A New Jersey woman has been sentenced to prison after a federal court found her guilty of cooking up a scam that took more than US$400,000 from GoFundMe donors.
Katelyn McClure was sentenced late last week after pleading guilty to one count of theft by deception in the second degree, reports CNN.
Her crime dates back to 2017, when she began to raise money for a homeless veteran she claimed had given her his last $20 for gas after she was left stranded on the side of a Philadelphia interstate. READ MORE: As a GoFundMe campaign unravels, here’s how you can protect your money from bogus fundraising McClure, along with her then-boyfriend Mark D’Amico, began raising money for the man, named Johnny Bobbitt Jr., posting on social media a photo of McClure posing alongside the man the night her car supposedly ran out of gas.
However, state and federal prosecutors told the court that the group had met near a Philadelphia casino in 2017, shortly before their story and fundraiser began to go viral.