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Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Help My Baby Live- scam alert

I've seen some despicable attempts at scamming kind-hearted people out of their hard-earned money, but this tops them all.

An 'anonymous' unmarried couple is claiming that if they don't raise $50,000.00 within 80 days (of this posting), they will abort their unborn baby. Although not destitute, they say they don't have the money to properly raise the child and adoption is not an option for the 'mother'; hence the "ransom" demand for the baby.

"It comes down to this. If we can't raise the $50,000 in the next 3 months, we'll have to choose abortion. We don't like it, and we don't like the nature of our appeal, but it is what it is. We're asking you to donate money to us using the link to your left. Anything you can give
would be appreciated."
The site, Helpmybabylive is hosted by invisihosting, a service that allows the client to remain completely anonymous, which would tend to confirm the scam nature of the Internet appeal. However, even if the situation happened to be legit, it's still absolutely reprehensible, perhaps even more so. That a young couple would place a monetary value on the life of a child, when adoption is a viable option, regardless of the 'mother's belief "that she doesn't believe that she'd be able to give up a child after giving birth to it" is truly shameful.

I wonder if these are the same people who created the savetoby.com site, that threatened to eat Toby, the rabbit, if they did not receive $50,000.00 in donations. Did they think there would be greater appeal ( and therefore more money) if they graduated from a rabbit to a baby?

Helpmybabylive.com has, to date, accumulated $12,500 in donations via Pay Pal, or so the website says.

Either way, scam or legit, this is truly sick!


H/T: Paula Mooney

17 comments:

Pat Jenkins said...

i guess we have oral roberts to blame for all these ultimatums!! thanks for finding this incog, oh what some will do or threaten to do for money!!! God help us all!!!

Karen Townsend said...

I was thinking it's incredible that they could raise such an amount so far. Then I remember all the little old ladies and other vulnerable souls who sent checks, sometimes weekly to evangelical ministers preaching on television.

So sad that a couple is so twisted in thinking to begin with. Then to add compassionate donors on top of it, well, it's too much to understand.

Thanks for your support on my comments section today.

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness. This is the first I have heard of this. How awful. Adoption is not an option? She can KILL the baby, but not give it up so it could have the possibility at a life?

Chris McClure aka Panhandle Poet said...

I believe this is called extortion. The threat of murder if a ransom is not paid.

Incognito said...

PATJ: It is pretty pathetic what people will do, including religious people like Roberts, to make some easy money.

KAREN: There are a lot of smart, educated, kind people who want to believe that people are not capable of such scams. And they could be legit..either way. Disgusting. My pleasure Karen, re the comment.

DEBBIE: I just discovered it today, as well. Your last comment makes me think it's a scam.

PAN: Yeah.. it is..sickening, whatever it is.

WomanHonorThyself said...

good Lord..what has the world come to!

Frank Partisan said...

Register and examine http://www.419eater.com . You will learn about every scam in the world. The people on this board are devoted to fighting scammers.

I will link to your blog.

MUD said...

You do realize that you are giving them advertising for a scam. I want to be a grandfather in the worst way and hate these kind of people. MUD

Frasier said...

Thats crazy!They should have thought of that before they had unprotected sex!It they are legit!!

Incognito said...

ANGEL: Sad, innit?!

RENEGADE: I heard about 419eater when I did a post on Nigerian scams, after I rec'd a slew of emails from them.

MUD: I see it more as alerting people to a scam. I doubt there is even any baby... but who knows.

FRASY: Don't think they are, Poo. Not sure which is more sickening.

Righty64 said...

Without a doubt it is one of the most disgusting things that I have read in a long time. WHat is so troubling is, these are not stupid people. They are putting a lot of thought into scamming people for money in one of the more immoral ways I know of. Why do these people not realize that they can put all this to do good and get a real reward, not monetary. This is right up there with people who can not just kill themselves for their pathetic lives but usually family members as well. I hope these scum are found ASAP!

Incognito said...

Righty64: There are a lot of conscience-less people out there who could care less about others. Pathetic.

Dionne said...

Sick doesn't even begin to describe this. If they raise the $50,000 what will they tell their child? If we had only raised $40,000 we would've chosen to kill you. Repulsive!!

Anonymous said...

That is seriously disgusting.

Incognito said...

The site was off for a while, but it's back up. The paypal isn't functioning, though who knows how long that will last.

I still think it's a scam and no such baby exists... but who knows.

Anonymous said...

http://keyetv.com/topstories/local_story_190200140.html


This was a total scam. It has all been uncovered. Matthew Schiros has gotten more than he bargained for when he created this scam.

Incognito said...

Thank you anon for the link. I figured as much.

His name had been bandied about on different forums but good they finally figured out for sure.

Disgusting joke or no.