Scammer Gets What She DESERVES After Unforgivable Trickery
(ConservativeHub.com) – In recent years, GoFundMe has emerged as a popular platform for people in need to ask the world for financial assistance with whatever problem they’re facing. It has achieved a tremendous amount in this regard, but it’s also opened the door for scammers to defraud people out of their hard-earned money. One woman who used the website for the latter purpose will now have to pay a heavy price for her crime.
A court sentenced Katelyn McClure, a 32-year-old from Bordentown, New Jersey, to 366 days’ prison time for her role in a GoFundMe scam that collected around $400,000. Along with Mark D’Amico, 43, her boyfriend at the time, McClure claimed her car had run out of gas when she was traveling on I-95 in 2017. She claimed Johnny Bobbitt, a homeless man she encountered, handed over his last $20 to pay for the supposedly stranded woman to get back on the road.
The GoFundMe page featured a picture of McClure posing with Bobbitt (seen in the tweet below), appealing for funds to get the homeless man back on his feet. The initial target was $10,000, but they easily surpassed it.
Katelyn McClure, woman who helped with $400K GoFundMe scam, sentenced to prison https://t.co/IBc4S40J9g pic.twitter.com/wmUKZ7A4m4
— New York Post (@nypost) July 21, 2022
The story was fake. McClure and D’Amico gave Bobbitt a small amount of the funds they raised and spent the rest on luxuries for themselves.
People can help ensure they don’t fall victim to a scam like this by taking steps, including identifying the creators and beneficiaries of a campaign and doing research on the background story to verify it. Crowd-sourcing has helped many deserving GoFundMe candidates, but donating through established charities might be safer, according to BeenVerified.
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