American student Madison Russo, 19, has been charged with fraud after raising nearly R$186,000 online by pretending to have leukemia, pancreatic cancer and a footballsized tumor in her spine.
To convince donors, she even said that she would die soon, but that complex surgery could add up to five years to her lifespan.
The case raised awareness among friends, neighbors and strangers, who donated money to an online crowdfunding campaign that Madison opened on the Go Fund Me website.
The girl not only lied to people around her, but also began sharing details about her routine and alleged fight against diseases on social networks in order to attract more donors.
With this website, she was invited to do an interview for a local newspaper, give a motivational speech at the college she attended and at a cancer charity.
With that speed, his story went viral and his videos reached renowned oncologists and cancer patients who immediately noticed the discrepancy in the medical information. After several complaints, the authorities launched investigations and discovered the hoax.
Madison was arrested on January 23. The institutions that took in the young woman to tell the story regretted the case, saying medical confidentiality did not allow them to access the type of information needed to establish details.
Representatives from Project Purple, a support network for pancreatic cancer patients who trusted the young woman, admitted they didn’t expect someone to lie about something so serious and that they didn’t want to discredit Madison.
The sensitivity of the topic did not let people question the veracity of the story the student revealed and shared. After the truth was out, all donors were refunded, the kitten was removed, and Madison was banned from the platform forever.
*Internship at R7under the direction of Pablo Marques