Over
the past several years we have seen a resurrection of an old form of
fraud. I am talking, of course, about professional victims. These
people are known for their deceptive behavior, in order to manipulate
and cheat others out of their money. Professional victims can act in
very convincing ways and can create very compelling narratives; thus,
tricking people into supporting them. In this article we shall be
exploring some of the most notorious cases in recent history; and
provide you with examples so that you can identify these
con-artists.
The first example we are going to look at is the
case of Elizabeth Edmunds. It all began last year
when Elizabeth's
partner posted some really distressing news on Facebook, about her
having aggressive ovarian cancer, and that she only had 3 more years
to live. She even went so far as to falsified a certificate from
a Sydney doctor stating she had ovarian cancer and established a Go
Fund Me fund-raising page in August that raised A$2500. She
posted regular updates to thousands of followers on the "Help
For Elle" Facebook page, many of whom donated
generously. She spoke of her constant pain, her beneficial
experiments with cannabis oil and her eerie dreams about
her own funeral. She even went so far as to shaved her head to
convince people she was ill. In the end, she blamed her boyfriend for
her behavior, as she was making her declarations in court. Now
this may or may not be true; however, we can never tell since
Edmunds had already lied about a disease. This story is quite tragic,
and it just shows the lengths people go in order to get a quick
buck.
The
second example is a bit less clear; however, once you dig in deeper,
it becomes clear this is just another fraud. I am talking,
about Anita Sarkeesian. This person has been able to trick so many
people, it is really unbelievable. Even Times magazine put her in the
top 100 most influential people. This is no surprise since Time
magazine also named Hitler man of the year in 1938; however, we are
not here to point out the stupidity of Time magazine, we are here to
discuss Anita Sarkeesian. It all began in May 2012, when this scammer
announced she would make a kickstarter about her series "Tropes
vs. Women in Video Games". The initial goal was $6,000, for the
production of 12 videos of 10-20 minutes in length. Impressively,
Anita ended up getting $158,922,so by now you would think the videos
are done, incredibly she still has not finished the project! With that kind of
budget the price tag per video comes at a whopping $13,243 per video,
so where does all that money have gone to? Moreover, this isn't the
worst part of the story, Anita Sarkeesian has plagiarized video
content and she has a promoted a false portrayal of feminism. In
other words, she is using feminism to get money, not because she
cares the movement. This of course can be seen in her superficial pop culture
critiques, which exposes her as the manipulative
con-artists she is.
For
my last example I have the worst story possible, and shows what scums
these people are. Though, this story is not really about a
professional victim, it does show how scammers use people's tragedies
to gain benefits for themselves. This is the story of Fallon Mouton
who scammed dozens of people into helping Moses Perez. Moses Perez is
just an unfortunate man who lost his wife last year due to pregnancy
complications and is now struggling to raise his family and pay all
his bills, including medical bills from his defunct wife. As a single dad, Moses says he struggles to provide for his family;
and is now facing Jessica’s medical bills and funeral costs.
Jessica’s grave was marked only by a small plaque, no gravestone.
Then, the kindness of a stranger was almost too good to be true. Some
one set up a GoFundMe.com account collecting donations for the
family. It raised nearly $4,600. The account was set up by Fallon
Mouton, someone the family had never met. Within days, Mouton disappeared and so
did the $4,600 dollars from donors. Fortunately, Fallon Mouton must
now pay back thousands in donations as she is accused of theft and
online impersonation charges.
The
internet is allowing these people to operate and it up to us, the
users, to recognize these scammers and avoid them in any way
possible. That way, we will be able to discourage potential new
con-artists from entering the market. Though I know is impossible to
get rid of them entirely, let us at least make it extremely hard for
them to realize their endeavors.
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