Look in the mirror. It's not about money; it has NEVER been about MONEY.

What happens when trust meets with betrayal?
Honesty with deceit?
Integrity with conniving?
Compassion with lies?

Inevitably someone loses something important.

One's first instinct is to feel sorry for the one who has gotten taken advantage of, who has lost out to a less-than-honest person, who has obivously given up something valuable while the other person has gained. 

Such has been my lot on many more than one occasion.  My daughters tell me I'm the most gullible person in the world. 

However, for those who would feel sorry for me, or pity me, please do not.

Consider this:

Of the two persons, which has really lost something of greater value? 

The money is valuable, yes.  Property, its usefulness and potential, is valuable, yes of course it is.  One's personal internal resources, spent worrying about and trying to help someone else, have an intrinsic value of their own.  So yes, there's a cost; sometimes caring about others is expensive.

On the other hand, there's much to be said for being able to look at one's reflection in the mirror every day for the rest of one's life, to look into the eyes of the person there, and know that person is NOT the one who took advantage of someone who was only trying to help.  That person in the mirror is NOT the one who deliberately and willfully told untruths to someone who believed them to be genuine statements of reality, and responded with compassion and a sincere desire to make the situation better. 

While I have 'lost' considerably often over the course of the years, and the consequential financial strain has been significant (not to mention being considered a fool of the highest degree), my losses are as nothing when compared to the losses I would have incurred had I betrayed my own trust; had I been deceitful to a trusting soul; had I connived and thrust my own, or anyone else's, integrity aside; had I shown no compassion even after knowing I had been lied to. 

So really, who has suffered the greater loss?

In the eyes of the world at large, and probably most particularly in the eyes of those who consider that they have gained at my expense and are no doubt chuckling at the gullibility which enabled them to do so, I am the loser. 

The eyes in the mirror, they see things differently.  The view I see in my mirror is infinitely more comfortable and comforting to me.  I can live with looking into those eyes every day for the rest of my life whereas I would have extreme difficulty looking into the alternative eyes had I chosen otherwise. 

Realistically speaking, I reckon those others aren't going to have any trouble whatsoever with their own mirrors, as they have the triumph of succeeding in what they set out to do to look at there.  Me, I wouldn't be able to look, but there you have it.  People's views differ. 

I cut my losses and get on with things as best I can - and as long as I can get along with my mirror it's all good.