On February 19, someone using the handle Corey_Baker08 spammed up the Democratic Underground forums claiming to be Corey’s brother Aaron, that his brother has been a longtime DU’er since the age of 14 and OH THE HORROR Corey has been in an accident. His history is archived here.
One of several threads this person started on DU reads (sorry, TL;DR bigtime):
WHILE A POST LIKE THIS ALREADY EXIST I WANTED TO TAKE THE TIME TO POST IN DETAIL ABOUT MY BROTHER COREY, WHO SINCE THE AGE OF 14 HAS BEEN AN AVID ‘DU’ JUNKIE, ALWAYS REFERRING TO YOU AS HIS “DU FAMILY”
Corey Baker is a deeply loved brother, uncle, friend and respected member of the community. Anyone who knows him understands his passion for giving back to those in need. Corey is a proud Democrat and a dedicated member of the website DemocraticUnderground.com since the age of 14. In addition to his support of the Democratic Party, he has a dedicated career as a Security Officer. Corey is also attending college pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice. Mr Baker also spends his free time volunteering for the Habitat 4 Humanity, volunteering at homeless shelters and volunteering at our local VA Medical Center by providing prayers and counseling to our nations Veterans. He is very active in politics beginning at the age of 10 years old when he witnessed the theft of the 2000 Election. From that point on Corey became hooked on politics and donated his allowances to the Democratic Party & Democratic candidates. Corey grew up fast on 9/11 as a 7th grade student. I remember specifically him telling me that fateful day that “elections have consequences, and this, he said is a consequence of the 2000 election”
From that day on he was extremely active in politics. He was the youngest member in the history of our county Democratic party. He was strongly opposed to the Iraq war at a time especially in our school when it was extremely unpopular to be against the war, not to mention being a openly proud Liberal Democrat. As the 2004 election approached & during the Democratic primary, Corey absolutely fell in love with John Kerry. I’ve never saw my brother more passionate about anyone or any cause than electing John Kerry President! I remember fondly the day my father took him to a John Kerry campaign rally, he still has the newspaper article hanging above his bed, October 19, 2004 Dayton Daily News paper. He talks about it frequently he was only feet from his hero John Kerry & John Glenn was there. John Kerry is his hero & his idol to this day, just as my brother is my hero because he is a fighter, just like John Kerry…?
On Saturday, February 18, 2017 around 11:45 pm Corey was on his home from his Security job in Dayton, Ohio, when he was involved in a serious car accident.
Initial reports indicate that Corey was at a stop light with a green arrow and proceeded to turn left when he was t-boned by a reckless driver who failed to stop for the red light.
Corey is currently in critical but stable condition after being taken by Careflight helicopter to a level 1 trauma center. His injuries include: a fractured skull, fractured hip, bleeding in the brain (update: the bleeding in the brain has stopped), loss of mobility in his left arm (update: mobility is there, but limited), among other serious issues.
As you can imagine this accident has and will continue to have a serious detrimental impact on the finances of the entire Baker family. His parents are going to be missing work to be with him even though they have no savings and so many utility bills coming up for disconnect this week as well as rent coming up to be paid Saturday & it’s unclear when or if Corey will be able to ever return ttowork which his income helped pay for his College.
So my friends, perfect strangers, whomever you may be I have turned to this site as a last resort. Due to this unforeseen accident my family is on the brink of losing everything!!! So from the bottom of my heart I ask that you contribute any amount you can afford to help us in this time of great need…
THANK YOU & GOD BLESS
************SAD UPDATE***************
UNFORTUNATELY COREY’S CONDITION HAS WORSENED… ? ? ?
It is with a heavy heart that I announce to you that my brother Corey’s condition has taken a turn for the worse.
He was transported to University Hospital in Columbus, Ohio which has in itself caused extreme financial peril for our family. Corey was being treated at a hospital in Dayton, Ohio which was only 45 minutes from his family home.
Now that he is being treated at University Hospital in Columbus financially we are devastated. Columbus is about 3 hours from our home and we cannot afford to stay in a hotel nor can we afford the 6 hour commute (there & back).
My family especially my parents are devastated to say the least. They live paycheck to paycheck and want to be by his side 24/7 but financial limitations are about to prevent that.
Please if you haven’t contributed yet every dollar counts. My parents & my family are scared to death that if the worst were to happen to Corey we would not be able to be there to say goodbye do to financial restrictions…
The Baker family would like to thank all that have contributed & sent good vibes to our family during this the time of such heartache in our family.
Please spread the word to those who are financially able to contribute, your help is needed now more than ever.
–Aaron B
Read more: https://www.gofundme.com/27-year-old-injured-in-car-accident
OUR FAMILY IS IN FINANCIAL PERIL AND UNFORTUNATELY CANNOT AFFORD THE 6 HOUR COMMUTE (there & back) NOR CAN WE AFFORD TO GET A HOTEL ROOM & COREY NEEDS US BY HIS SIDE NOW MORE THAN EVER!
ALSO WE CANNOT FATHOM THE THOUGHT OF NOT BEING BY HIS SIDE SHOULD THE WORSE HAPPEN ? ? ?
