A recent article in an online advice column, posed this question. The answer of course, is to just say no. Realistically, this woman needs to file bankruptcy, but if she was not eligible or able for whatever reason, the general rule is that old bad debt settles for $0.50 on the dollar. Not five cents. And in my experience, some debts, particularly medical bills, will barely give a discount at all.
And I can pretty much bet that even if this woman’s assumption and ruse was correct, the guy probably wouldn’t be her boyfriend much longer anyway.