I was approached by tjhis one too but
Posted By: Be Very Careful on 2009-09-24
In Reply to: I was contacted one time by who - sm
I don't want to seem heartless (I'm a huge sucker for the homeless and have other charities I contribute to) BUT I feel the need to share this story as just a cautionary tale.
I belong to another forum, not MT related although there are 3-4 MTs that are members. There was an older woman who joined the forum and immediately began befriending people. One day she started a thread announcing she had cancer of the spine, how she did not know what she was going to do, did not have insurance and could not possibly even hope to get any treatment because she had no money, none of her family members cared about her, and we on the forum were closer to her than her own family, etc.
Well, after this thread she started dragged on for quite a few days, people began innocently asking questions. She posted a picture of her family (all of her brothers had been supposedly killed in the gulf far); pictures of her after her devastating automobile accident that had caused the spinal injury that 'caused' her cancer, a picture of her at age 21 (gosh, who knew they had digital cameras and Monroe piercings in 1967!!!), and finally someone asked where in her spine the cancer was located.
Her reply? The L12 vertebral body.
Yes, you read that correctly; L12.
I had been highly suspicious of her story for many reasons. There are a number of people in that forum who really should form their own PI firm, that's how good their research skills are. I'm surprised more of them aren't MTs.
The picture of her family was one of the first ones that popped up on a popular site for housing one's photos with the caption My brothers; when traced, it did not belong to this woman. These were not her family members. It was the first picture she could lay her hands on to post and claim as her killed-in-the-war brothers.
The picture of her at age 21? Found on a site popular by gothic people and while the girl was 21, the picture was taken in 2007, not in 1967 as the poster claimed.
This woman even went so far as to go to a medical website, copy and paste images froman MRI of the spine of someone who really did have cancer, and posted this as her MRI. Again, the photo was traced back to the medical site and was not her.
In the backdrop of all of this, multiple members of the forum felt so sorry for this woman that they sent her money. A LOT of money. After all, these wonderful people thought she needed surgery and even though they didn't know her in real life, their compassion compelled them to try to help.
Well, the L12 comment was all it took for me to confide in the owner/administrator my suspicions. It turned out he too had begun to get suspicous and was doing his own investigation into this person. He was an attorney by trade; the website is his hobby.
He busted her out right in the thread; she crawled away in shame for 6 months, then reappeared another under screen name. A turn of a phrase made the owner/administrator suspicious, he checked the IP and, sure enough, it was the leech back for more.
This is the internet, folks. Anyone can be anything. While our hearts are in the right places, not everyone else's is. People are bilked and duped daily on here.
I don't want to judge, and OP, hats off to you for wanting to help but PLEASE BE JUDICIOUS. Perhaps you've not heard from that person again because she found another 'fish' who offered the bait first. Perhaps she moved on to a more receptive victim. Or perhaps she was on the level and really did need assistance but, in the end, she is a total stranger and none of us (except her) know the true nature of her situation.
While your desire to help warmed my heart, it also reminded me so closely of the story of the poster at the other forum. She had made quite a bit of money for herself with her 'cancer' stories. You would think with all of her knowledge in jerking MRI images, etc., that she would have at least learned there is no L12 vertebral body.
Sorry this was so long, but I really felt compelled to warn some of you who obviously have very large hearts and work very hard for your money that the internret is full of people, all strangers, and many of those strangers know if they can get to your heart, they can also get to your checkbook.
BE CAREFUL.
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