Some people use GoFundMe to pay medical bills. Others use it to recover from emergencies. And then there’s Vanessa O’Rourke.
According to investigators, the Pennsylvania woman allegedly turned sympathy into a business plan after claiming she was suffering from terminal brain cancer, only for authorities to later accuse her of spending donated money on a vacation to Australia.
That’s certainly one way to take a trip.
O’Rourke, now 37, told friends, family, and supporters back in 2015 that she had been diagnosed with glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer. At the time, she was a 28-year-old brain surgery student associated with Temple Med.
Naturally, people wanted to help. Who wouldn’t?
More than 140 donors opened their wallets and contributed a total of $11,740 through fundraising efforts, believing they were helping someone battling a devastating illness.
Unfortunately, prosecutors later alleged that the entire story was fiction.
‘Through her false and fraudulent pretenses, her family and others provided money and support,’ the FBI said in a statement.
O’Rourke is believed to have traveled to Australia in April 2016, where she ‘engaged in a variety of leisure activities and did not receive any medical treatment’.
After the vacation, she returned to her home in Harleysville, just outside of Philadelphia, and persuaded her relatives to launch a fundraising page for her.
The family even held a benefit event at a local restaurant with $20 entry, and O’Rourke used the funds they raised to travel to Australia again later in 2016, detectives said.
She was indicted on 15 counts of wire fraud in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on May 3, 2018.
An international arrest warrant was issued, but investigators have been unable to track down the accused fraudster.
Imagine donating money for chemotherapy only to accidentally sponsor someone’s vacation selfies.
Speaking in court at her sentencing hearing, Russo attempted to shirk responsibility by claiming she faked cancer in an attempt to make her troubled family focus on her.
‘A lot of people have made speculation as to why I did this and how somebody who looked like they had everything together could have such a mess,’ she said.
‘I didn’t do this for money or greed. I didn’t do this for attention. I did this as an attempt to get my family back together.’
Her scam, which impacted more than 400 people, unraveled when medical professionals spotted discrepancies in her story online.
Police subpoenaed her medical records and found she had never been diagnosed with cancer at any medical facility in the area. She was arrested in January.
And if there’s one lesson here, it’s this:
When people donate money because they believe you’re fighting for your life, spending it on a vacation halfway around the world is probably not the travel rewards program they had in mind.
