These stories are getting really old, and yet here they are popping up almost weekly.
WBIR reports on the woman in Tennessee being accused of faking terminal cancer to bilk her community and the internet at large out of thousands:
A Sweetwater woman claimed she had pancreatic cancer and only a few weeks left to live.
As she and her family pleaded for prayers and begged for help, the small community of roughly 5,600 responded.
They held a chili benefit at a nearby church, created a Facebook prayer group, sold T-shirts, conducted private fundraisers, launched a GoFundMe campaign, and even treated her to a day at the local salon.
All this happened late last year and into January.
But a 10News investigation found that 20-year-old Ashley Lively only pretended to have cancer and now authorities in several counties are expected to press charges.
“She’s a young girl who made a bad mistake,” said Monroe County detective Mack Williams. “I have to find out where all the money came from. She admitted to me that she lied about it.”
Not only did she lie about it, she made a big production of it. It appears her husband has since hidden himself from Facebook but unfortunately for young Ashley, her timeline is still wide open for all the world to see.
And my personal favorite:
I know, right! I bet the local sheriff’s department that shared news about her sham chili benefit feels the same exact way right now.
Anyway, WBIR tells us that GoFundMe removed the fundraiser and is looking into refunding donors:
Some $1,425 was raised to the campaign set up in Ashley Lively’s name.
But, GoFundMe spokesman Bobby Whithorne said the company shut down the account.
“There are unfortunate instances where people create campaigns with the intention to take advantage of others’ generosity,” he told WBIR. “In the rare cases where fraud occurs, GoFundMe takes swift action to resolve the issue. In this case, a fraud accusation was made and the campaign organizer didn’t provide the appropriate information to resolve the issue. Therefore, funds have been placed on hold and if our team cannot work to resolve this issue with the campaign organizer directly, funds will be refunded to the donors.”
We were unable to find a cached copy of the fundraiser.
Listen and listen good, GoFundMe scammers: I realize shit happens and some of you are probably desperate to make a few bucks but faking cancer is a really, really, really bad way to do it. Now this young lady can’t show her face around her small town, is facing possible criminal charges, and will carry around the weight of her errors for the rest of her life. Over what? $10,000? It is so not worth it. Get a job. Or shit, get a hobby. Go look at some of the crap people are selling on Etsy FFS. But fake cancer? Ugh no.