Homeless man AND couple now indicted.

Prosecutors say they made up the entire story about him giving them money when they ran out of gas.


I thought the story was suspect from the beginning.


There is no end to those who will take advantage of people’s decency. But there are even more who are deserving and in need. 


People need to be a little more skeptical, but must guard against being cynical. If you try to do good in this life at some point you’re gonna get taken advantage of. Just a matter of time.Still gotta try to do good.


I wonder with this new generation. If I loaned someone $20 for gas or paid for their groceries, or someone helped me buy a car because they saw me walking 5 miles to work each way in 100 degree heat, the last thing I would want is attention. Go viral? Be on tv? I would be mortified, to within an inch of my life.

I can’t think of anything that could be worse than being paraded around by a ‘Good Samaritan’ for likes. Gah!!   


ElizMcCord said:
I wonder with this new generation. If I loaned someone $20 for gas or paid for their groceries, or someone helped me buy a car because they saw me walking 5 miles to work each way in 100 degree heat, the last thing I would want is attention. Go viral? Be on tv? I would be mortified, to within an inch of my life.
I can’t think of anything that could be worse than being paraded around by a ‘Good Samaritan’ for likes. Gah!!   

I think most people are on the same page as you. Difference now is that the deranged and grifting are revealed to a much bigger audience so it feels like “people have changed”.


There have always been the “I must sing loudest on Sunday” types. Now they have a microphone.



I had no idea what this was about so, for anyone like me who needs background...

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/15/us/couple-homeless-man-gofundme/index.html


We are charitable with our time and money but I never abandon my skepticism just to feel good about myself.   I check out the ratings of charities to see if they are efficient and legit.  I never give cash to people who stand at intersections with buckets.  Always seemed inherently suspect to me.  


I never donate via something like GoFundMe unless I know the person or know of their situation directly from others. Way too easy to run a scam.


agreed. And the cynic in me feels like it's too easy a way to take advantage of kind hearted people.


It's like those caper movies where the crime goes down fine, but the people get caught because they fight among themselves or leave clues well after the fact etc. Supposedly the guy who pretended to be homeless wanted more money from the others. If he didn't complain, which led to an investigation into the other two, it's likely they all would have gotten away with it.


while disgusting, I am not sure what to make about whether this is a “crime”. In my opinion, you give to Go Fund Me at your own risk/ discretion. If the homeless guy on the street with the signs about being hungry or needing to buy a bus ticket-, if he really wants to just buy beer or a cigarette, isn’t this the same thing? 


My friend who was a Newark Public Defender tried a case where a man had called a woman after she had blood tests. (I think he worked at the lab or something.)

He lied and told her she had an STD, maybe HIV. It could be treated, he said, but would cost $3000.00.

OR, if she had sex with someone who had received the treatment, she could be cured for only $300.00

So, she ended up paying a stranger $300.00, and having consensual sex with him, under false pretenses.

What crime has been committed?


He was charged with "Practicing medicine without a license."

Isn't that amazing?


jersey_boy said:
My friend who was a Newark Public Defender tried a case where a man had called a woman after she had blood tests. (I think he worked at the lab or something.)
He lied and told her she had an STD, maybe HIV. It could be treated, he said, but would cost $3000.00.
OR, if she had sex with someone who had received the treatment, she could be cured for only $300.00
So, she ended up paying a stranger $300.00, and having consensual sex with him, under false pretenses.
What crime has been committed?

 The crime of people being really, really gullible and stupid?


conandrob240 said:
while disgusting, I am not sure what to make about whether this is a “crime”. 

 As gullible and as stupid as I may be, you won’t find me dangling a participle like that one.


conandrob240 said:
while disgusting, I am not sure what to make about whether this is a “crime”. In my opinion, you give to Go Fund Me at your own risk/ discretion. If the homeless guy on the street with the signs about being hungry or needing to buy a bus ticket-, if he really wants to just buy beer or a cigarette, isn’t this the same thing? 

 it's totally a crime.  It's theft by deception.


I prefer the term "fraud"


definitely fraud. I guess I’m just saying where do you draw the line? People have been making up the need for charity for as long as any of us can remember. You decide whether the guy on the street is really hungry, the lady at the train really needs the $ to get home, etc. 


de minimis non curat lex

"The law does not concern itself with trifles"; expression of the rule that the law will not remedy an injury that is minimal

The law doesn't care about a bum bumming a buck, especially when there is an obvious credibility issue about the misrepresented intended use of the buck.

An ambitious organized push to raise big money for a cause that turns out to be phony is a different matter.


conandrob240 said:
definitely fraud. I guess I’m just saying where do you draw the line? People have been making up the need for charity for as long as any of us can remember. You decide whether the guy on the street is really hungry, the lady at the train really needs the $ to get home, etc. 

that's very different from a premeditated scam to bilk thousands of people using a crowd funding site.


yes, I guess it’s about scale. 


DaveSchmidt said:


conandrob240 said:
while disgusting, I am not sure what to make about whether this is a “crime”. 
 As gullible and as stupid as I may be, you won’t find me dangling a participle like that one.

  oh oh 



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