Back when you had to pay for dialup by the minute, my brother got involved with a lingerie model on the opposite coast. Yeah, I know, seems a little suspicious right off the bat there, but I read through all the emails and chats and letters and damn this lady was good at lying.
She had my brother roped into believing that she was the love of his life, and then in the middle of all the joy she started getting a “brain tumor.” He tried to get out to see her before she died but he was too late, and then her “friend” (or was there ever really a best friend either?) emailed him the news that she had died, and the details of when and where, and where she was being buried.
In the middle of his heartache my brother’s friend said, “Dude, wake up, what kind of lingerie model needs to get onto the Internet to meet guys?” and then my brother started pulling the threads and it all unraveled- no one under the age of 80 died that evening at that hospital, no one was buried in her home town that week, and on and on.
She was married, had kids, and was using her business answering machine (really was some kind of model but more like catalog and X stuff) to catch his messages.
What was really strange about it all was that it seemed planned. She talked early on about getting headaches, like even in her first chat to him.
I don’t know but he was very shaken up by it. I cannot even imagine her motivation or why she would take it so far. Reading about the faux twitter cancer victim, I feel total revulsion that someone would do this - and I think when you know about actual cancer patients like Xeni who have gone through this, it’s just so mean that they would try to play people just for the experience of pathos or of goofing off on people. I just saw a documentary by a woman who faked being a 9/11 victim and got herself elected president their healing community - same feeling. Attention seeking loser.
Further up in the comments, “Munchausen By Internet” is mentioned.
But even more simply: what makes people comment on the internet? What makes them come back and find out whether anyone’s “liked” their comment? What makes millions of Redditors make up stories every day trying to get on the front page?
People have a widespread need for attention, for assurance that other people like them or respect their opinions. Each upvote or follow or reply is a tiny burst of pleasure. Some people just carry this much further than others.
My guess is this: she had a regular ol’ Twitter account, then for whatever reason (some other trauma in her real world life, for example, or just straight up being unbalanced in general) decided that she wanted more attention. What’s a good way to do that? Pretend to have cancer! I haven’t seen any financial swindling behind this girl’s hoax, (compared to, say, this one from a few years ago
Personal opinion is it’s this Shannon woman. Or the person behind that sappy youtube video. Wonder how many marketing job offers he got for that. Or someone connected to the band that played that music on the sappy youtube video.
I thought it was fake from day one, though. Knowing people who have died of that cancer and similar brain cancers, the last few weeks are horrid.
I noticed a curious overlap between the lives of Amanda and S McKarney. In Sep 2010, Amanda tweeted about being at the “Capital Cupcake Camp.” And in a Sep 2010 blog post, McKarney also mentioned preparing for the Capital Cupcake Camp. So if Amanda was real, it’s likely her and McKarney met in real life. Or, at least, were in the same room together at one time. Small world! If Amanda wasn’t real, it’s weird that both fake Amanda and McKarney were simultaneously posting about the Capital Cupcake Camp.
It was two months after this cupcake event that Amanda posted a reply to one of McKarney’s tweets.
