Woman scams people out of over $200K after CNN interview.

A GoFundMe topped $200K after a woman said she and her kids faced eviction. Then their real mom came forward.

Quote:

Behind nearly two grand on rent and facing eviction, Dasha Kelly started an online fundraiser in July, asking strangers to help her and her three daughters stay in their North Las Vegas home. “We were maintaining just fine before this pandemic hit. Now we are suffering,” the 32-year-old wrote in the introduction to the GoFundMe donation page, which she titled “Help My Girls & I avoid eviction.” For weeks, the fundraiser languished without a donation, she said. Then, on Aug. 2, CNN ran a story about the family’s struggle. A day later, the news organization aired another interview with Kelly as she sat on her couch with three girls identified as her daughters. By the time the broadcast was over, donors had given Kelly nearly $100,000, dwarfing her $2,000 goal. The windfall would allow her to pivot from the specter of eviction to the certainty of having her rent covered for the rest of her lease, she said. On Monday, some 3,700 people had donated about $234,000. But days after the CNN clip aired, a woman came forward and said that she was the girls’ mother. Kelly then revealed she is not the biological mother of the three girls who sat with her on the couch. On Monday, she posted an update to her fundraiser, informing people that the three girls – ages 8, 6 and 5 – are not her biological daughters but her partner’s. Although she doesn’t live with the girls’ father or the children, she said the three recognize her as “a mother figure.”

Quote:

GoFundMe has since frozen the money donors gave her. Kelly did not respond to a Tuesday night message from The Washington Post. A GoFundMe spokesman told The Post the company will give people two weeks to rescind their donations before it releases what’s left to Kelly. By Wednesday morning, the total amount of donations dipped to less than $200,000 as people sought refunds.

If any money is left after two weeks, it should be put into a trust fund for the care of the three girls. This woman should not have access to a single penny of it.

She fooled CNN and quite a few people:

Quote:

The Aug. 3 interview with Kelly was part of CNN’s coverage of a federal eviction moratorium that had expired days earlier on July 31. Missouri Rep. Cori Bush, who also appeared in the segment, repeatedly told Kelly that she was worthy of financial support. Kelly cried and appeared overwhelmed as an anchor gave her real-time updates about how much money people were donating.

This makes me just as angry. It plays into the conservative narrative regarding eviction moratoriums, and also gives them something to attack Rep Bush and liberals in general.

What this woman did is fraud. She should be arrested and tried in court.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2VMmHyG