KOKH out of Oklahoma City is reporting that an upstanding citizen named Alodis Reynolds Jr. is in a bit of trouble for allegedly pretending to have cancer and bilking as much as $60,000 out of kind-hearted people who wanted to help him.
$10,641 of that was raised through a GoFundMe campaign set up by Reynolds’ then-fiancée; authorities say she was told in February of 2015 that her future husband was battling leukemia. In December 2016, Reynolds confessed to a friend he never had cancer, a fact which made its way to his fiancée, who then broke up with the [alleged] bum and took what she learned to authorities.
He is charged with two counts of obtaining money by false pretenses and an additional count of violation of the computer crimes act.
In a statement sent to KOKH, a GoFundMe spokesperson provided the usual boilerplate it sends in all of these “rare” instances:
Campaigns with misuse make up less than one tenth of one percent of all campaigns. With that said, there are unfortunate and rare instances where people create campaigns with the intention to take advantage of others’ generosity. In the small handful of cases where misuse occurs, GoFundMe takes action to resolve the issue. In this case, the user has been banned and GoFundMe will honor refunds for donors. It’s important to remember that the platform is backed by the GoFundMe Guarantee, which means donors are fully protected.
It seems in this case, it was actually authorities who did all the legwork, but good to know this guy is now banned from the platform after raising over $10k for his fake illness. I feel safer already.
Reynolds’ attorney told KFOR in an emailed statement that their office has “not yet been provided with the charging information or police reports and therefore cannot comment at this time” and asked the community to “remember that Mr. Reynolds is innocent until proven guilty.”