A 19 Year Old Girl Faked A Cancer Diagnosis And Raised Almost $40,000 On GoFundMe Before Getting Caught By Internet Sleuths
Daily Mail- An Iowa woman was charged after allegedly scamming $37,000 from donors by lying that she has pancreatic cancer and a tumor the size of a football on her spine.Madison Marie Russo, 19, was arrested on January 23 after medical professionals reported she was faking a stage 2 cancer diagnosis by pointing out the irregularities of cords and tubes in her 'chemo' TikTok videos.She has been charged with theft by means of deception and could face up to 10 years in jail.
Russo claimed she had pancreatic cancer and acute lymphoblastic leukemia - along with a 'football-sized' tumor on her lower back and spine. Police obtained medical records from centers where she was a patient that all revealed she was never treated for cancer or tumors, according to KWQC. Authorities also discovered that Russo was stealing photos from cancer patients' social media and using them as her own.
Back in college, I was broke. BROKE. I would go entire weekends with $30-40, sometimes less, trying my damndest to get fucked up on that budget. Typically, I succeeded. That's what college kids do - go to the end of the earth to get as drunk as possible.
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I typically succeeded because of this place I dubbed the "Plasma store".
The plasma store was this place in Aurora, IL where I'd go and sit in a medical chair for like an hour while this machine drew my blood, spun the plasma out of it, then gave me my blood back. I'd do this twice a week and would net like $100, which is plenty for any college kid to get sufficiently boozed up on. 30 rack here, plastic bottle vodka there and boom, you're having yourself a weekend.
Looking back, even I judge myself for this move. That's as low and scummy as it gets. I justify those days by saying, "that plasma is helping infertile women have kids!!!" which is something I vaguely remember them telling me, but I digress. Lowlife move…but that doesn't mean it wasn't necessary at the time, as scummy as it was… I was just a typical college kid.
There wasn't much I wouldn't do to get drunk back in those days. I do draw the line at scheming up an entire fraud fundraiser where I trick hundreds of people into thinking I have a terminal cancer diagnosis though. Even I have morals and a line I won't cross. For me, that line is somewhere before, "sucking dick for Keystone Light" and "faking cancer on the internet."
Now don't get me wrong. That doesn't mean I'm casting judgement on Maddie here. She's just a 19 year old girl looking to get hammered. I'm sure there are lines she wouldn't cross, too. For instance, I'm sure she wouldn't murder anyone for booze. Lie? Sure. Cheat? Yeah. Rob people of 10s of 1000s of dollars? You bet.
Murder? Naw…look at those eyes. Those ain't the eyes of a murderer. Those are the eyes of a sophomore in college who has basement parties to dominate. If anything, I'm judging her for her inability to realize that the internet ALWAYS wins. ALWAYS. Her scheme, on paper, was good. It even worked to a tune of almost $40K.
She was sloppy though. She didn't think of all the internet sleuths that will poke holes in her bullshit story. THAT was her mistake, not the whole fake cancer story thing. That's why she's facing 10 years in the slammer. Don't fuck with internet weirdos, they'll call your bluff:
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And she learned that the hard way. As the great Hawk Harrelson says, "right size, wrong shape", Maddie. Good idea, bad execution. Next time get one of your pre-med buddies to help you out with that chest port.