From Homeless To $400,000: The Biggest Scam In GoFundMe History

The Internet is full of heartwarming stories of crowdfunding, of a disabled gamer who was given a wheelchair van by Redditors, or a Facebook meme page raising money for a man's liver transplant. It is truly a beautiful sight when the Internet supports those in need and offers a respite for the Unfortunately, there are people who truly deserve it, although there are bad actors willing to take advantage of the Internet's generosity. People who are skilled at creating emotional tales in the hopes of making a quick buck from internet fools, and that's what's mind-blowing these days. The case involves a Gofundme

scam

in which a group of people conspired together in an effort to manipulate and exploit public sympathy for a

homeless

man, raising nearly four hundred thousand dollars in the process.

It is a story of manipulation, reckless greed and imprisonment. This is the story of the

biggest

fraud in Gofundme

history

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This story begins on November 10, 2017 with the creation of a

gofundme

page by New Jersey woman Kate McClure. The

gofundme

was called "pay it forward" and a photo showing Kate smiling and hugging a

homeless

Iraq War veteran who would become known as Johnny Bobbitt was attached to the page details. Kate would go on to explain the touching story behind this photo and why she wanted to raise money for this seemingly generous homeless man. While traveling to visit a friend, she ran out of gas on an exit off Interstate 95 in Philadelphia, forcing her vehicle to stop on the side of a busy highway, and she panicked.

My heart was beating out of my chest. I didn't know what the hell. Not to quote, this is when a nearby Mr. Johnny Bobbitt, a homeless man who lives in the area, sees Kate's situation and instead of approaching her and trying to spend money, he actually offers to help her. Kate says Mr. Bobbitt told her to stay in her car. and close the doors and wait for her return and not long after it was said that Mr. Bobbitt had returned from a nearby gas station with a tank in hand spending his last $20 on gas in a selfless effort to get this exhausted young woman back on the road. .

Bobbitt fills his car with gas, supposedly asks for nothing in return and just wants Kate to be safe and have a good rest of the night and it's certainly a touching story, I mean you have this homeless man with presumably nothing to his name. name spending your last few dollars to help this panicked young woman out of a sticky situation when the guy probably needs all the help in the world. Kaye would go on to claim that in the weeks following this incident, she and her boyfriend Mark D'amico would return. where johnny would hang out and bring him some food and a couple of dollars here and there, as a token of appreciation for this good deed, but feeling that baba deserved more for his kind act, that's when the gofundme was created and the story of the gas hobo is published on the Internet seven hundred and sixty nine dollars, holy, oh, we're about to say yes today, yes, God is amazing.

Kate intended to raise ten thousand dollars for Mr. Bobbitt, enough to help him get out. Bobbitt reportedly got off the streets and back on his feet and was suffering from heroin addiction at the time and wanted to quit smoking, so the idea was that maybe the money could go toward rehab treatment or less to get him a place to stay for the rest of his life. short term until they could find something else for him, but they would end up getting much more than ten thousand dollars. Kate's ten thousand dollar goal was completely shattered with fundraising to get Mr Bobbitt back on his feet raising a staggering amount of over 400 thousand dollars in about a month, rising to around 360,000 after he gofundme fees were collected, the gofundme was closed at Mr Bobbitt's request in December and the funds were placed in Kate's bank account for the time being, it was the largest payment. on the gofundme story at the time, so you're not wearing glasses because you're from Hollywood, now I'm fixing his right eye, but it's johnny bobbitt junior's face and story that has gone viral.

News reports at the time indicated that after Go Finance had closed, a mobile home was purchased for Mr. Bobbitt to live in. He was placed on Kate and Mark's property in Florence Township, New Jersey. Bobbitt also got a truck. at this time to be able to drive and Kate Mark claimed that a trust fund was being created to manage future payments to Johnny Bobbitt and this was dependent on him getting a job and staying away from drugs. Needless to say, Johnny Bobbitt was impressed by the couples and generosity of the Internet, and his story served as an inspiration.

A story for people all over the world during the Christmas season: going from literally zero to 300 and a few thousand dollars is like winning the lottery less than a week ago Johnny was sleeping under a bridge today he was given what he calls a second chance. but unfortunately there was trouble on the horizon, a little foreshadowing here for you using a quote from the legendary and notorious b.i.g mo money mo trouble, this story does not remain a healthy story for long and quickly degenerates into greed induced madness and fraud . In early 2018, just months after he ended the gofundme, Mr.

Bobbitt claimed that Mark and Kate had breached their trust fund agreements and were withholding money donated to him. Bobbitt had claimed that he had only received about $75,000 of the $360,000. sum and at the time it appeared that the couple were actively investing in bobbitt's gofundme money to fund a lavish lifestyle with kate and mark buying a 25,000 bmw at the time, making frequent visits to the casino and the couple suddenly splurging on a variety of expensive activities and a trip to las vegas despite their apparent recent stroke of prosperity, mark and kate would deny that they were using the gofundme money for themselves and mark d'amico would even go on to claim that mr bobbitt was not receiving money in the At that time, because he was using drugs in any case, it seemed that these three individuals were in a constant state of dispute regarding this gofundme money and eventually this would turn into a lawsuit, soon Bobbitt was left homeless and again drowning in his heroin addiction.

