A woman from Chula Vista, California, is facing a felony charge after an anonymous person tipped that she may have been committing fraud by telling everyone she has cancer.
Twenty-five-year-old Meaghan Hudson surprised her friends and family members on 2013 by telling them that they she had just received a multiple myeloma cancer diagnosis and that it was terminal. Now, she needed the money to undergo chemotherapy.
Families and friends immediately rallied behind her, setting up a funding page so people could donate for her and eventually raise $7,000. Some went as far as shaving their heads or getting tattoos to show their support. In the end, all of these were for nothing as she didn't have cancer after all.
Nevertheless, it took a while for them to figure out that she might be lying. She was several miles away from her family and friends who were based on Texas and Ohio, so it's quite difficult to double-check her story.
She was also uploading photos of her supposed chemotherapy sessions, where she was often seen sitting in what looked like a hospital and shaving her head, although they were quite surprised to realize that her hair had grown quickly and beautifully, something a person undergoing chemotherapy would not experience.
After she was discovered, she didn't try to communicate with any of her family and friends. She's now known to be staying in one of her pals while she's set to appear before the court on the last week of April for grand theft and fraud.
Cancer has become a perfect excuse for scammers to generate funds very quickly. In November 2014, Daily Mail UK published the story of Elizabeth Edmunds who told everyone that she had stage 6 ovarian cancer (there are only 4 stages in cancer). The 31-year-old mom, who is also known as Elle, also shaved her head and staged visits for chemotherapy sessions.