Meet Beccah Beushausen, a 26-year-old social services worker from the Chicago area. In March, she started a blog following her personal tragedy: Becca or “B” as she called herself, was pregnant with a terminally ill infant. Calling herself a “Christian” she posted bible quotes and voiced her anti-abortion views, she attracted hundreds of readers. They were there in sympathy and to pray for her. They also sold tee shirts for her, and sent gifts and money. They even sent her pictures of their own children.
When “B” informed everybody that the baby died shortly after birth, there was an outpouring of grief among her readers. Then, “B” posted a picture of her poor departed baby and that’s when everything unraveled. The photo was clearly of a doll. A few of her readers became amateur investigators and soon, the whole big lie was blown wide open. Word spread and soon many of her “friends” were furious. They had invested their time and energy to her, and for nothing. She quickly deleted her blog, twitter and facebook accounts.
So, why did she do it? She says it was to deal with the death of her son that she did lose shortly after birth in 2005. “I know what I did was wrong,” she said. “I’ve been getting hate mail. I’m sorry because people were so emotionally involved.”
What is so sick and wrong about this scam is that Becca preyed on vulnerable women: Women who had seen real tragedy, had lost real children. She used religion to make herself seem trustworthy. She took time and attention away from people who really needed it.
I think there are a few good lessons to learn in this mess. First, don’t believe everything you read online. There are people that just enjoy writing fiction and people who enjoy getting attention, and you’re doing yourself a disservice if you get emotionally involved in what you’re reading. Second, never ever donate money to an individual online. The chances of being duped are much too high. Call your churches, your food pantry, the homeless shelters and ask what you can do to help. Your good deeds will go much farther in your local real life community than they ever could for a stranger online.
Source: chicagotribune.com
About babies
There are scammers in most countries not only in the good USA.. Pakistan is famous for scamming anyone that is vulnerable of your money. Let say you wanted to start a blog or webste. They hide as web developers but can’t code. The example that comes to mind is edigitalstream.com and superfreehosting.com. They claim they are based in the UK.