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A Go Fund Me Scam

allen griggsallen griggs Member Posts: 35,706 ✭✭✭✭

Several weeks ago someone posted a hard luck story about someone, it was a female supposed military veteran, they supposedly had a bad medical condition and wanted contributions to the Go Fund Me.

Several forum members including Rocky expressed skepticism.


Here is a Go Fund Me scam from England. Nutcake female got sent to jail when she got caught:

New York Post

NEWS

Bride who faked cancer to raise $11K for ‘dream’ wedding gets 5 months in prison

By Lee Brown

December 23, 2020 | 2:23pm | Updated



13


Toni Standen (right)

Mirrorpix / MEGA

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SCAMS

A British bride who faked terminal cancer to raise $11,000 for her dream wedding was sentenced this week to five months in prison.

“Every right-thinking member of society would be appalled by your behavior,” District Judge Nicholas Sanders told Toni Standen, 29, as he sentenced her Tuesday in Chester Magistrates’ Court, according to the Sun.

“Thankfully it’s not often this court has to sentence someone who has shown such a degree of shamelessness, such greed, or such a betrayal of friendship as you did to your friends and the wider community,” the judge told her.

“Such was your lack of shame that you kept taking money from them over many, many months,” he told Standen, who was also ordered to pay back a local businessman almost $2,700 that he had donated.

Starting in July 2017, Standen had claimed to have just two months to live, saying of her pretend cancer, “It’s gone to my brain, my bones — it’s everywhere.”

She shaved her head, updated friends with such “clarity and detail” that they didn’t doubt her, and even gave interviews to two newspapers, according to the Liverpool Echo, one of the papers she tricked.

Friends launched a GoFundMe page to give the couple “a wedding they deserve,” with Standen accepting more than $11,000 for her big day as well as a honeymoon in Turkey, Chester Magistrates’ Court was told.

Her “unassuming” 52-year-old husband, James, was among those duped when they finally wed last summer at a Catholic church in Widnes, according to the Sun.

Pals finally became suspicious this year after Standen inexplicably defied her “condition” to travel around Europe, and then claimed to have COVID-19, according to the Sun.

Comments

  • Ricci.WrightRicci.Wright Member Posts: 5,127 ✭✭✭✭

    Which one is the girl???

  • asphalt cowboyasphalt cowboy Member Posts: 8,904 ✭✭✭✭

    "Her “unassuming” 52-year-old husband, James, was among those duped when they finally wed last summer at a Catholic church in Widnes, according to the Sun."


    Were I in his position, I'd kick her * to the curb. Got no room in my life for anybody like that.

  • Sam06Sam06 Member Posts: 21,244 ✭✭✭✭
    edited December 2020

    I don't give money to any gofund me crap and I am really am hesitant to give money to humans in any situation. I would rather give money to help animals like dogs rescued from China and other barbaric places. Animals cannot help themselves but humans can and most humans get into the situation they are in due to life choices they made.


    Flame on


    If you are on a street corner with a sign begging for money you made many choices to get there and none of them were good.


    My only exception is kids with cancer or other problems but grown up humans can pretty much f**k of IMO.

    RLTW

  • SW0320SW0320 Member Posts: 2,552 ✭✭✭✭

    No flaming on from me I agree with you 100%.

    Especially about giving to kids with cancer. I helped a friend with something recently and he insisted he had to pay me. I said no and as he as done before when I helped he made a contribution to St. Jude’s in my name which suited me fine.

  • JimmyJackJimmyJack Member Posts: 5,519 ✭✭✭✭

    We could take up a collection and send her a gun?

  • Locust ForkLocust Fork Member Posts: 32,088 ✭✭✭✭

    The only time I've given to a go fund me was for a small band who had a trailer with their equipment stolen. It wasn't a fortune for any single member, but it added up to enough to be too much for any of them to replace everything so they could continue to play the small venues they did.


    The people that I've seen fundraisers for that were LARGE hardships usually have bank accounts that you can directly give to....so they aren't taking fees out and it means more help goes where it is needed. We had a local special needs child that needed help with a service dog. The community did several fun raisers for her.....selling seafood plates, sponsoring marathons, go fund me accounts and a couple different banks set up accounts that people could give to. It took about 6 months and they had the money for her dog. Its nice to see people coming together to help people.

