Mom Convinces 9-Year-Old Son He Has Cancer
Susan Stillwagon allegedly convinced her young son he was suffering from terminal stage-3 Hodgkin’s lymphoma as part of a scam to swindle money from friends and family, according to ABC News. The mother of the 9-year-old accepted $3,500 in donations from bake sales and bingo nights before police stopped the scam. Stillwagon will now face charges of theft by deception, forgery, endangering the welfare of a child and using a child to commit a criminal offense.
Photo via ABCNews.com
Former Model's Ponzi Scheme
A single mom and former model, Tina Louise Mangiardi was driving expensive cars and sending her kids to private school in Orlando, Fla., with the money she collected from a Ponzi scheme, according to Local 6 Orlando. Mangiardi started a design and construction firm and solicited large investments in order to nab projects with companies like Disney and Florida Hospital. Within three years, she took between $2.5 million and $7 million and will now face up to 10 years in federal prison.
Photo via Click Orlando
Mom Claims Kids Have Disabilities
For 12 years, British mother Amanda Webber claimed five of her eight children suffered disabilities that severely affected their abilities to function, in order to gain more than half a million dollars. The kids actually led busy lives, participating in gym classes, taking drama and dance, and even trying out for Britain’s Got Talent. According to AOL, Webber was convicted on 23 of 24 counts of charges ranging from fraud to obtaining a money transfer by deception, and obtaining property by deception.
Photo via The Mirror
Homeless Mom Poses as Cancer Patient
Nicole Clawson, an Orlando mother of three, posed as a millionaire terminal-cancer patient whose last wish was to give the bar on truTV’s Full Throttle Saloon a $1 million gift. Her fake storyline actually began airing as part of the show. To pull off her scam, the 39-year-old homeless woman was taking money from men she met online. Clawson even shaved her head to resemble a cancer sufferer, according to The Daily Mail.
Photo via The Daily Mail
Mother-Daughter Duo Scam Online Daters
A mother-daughter team stole more than $1 million from unsuspecting women as part of an online dating scheme involving fake soldiers stationed in Afghanistan who would strike up romances with the victims and then convince them to wire money for phone calls, visits and other expenses. The money came through to about 20 Colorado bank accounts, where Tracy and Karen Vasseur took their 10 percent cut before sending the rest to their bosses in Nigeria, according to the Denver Post.
Photo via Goldmyne.com
Mother-Daughter Team Scam Coca-Cola
Mother and daughter duo Carrie and Sarah Jones worked together to cheat Coca-Cola out of $200,000 after figuring out a way to manipulate the familiar bottle-cap code game sponsored by the soda giant. Authorities aren’t sure where the money went, but Detective Mike Wood of the Albany, Ore. Police Dept. thinks the duo had help pulling off the scheme. “I mean, it boggles the mind that they could single-handedly fool a multibillion dollar company like Coca-Cola," he said, according to NWCN.com.
Photo via NWCN.com
Mother, Son Scam Toys 'R' Us
A 70-year-old mother worked as a lookout while her 46-year-old son, Michael, placed expensive toys in the boxes of cheap toys at 139 Toys “R” Us stores in 27 states, according to TIME. The pair then “purchased” the high-end items—like Leapster pads and Lego sets, with ticket prices starting at $150—on the chain’s rewards card, traveling to locations in Hawaii, New York and North Dakota before they were caught via surveillance cam in Florida and arrested.
Photo via ABCNews.com
Mom Claimed She Couldn't Pay Medical Bills
Melanie Chen, a mother of six, solicited friends and family for nearly $800,000 to pay for her husband’s cancer treatments, claiming they could not afford treatment costs—but her husband wasn’t ill. This went on for nearly three years before she was finally indicted for the scam. Chen originally pled not guilty to the charges, but then fled to Utah, where she was picked up a month later. She eventually pled guilty to one count of theft, carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine, according to The Seattle Times.
Photo via KSL.com
Mom Runs Kickstarter Scam
Accidental scam, or not? The charming story of Mackenzie Wilson made the rounds in March 2013: The 9-year-old girl was asking for funds to attend computer-programming camp so she could show her brothers that she could build a game all on her own. The camp cost $829. Her mother, Susan, set up a Kickstarter campaign for her daughter since she was too young to do it herself, and the response was huge.
People pledged thousands to help Mackenzie reach her tech goal and go to camp. However, word soon spread that Susan was _Susan Wilson—_a millionaire former CEO whose online photos revealed purchases of $1,500 shoes. Wilson defended her project, calling it a modern-day version of the lemonade stand, according to Buzzfeed, but that was no consolation to the campaign contributors feeling duped after spending thousands to help Mackenzie.
Photo via CNN Money
Mom Runs Welfare Scam
Angela Lopez, a mother of five, was facing fraud charges for orchestrating a welfare scam—she accepted $95,000 in MedicAid, food stamps and disability benefits she did not deserve—when she showed up to court in a Lincoln Navigator while carrying a Louis Vuitton bag in 2011, according to TimesUnion.com. Despite attempts to avoid her two to six years of jail time by appealing, backing out of a plea deal and showing up to prison with a check for the $95,000 she swindled from taxpayers, a judge locked her up to serve her time last year.
Photo via TimesUnion.com
