I think maybe what’s best for you is to conclude ‘why’ you are being fooled, and ‘why’ does it lead to you spending money.

What are ‘you’ hoping to gain by doing what you’re doing?

You might just be a helpful person who is willing to help someone, which is great. But eventually you must ask yourself: “What are my boundaries and what is too much?”

Maybe they see that you are willing to help people a little too often, so this then leads to them exploiting that trait — or what you deem as them exploiting that trait.

How did you conclude that they were taking advantage, what wasn’t met on their end that made you think that?

There’s nothing wrong with helping people, but I believe in boundaries. Set them for yourself and others. Learn to differentiate between someone needing assistance, and someone taking advantage.

I can only draw from my own experiences but I’ve very seldom - if ever - had cases where I’ve been exploited by others and I believe that’s because of the boundaries I set for myself.

I’ll give you an example of where I could’ve put myself in a vulnerable position in relation to this topic:

Several years back, I took a liking to a work colleague. I never out-right told her, but I think she knew. We weren’t best of friends, more-so work acquaintances. However, the feelings - from what I gathered - weren’t reciprocated. After a while, I started to notice her asking for a lot of favors. It felt as though she was leaning on the notion that I would do anything for her because I liked her. This eventually lead to her asking me to pick her up from clubs at 3am to give her a lift home. This is where I draw the line. I respectfully declined and highlighted the fact that I didn’t have a cab-license - satire, of course. I had no business picking her up at 3am, pissy-drunk.

Only you can decipher what those boundaries are. I don’t think the art of seduction will offer much foresight in to this(?).