From the Trussville Tribune staff reports
SHELBY COUNTY – A woman is being held at the Shelby County Jail for faking a terminal illness and collecting more than $38,000 in donations. The accused, Jennifer Flynn Cataldo, now faces charges of theft by deception.
Cataldo is said to have used GoFundMe campaigns to raise money for medical bills, claiming to have cancer for around seven years. But the Alabama Attorney General’s office and the FBI caught on to the scheme and she was arrested on April 13, according to AL.com.
Authorities say that Cataldo acted alone. Donors who gave money to her campaigns will be able to get refunds. She is being held on a $100,000 bond.
11 Comments
Mary Lane
This hurts folks who really have had cancer!
William Kennedy
How’s this for alternative sentencing?
Pay back every dime. Personally apologize to every single donor, and spend every weekend for a year volunteering at the pediatric oncology unit at Children’s of Alabama?
Keeps prison population down, makes all the victims whole, and teaches her a lesson.
Can I get an amen?
Traci Biggs
So sad put her under the jail and don’t let her out
Laura Johnston Thigpen
I am recovering from leukemia and just one of the 35 medications a day cost me $500 a week and she’s lying about cancer to get a trip to disney!!! How sick!!
Paula Embry Johnson
Amen !!!
Jonathan Jewell
Ridiculous…keep up the fight. I’m about to enter my 15th year in remission. Welcome to club #CancerDidntWin
Laura Johnston Thigpen
Congrats #Godisbigger
Judith Brown
Amen
Michelle Quick
When I was getting treatment I hated asking my own family for financial help. Some people have no shame at all.
Lori Chandler Pruitt
Her parents sacrificed everything.
Amanda Baker Flynn
Must be the trending thing to do. I know someone that has done this. I’m a 24yr cancer survivor and this is a slap in the face. Disgrace. I would love to see them hooked up with an iv line full of harsh chemicals pumping into her body and leaving her with out being able to have kids, loosing her hair and so much more. These people have no idea what cancer patients go through and to mock them is a disgrace.