Homeless Hero Veteran Story was Completely Bogus. What Should the Punishment Be?

The tale of the New Jersey couple who wanted to help out a homeless man by starting a GoFundMe campaign has taken another turn.

The couple, Mark D’Amico and Kate McClure, and the man, Johnny Bobbitt Jr., are all being charged with second-degree conspiracy and theft by deception, the prosecutor for Burlington County, N.J., said on Thursday. They face five to 10 years in prison if found guilty, the prosecutor, Scott A. Coffina, said at a news conference on Thursday.

“The entire campaign was predicated on a lie,” Mr. Coffina said. “They conspired to pass off a fake feel-good story that would compel donors to contribute to their cause; it worked in a very big way but it was fictitious and illegal.”

The couple started a GoFundMe campaign for Mr. Bobbitt in 2017. Ms. McClure claimed that she had been out of gas and money when Mr. Bobbitt, who was homeless at the time, offered her his last $20 so that she could get home.

The authorities pored over more than 60,000 text messages sent by Ms. McClure and Mr. D’Amico. An hour after the campaign went live, Ms. McClure sent a text message to a friend admitting that the entire story was untrue, Mr. Coffina said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/15/nyregion/homeless-man-couple-gofundme-scam.html

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truthatallcost said:

All 3 of these people were scammers the whole time...

This one is a real bummer. I bought into the whole story from the get go, and now I feel pretty foolish for believing in people anymore. Throw the book at em.

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Jetboogieman said:

Unfortunately while GoFundMe can be positive in alot of peoples lives who really do need money.

All of these crowd funding platforms, GoFundme, Indiegogo and Kickstarter, to name a few, are rife with scams, not just ones like these that pull on your heart strings but tons and tons and tons and tons and tons of scams.

There are many digital spaces that need regulation slapped so hard on them that heads need to spin, Game Publishers marketing gambling to children is one, and crowd funding space is certainly another one.

Sometimes you gotta protect people from themselves.

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Cardinal said:

They should face the same punishment Trump faced for his university scam: pay their victims 11.9% of what they donated and pocket the rest.

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Jetboogieman said:

Unfortunately while GoFundMe can be positive in alot of peoples lives who really do need money.

All of these crowd funding platforms, GoFundme, Indiegogo and Kickstarter, to name a few, are rife with scams, not just ones like these that pull on your heart strings but tons and tons and tons and tons and tons of scams.

There are many digital spaces that need regulation slapped so hard on them that heads need to spin, Game Publishers marketing gambling to children is one, and crowd funding space is certainly another one.

Sometimes you gotta protect people from themselves.

Click to expand...