Thanks to all for the feedback on my experience and for the moral support. The great thing about this form of dialogue is the stories take legs and run into a life of their own.

So I feel compelled to clarify that i did not intend to make any generalisations about "all men" or "all syrians". I hope my message was to describe my experience and to hear if any other women had similar experiences in Doha.

I concede that many relationships have a financial element to them. However in this case, in retrospect, i believe there was blatant deception and manipulation over a period of four months with deliberate intention basically to defraud.

It was clever and compelling and at the end, scarey!!

I acknowledge that this occurs to men as well as women and in many relationships there are varying degrees of financial power inequalities and pay offs.

But i am specifically interested in Western/Professional/Wealthy women being targeted by "wannabee gigolos" in Doha. I have heard chinese whispers as if it's a common occurence but interested in harder evidence. How widespread is this? What stories have you heard?

CLAIREBEAR