Maddie Russo, the TikToker who was accused of faking a cancer diagnosis twice for clout, has pleaded guilty to stealing from GoFundMe donors.
The US teenager pleaded guilty to felony theft on Wednesday after she was accused of stealing more than USD$37,000 (that’s more than AUD$57,000) from GoFundMe donors who thought they were giving it to her for pancreatic cancer treatment.
In case you aren’t across this wild online scam, it all started when Russo told local publication North Scott Press of her (fake) diagnosis in October 2022.
She claimed she was in a college accounting class when she got the tragic news she’d be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at just 19 years old. According to Russo, she was initially diagnosed in February, but then months later was also diagnosed with Leukemia, too. Oh, and she said she also had a huge tumour wrapped around her spine.
“Life has been crazy,” Russo told North Scott Press in a wildly emotional interview given what we know now.
“It’s like a Catch-22. I can’t win for losing. I feel like I’ve been rocked to my soul, and right now, everything is kind of uncertain. I just want to know my game plan, and right now, I don’t know what that is.
“Of course, every day can’t be sunshine and rainbows, but you can’t just choose to be mad at the cancer. It just happens to people. If you stay depressed, and in a dark space, I feel like your body will never get better.”
Russo spoke to local media, appeared on a podcast about pancreatic cancer and posted about her alleged diagnosis on TikTok and Facebook, garnering a following of sympathetic people who rallied around her as she apparently fought to stay alive — seeming all the more heroic given she said she was given an 11 per cent survival rate and went through 90 rounds of radiation and 30 rounds of oral chemotherapy.
“They gave me a slim 11-percent survival rate for five years before this latest tumor was discovered,” she continued.
“Eleven percent. At 19 years old, I don’t know if I will live to see the day I graduate from college, get married, or become a mom. In the meantime, I will fight.”
Uh huh. Okay.
Russo then launched a GoFundMe fundraiser to raise money for her fake cancer treatments, and got heaps of donations, too.
“If you are able to, donations would be greatly appreciated to help cover medical expenses and to allow Maddie to focus on one thing only, which is to show that she is stronger than cancer and will beat this. Please donate/share if you can,” the fundraiser pleaded.
However, the whole thing unravelled when people online began noticing that not everything was as it seemed.
According to court documents, police allege witnesses came to them with concerns of “terrible life-threatening inaccuracies of her medical equipment placement on her body”, per New York Post.
Her TikTok followers also began theorising something was fishy, with people criticising the placement of certain tubes and packs on her body.
Police then commenced an investigation and reportedly found that Russo allegedly stole pictures from other cancer patients and used them as her own. Officers also searched Russo’s home and found other evidence, including medication prescribed in a family member’s name.
Finally, police then obtained Russo’s medical records, and whoopsie: turns out she had never been diagnosed with any type of cancer or tumor at any medical facility in the area where she has been a patient.
Fkn yikes.
Obviously this ignited outrage given people had donated thousands of dollars to her.
GoFundMe took down her page and reimbursed all the donors, and Russo was charged with theft.
When she’s sentenced, she could face up to 10 years behind bars.