They had bought him a house and created the two trusts they said they were going to do, so we wouldn't be here today in August 2018, Mr. Bobbitt sued Kate McClure and Mark D'amico accusing them of withholding his donated funds and spending more For half of the $360,000 sum, their lawsuit requested that a judge be appointed to manage the funds instead of Kate and Mark having control of the fortune. The announcement of this civil lawsuit was a bit of a shock to the public, as it was the first indication that something was wrong with the largest gofundme in

history

, the definitive feel-good story of 2017 was starting to show cracks.

Many news reports at the time were sympathetic to Johnny Bobbitt and negative sentiment online began to grow towards Kate and Mark. They felt like the couple was screwing this guy over by the people who read the investigator's account and said these two had committed fraud. I know you've been receiving death threats. Now it's true. You tried to do something good. Oh, okay, sorry. you want it to be my family and I don't know, it's so hard to deal with because these people are seeing one version of the story and they're getting death threats and you know, threats to burn down my house and threats against my family and all that stuff.

It's so hard. deal with it when we know we did something good and I still believe we did something good and I would do it all over again in the middle of the civil case against the couple. Bobbitt's lawyer in a press release claimed that not only was half of the gofundme money spent, it was all $360,000 allegedly spent in eight months, this caused a media frenzy and speculation that Kate and Mark were about to of facing criminal charges, not just civil, says the $400,000 Gofundme money is gone, so the question is: where did it go well? The big question for me is: will we see this couple in mugshots soon?

Will we see them in criminal court and not just here in civil court? court where this case has been going on now, civil matters, of course, there are no criminal charges, just people fighting over money, so is this fight over money going to be a criminal matter because you think it would be and there are potentially more Of 14,000 victims, all those people around? the world that donated money the media was correct in their speculation as the authorities would in fact begin a criminal investigation into mark and kate on september 6th the police would arrive at their residence with a search warrant they scanned the property and searched the house The couple's hours police left with a ton of evidence, collected cell phone text logs and even confiscated the BMW and after the search things got stranger.

On November 15, 2018, Burlington County, New Jersey prosecutors announced that not only were criminal charges being filed against Kate McClure and Mark. d'amico were also going to be placed on johnny bobbitt, the man who was suing the couple, so why was johnny bobbitt also charged? It was discovered through text messages and other evidence that the entire premise of the gofundme was based on a lie about the night of November 10, 2017, mark d'amico, caitlin mcclure's boyfriend, took a photo of mcclure and johnny baba junior, a homeless man standing on the gerard avenue exit ramp on interstate 95 in philadelphia, the story that fueled this fundraiser might seem too good to be true unfortunately the entire campaign was based on a lie kate never knew ran out of gas bobbitt never helped her fill her tank the story was completely false johnny bobbitt was simply a homeless man that mark d'amico knew from the past encounters with bobbitt they often hung out at the casino d'amico frequented mark took this photo of kate posing with bobbitt the couple made up a fake sob story to go with it and once the gofundme and story took off, bobbitt played along with this sensation -The good story was a bunch of 400k absolutes, it was an elaborate hoax which the trio made up together and tonight all three are charged with theft by deception and could face up to 10 years in prison for the quick and angry online reaction they used. people's hearts to steal now someone who deserves help won't get it just take a look at some of these messages supposedly sent by kate mcclure to a friend okay wait the gas part is completely made up but the guy isn't, I had to do it something she plots to make people feel bad the friend says this gas story is going to backfire she says no it's all good how could the friend give more advice?

They'll interview him one day and ask him, but first you have to tell him, make sure he knows Kate says yes, we'll tell him this week, I guess we have to discuss the story Bobbitt had to memorize. Kate also says that my mom just called me and she told me that people go to jail for

scam

ming others out of money, so that's it. What my own mother thinks of me in words of wealth to demean her conspiracy to scam the Internet with a sob Christmas story was a cowardly ploy and for a time the group got away with it if only they could quell the insatiable greed of she. and if johnny bobby had been able to keep his mouth shut, you really have to wonder what the guy was thinking when he thought getting a lawyer was a good idea here, so what would become of these feel-good phonies?

Kate McClure, the architect of the now infamous gofundme page. She pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud.email in March 2019. She was subsequently sentenced in July 2022 to serve one year and one day in prison, in addition to having to pay restitution to Johnny Bobbitt or the gas man, as we will. He called it and pleaded guilty to state charges of conspiracy to commit theft by deception in 2019. He was later sentenced to serve five years of probation. Bobbitt still faces federal charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud to which he pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing in November. 2021 mark d'amico often accused of being the ringleader of this operation would plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in april 2022 d'amico was sentenced to 27 months in prison, must also pay restitution and seek gambling addiction and mental problems. health advice and why mark received a harsher sentence than kate well it's because kate was willing to testify against mark in court you know what they say there is no honor among thieves those on the internet who donated to the gofundme dedicated to johnny bobbitt would be reimbursed by the gofundme itself, while those who were scammed got their money back, an example of these conspirators had to be presented.

Prosecutors made sure that everyone involved in this scheme was punished for misleading the public. Your heavy hand in this situation.Warning to any opportunistic scammers looking to take advantage of the goodwill of the Internet. Talk about an unexpected ending. I definitely didn't see that Johnny Bobbitt stuff coming when he was doing research for this, but that's the story of the

biggest

fake gofundme in history. I know what you thought about this video below in the comments section and let me know who or what you want me to talk about next and like the video. I want to give a big shout out to my sponsors.

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