A holidaymaker was left outraged after forking out for a hotel room with a sea view only to realise she had fallen for a cheeky scam.
Influencer Clarisa Murgia had paid through the nose for the room because of the spectacular views it offered in the advert as part of a holiday of a lifetime across Europe.
But when she arrived at the hotel and was shown to her room, she quickly discovered her breathtaking balcony views showing blue seas, a sailing boat, and a mountain range were not what they seemed.
At first glance, Clarisa Murgia’s balcony seemed to offer stunning sea views
Instead, a giant poster of a seaside had been plastered to the wall of the building outside her window, and the entire sea view was one big con.
As she filmed the scene, Clarisa showed how from one angle the poster looked just like the real thing.
But as she pans to the side the footage shows it is just a huge picture on the other side of a dingy alley.
The real view is a crumbling white wall and rows of white barred windows.
She then shared a video of the massive scam on TikTok on May 18 in a clip titled ‘Expectation vs Reality’.
Argentine national Calrisa added: ‘Someone rented a B&B with a sea view. I feel scammed, guys.
‘No one has ever deceived me like this before, hahaha.’
The video quickly racked up more than 2.5million views and viewers were left in hysterics at 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 summarised in this video.’
But upon closer inspection, the ‘view’ comes from a giant poster hanging on the side of a building opposite the holidaymaker’s hotel room
The giant seaside image is seen plastered onto a crumbling wall, next to a barred window
The cheeky scam comes after holidaymakers slammed Booking.com last month, accusing the platform of failing to crack down on ‘appalling’ scammers who have tricked customers on its official app.
Posing as hotels who they have reserved rooms with, the scammers trick travellers into handing over their bank details by claiming they need to pay straight away or face losing their booking.
One family had to cancel their dream holiday to Thailand after they were scammed out of £465 by fraudsters and left unable to get a refund from Booking.com, the hotel or their bank.
Another victim had nearly £1,200 pilfered from her account by scammers after tricking her into thinking she was interacting with a hotel she had made a booking at.
Booking.com told MailOnline that its systems ‘have not been breached’ but some of their accommodation partners have been targeted by ‘very convincing and sophisticated phishing tactics’.