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  • Mr. PerfectMr. Perfect Member, Moderator Posts: 66,437 ******
    Some will die in hot pursuit
    And fiery auto crashes
    Some will die in hot pursuit
    While sifting through my ashes
    Some will fall in love with life
    And drink it from a fountain
    That is pouring like an avalanche
    Coming down the mountain
  • allen griggsallen griggs Member Posts: 35,706 ✭✭✭✭

    Her husband had no idea? Well, he knew all about the Go Fund Me when he went on his ten thousand dollar vacation.

    I didn't just fall off a turnip truck. He had to know what a con man his fiancee was.

    He played dumb when the British Attorney General started filing papers. "Yes, mate, I really am that stupid. Please don't send me to gaol."

  • chollagardenschollagardens Member Posts: 4,614 ✭✭✭

    "Her “unassuming” 52-year-old husband, James, was among those duped when they finally wed last summer at a Catholic church in Widnes, according to the Sun."

    Looks like that marriage is going to last longer than two months.

  • gruntled2gruntled2 Member Posts: 560 ✭✭✭

    And he won't collect on the life insurance policy he took out on her.

  • JimmyJackJimmyJack Member Posts: 5,519 ✭✭✭✭

    Wasnt that the same deal where a lot of members donated for a firearm after he bragged about hundreds of his own?

  • allen griggsallen griggs Member Posts: 35,706 ✭✭✭✭

    That was a really weird one. I sent that guy private emails for about 4 years and I thought I really had an internet buddy there.

    Then it came out about him faking cancer etc. I must admit I was shocked. I still have a hard time reconciling the guy I thought I knew, with the cancer faker.

  • mjrfd99mjrfd99 Member Posts: 4,553 ✭✭✭

    He's on another firearm forum selling the same stories.

    Suckered me for $$$

  • BobJudyBobJudy Member Posts: 6,675 ✭✭✭✭

    There have always been con men and women ready to take advantage of good people. Unfortunately the internet has increased their ability to reach out to a bigger audience. It is also easier for them to be somewhat anonymous while they prey upon decent people. I have become cynical regarding most of these pleas for help and only contribute to established charities like St.Judes that was mentioned above. Yes, some of the funds are used for administration and advertising but if you are careful about who you give to, most can reach the intended targets. That is one reason Judy and I raise money for the local cancer charity, because 100% gets to those in need and it is administered by a local hospital. They know who actually has cancer and in need of help. No what I consider luxury help like paying for someone's wedding. Instead it goes to copays for medication and things like groceries and utility bills. It is a decent and Christian thing to help people but it is foolish to blindly be taken advantage of. Bob

  • pulsarncpulsarnc Member Posts: 6,568 ✭✭✭✭

    Even though our area has grown a lot it is still made up of lots of little small rural farming communities . In most of these areas , every one knows everyone and kinship lines go way back . This is where lots of community fundraisers by neighbors helping neighbors take place .Usually headed up by a local church or fire dept or Ruitan club . All moneys goes to the person/ family in need . I help in 2 or three a year it seems like .I too was sucked in as has been mentioned

    cry Havoc and let slip  the dogs of war..... 
  • Rocky RaabRocky Raab Member Posts: 14,507 ✭✭✭✭

    Maybe it is true that age brings cynicism. But I think it's just experience. Over a lifetime, how many of these scams have we heard about? How many stories are there about street beggars making hundreds of dollars every day? I'm not a cynic; I am just a man who has seen way too much of this stuff.

    I may be a bit crazy - but I didn't drive myself.
  • BrookwoodBrookwood Member, Moderator Posts: 13,769 ******

    The worst part about a scam like this is that there are a thousand out there that are truly in need of some kind of help. One bad apple will ruin it for that thousand.


    Kind of like the publicity of one bad cop. Puts a lot of good cops down in the eyes of much of the public.

  • Rocky RaabRocky Raab Member Posts: 14,507 ✭✭✭✭

    That is unfortunately true. I use CharityNavigator.org to help me decide if something is real, a scam, or just iffy. I'm generous, but I'm not naive.

    I may be a bit crazy - but I didn't drive myself.
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