifies as romance scams, or “confidence fraud.” Romance scams are all about gaining a victim's trust and affection specifically to extract money, often escalating toward a proposal of marriage before the financial requests begin.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported that romance scams cost nearly 70,000 people a combined $1.3 billion in 2022 alone.

“Topping the list was scammers telling consumers that they needed money because a friend or relative was sick, hurt or in jail – a lie consumers reported hearing in nearly a quarter of reports,” the FTC wrote. “The next most commonly reported lie was that the scammer had great investment advice to share with their newfound romantic interest, followed closely by the lie that the scammer was in the military, or that they needed help making some sort of important delivery.”

The woman in Qaddourah's story had a unique situation, in that she actually met her scammer in person. Most romance scams tend to stay online, in dating and messaging apps. However, one such scam has gone IRL before.

CBC News reported, just weeks ago, that Ontario police charged a man named Malandrino with defrauding at least five women out of more than $1 million combined. He would meet them in person through his dog-training business and a local gym, rather than online.

Buzz News has reached out to Qaddourah via TikTok comment.