SO PLEASE IF YOU HAVE THE ABILITY TO FINANCIALLY CONTRIBUTE ANY AMOUNT IT WOULD HELP COREY & OUR FAMILY MORE THAN YOU COULD IMAGINE:
https://www.gofundme.com/27-year-old-injured-in-car-accident
FURTHERMORE MY NAME IS AARON, COREY’S OLDER BROTHER. I AM NOT A DU MEMBER & I’M NOT FAMILIAR WITH THE RULES AS TO WHAT CAN BE POSTED WHERE SO I APOLOGIZE IN ADVANCE IF THIS POST BREAKS THE RULES, JUST LIKE ANYONE IN MY SHOES I WOULD DO ANYTHING TO HELP MY BROTHER OUT & AT THIS POINT THAT MEANS RAISING AWARENESS TO HIS SITUATION IN HOPES OF RAISING MONEY.
PLEASE KNOW MY BROTHER SPEAKS OF DU WARMLY & I CAN SEE WHY, YOU GUYS ARE LIKE FAMILY…
THANK YOU ALL
https://www.gofundme.com/27-year-old-injured-in-car-accident
Dear God, learn to fucking summarize your shit, scammer. I remember when I wrote poetry for my 9th grade English class, like straight up poured my heart out while sitting in my room listening to Alice In Chains (shut up I’m old now) and my English teacher who was an absolute asshole to me because he knew I was talented but also a bloviating teenage whiner would cross half of it out with red pen and scrawl “GET TO THE POINT, WHY DID YOU INCLUDE THIS NONSENSE” over half of it. Bless him, he was the greatest linguistic influence in my life. Fun fact: my grandmother, a hairdresser, beauty salon owner and cosmetician did his mother’s hair and makeup at her funeral. See, there I go again, mouth vomiting irrelevant bullshit.
Alright, back to the point. So, Democratic Underground being what it is, they rushed to help this guy out. I mean, who would question it? Who makes this shit up? The account dated back to 2004 and posted over 2000 times. That’s dedication. I can’t even remember my Yahoo email from 2004.
But then it unraveled. The amateur investigators at DU couldn’t find a news story about this accident, and when they asked “Aaron” to prove who he was they were met with radio silence.
A post on one of this scammer’s threads reads (again, TL;DR I am so sorry but I don’t feel like TLDRing it):
Whoever was posting as Corey_Baker08 has self-deleted their posts on DU/GD upon a member finding that Corey Baker was posting casually on Facebook with no mention of any accident or emergency while he was supposedly near death in the ICU.
After reading this post, please see JenniferJunipers post here as as starting point, and other posts/info on the thread. http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=8688991
Here is the link to report this gofundme https://www.gofundme.com/contact?t=donation_page_report&url=27-year-old-injured-in-car-accident I hope you will take a moment to file a report with them, as many kind DU’ers, some on fixed incomes who could not afford to give, did so because we are a warm community with tender hearts for those in need. You do not need to make a contribution to file a concern. If you inform gofundme in your report that you were intentionally misled by the person soliciting funds for this gofundme account, it may help facilitate the return of funds to the kind people who gave, as that is a specific part of the “giving guarantee” language.
Posts on the Corey Baker Facebook page were suddenly made private after JJ’s inquiry as to why it had been posted in very recently while the poster was supposedly in intensive care, near death. The posts were of a casual nature, ordinary chat/posting to friends with no mention of an accident, hospitalization, helicopter airlift, family emergency, etc. The OP has acknowledged that the FB page and the gofundme recipient are one and the same but denied the facebook posts, after making them private.
Despite claiming to be the brother of the poster and unfamiliar with DU formats, rules and with how to post on DU; this OP has posted this identical thread in many locations on DU including Editorials & Articles, The Lounge, a locked thread on LBN where they formatted it to look like it was in compliance with LBN rules, with a “SOURCE: DAYTON DAILY NEWS” title, General Discussion, and Community Help? Even I didn’t realize that forum existed.
The poster has been asked about the Facebook posts, how “Corey” was casually posting on his FB while near death but will not answer.
The poster has been asked for a link to their own Facebook but will not answer.
The poster has been asked what day, time and location this accident supposedly happened but will not answer.
The poster has been asked what hospital the gofundme recipient is in, but will not answer.
The poster has been asked; why did, coincidentally, the posts to the Facebook suddenly become private upon being discovered by a member here? There has been no answer.
The poster has been asked why are there no media accounts of his accident, but will not answer.
The poster has been asked how they knew to blanket the whole DU community with this post, and how they knew where and how to find the right areas to post it if they were unfamiliar to DU, but will not answer.
The poster has been asked why they have provided no accountability of any kind, but will not answer.
“Wow! Amazing how some people take advantage of people,” read one post. “There are people who will take advantage of anyone or anything that is in trouble…I am not surprised. But it hit us here at DU..it was aimed at us.” That it was.
The GoFundMe campaign still exists, it’s just “closed,” which is GoFundMe’s way of hiding campaign descriptions. It still shows $847 raised. Many DU users requested refunds and were granted them, speaking highly of GoFundMe’s quick response to their requests. And about the rest…?
Where is that $847, GoFundMe?
