Teen Girl Allegedly Scammed THOUSANDS In Donations With Fake Cancer Diagnosis!
02.02.2023 - 00:17
/ perezhilton.com
We’ve seen some pretty heinous scams in the past, but any that steal money meant for charity definitely place pretty high… It’s hard to believe people are still doing this!
Back in October of 2022, Madison “Maddie” Russo opened up on social media about the devastating cancer diagnosis she had received eight months prior. Her story even got picked up by the news! She told the North Scott Press at the time:
She revealed she had stage two pancreatic cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, “and a tumor the size of a football that wrapped around her spine.” She said that after 15 rounds of oral chemotherapy and 90 rounds of radiation, she only had an “11 percent chance” of survival. So sad… Or at least it would have been.
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The 19-year-old college student then continued a months-long campaign across TikTok and GoFundMe to document her cancer journey, garnering support across the board — including financial. However, that all came to a head when she was arrested last Monday on a charge of first-degree theft by means of deception — a class C felony.
According to the Eldridge Police Department, the Iowa resident FAKED her cancer! It was all a scam!
Speculation began to spring up after “witnesses who have medical experience” noticed the details of Maddie’s story lacked credibility, according to the police statement. The witnesses met with the Police Department on January 11, where they “pointed out many medical discrepancies found on her pictures posted on her social media sites,” according to Chief of Police Joseph Sisler. He continued:
During the investigation, authorities obtained medical records which showed Maddie “had never been diagnosed with any kind of cancer