How long was Madison Russo allegedly running the scam? GoFundMe scandal explained
3 min read
Tom Boulund/GoFundMe
Madison Russo, a 19 years old Bettendorf woman made headlines after her arrest for a scam with GoFundMe for about $37,000. She has been getting donations on claims that she had stage 2 cancer sharing on social media. Post which she received a lot of donation. While now her arrest has shocked all.
Read ahead to know more about Madison Russo arrested for a scam with $37,000 GoFundMe donation.
Madison Russo arrested for GoFundMe donation scam
Madison Russo is a 19 years old girl from Bettendorf. She has been making headlines ever since her arrest in relation to a scam on 23rd January 2023. Her arrest happened on receiving a donation of $37,000 from donors in the GoFundMe as a scam.
19-year-old Madison Russo allegedly collected $37,303.00 off of her GoFundMe account for her alleged stage-two pancreatic cancer, not including private donations or cancer foundation donations.
According to a criminal complaint, Russo had taken money from over 439 donors. https://t.co/AoxnQ4H5d8— Amie Rivers (@amierrivers) January 24, 2023Advertisement
For receiving this she had claimed that she was having Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, stage 3 pancreatic cancer. As per reports she had even told her donors that around her spine there was a tumor too. Madison had posted about it on her social media.
Post all this she got donation of $37,000 in GoFundMe from 439 donors. While now her arrest on the same has happened.
Why was Madison Russo arrested for GoFundMe scam?
As per KWQC, when GoFundMe users found medical discrepancies in the social media post of Madison sharing the latter’s disease. The whole thing took a different turn eventually making her arrest take place. Now, post receiving the donation in the GoFundMe. She has been charged with theft by deception.
This is INSANE — she was gonna milk this for YEARS!! pic.twitter.com/gw4V82v5rF
— Kelsey Kaitanowski (@kelsey0652) January 24, 2023
However, it was on Monday only that she was released from custody. After her bond of $10,000 from the Scott County Jail. But all this incident has shocked everyone. While many are now thinking about how long she has been running this scam.
More about the scam of Madison Russo with GoFundMe donation
According to reports, the claims of stage 2 cancer by Madison Russo have been going on for closely a year. The first social media record on the claim came in July 2022 on Facebook. Not just that, North Scott Press Newspaper too had shared the story of Russo as a cancer victim back in October 2022. Netizens have however slammed the act of Russo for fraudulent things.
While GoFundMe too slammed the same stating “GoFundMe has zero-tolerance policy for misuse of our platform and cooperates with law enforcement investigations of those accused of wrongdoing. GoFundMe’s Giving Guarantee offers donors a full refund in the rare case when something isn’t right”.
Ruchi Singh
I'm a passionate writer who believes in the magic of words. I'm a former magazine writer and I love reading books that makes people grow to a better person. Every word holds an energy and I use them to create a positive beautiful life. #StayPositive #StayBlessed
