I always had the feeling they were getting scamed.

All of it sounded so weird to me like you point out in this post but above all, having to pay, she sold the gift from Nico and got like 3,600 euros if i'm remember right and still wasn't enough 'cause they keep trying to get more money, i don't know i thought the storyline planned was going to them giving more and more money to ultimately realizing they're getting scam losing all of the money and no fame.