What was the worst you were ever ripped off by an individual selling something?

My poor daughter. She enrolled in college in Jan. She really needed a computer, but she wasn’t going to get any of her student aid until this month and she’s just been running on broke until last Friday.
Well, she was dating a guy, we’ll call him Joe, up until recently, and Joe’s father said they had a brand new computer that they bought last year. Dad said that Joe’s brother had downloaded a bunch of porn in the first two days that really messed the computer up, so they stuck it in a closet and that’s where it’s been since. He told my daughter that she could get it “cleaned out” and it would run like new and he was only asking $250.
Last Friday she got her aid and she excitedly picked up her new computer and ran it to a geek she knew that does computer work.
Well, one thing led to another and so far she has $400 sunk into it, including the purchase price.
When things started adding up she asked Joe’s dad about it and he backpedaled and specified that he’d bought it “new” from someone else, so it was actually used when he bought it. She asked for her money back. He said “No.”

As a kid you expect to be able to trust adults, someone who is your father’s age… especially one who is kinda, sorta family.

It just breaks my heart. She feels like such a fool, but I told her it’s just a learning experience and it’ll come out alright (I hope.) She just needs to work with businesses from now on.

I know I’ve been suckered in the past, but nothing comes to mind right now. Do you have any stories where you trusted someone and they took advantage of you?

(PS. As of right now the computer is cleaned out, but it is very, very slow, like 15 minutes to load a page. She’s going to drop $80 on more mem so..hopefully everything WILL be alright after that…)