US Woman Charged for Scamming Facebook Friends with Cancer Diagnosis

A U.S. woman tried to trick her Facebook friends by telling them that she had been diagnosed with cancer. She is now facing charges for scamming her friends who donated money for her cause.

It was 39-year-old Cristina Lagman who posted on her Facebook page that she was dying of cancer. She also wrote that she was going through financial hardship. This motivated Valerie Cortes and her fiancé to organise a fundraiser for Lagman at a local comedy club. The Murrieta woman said that they had offered gift cards for spa treatments, movies and dinners to Lagman who had claimed to be suffering from the terminal disease. She said that they wanted the last days of the Riverside County woman to be happy. However, Cortes found Lagman's behaviour at the fundraiser a bit odd. She drank a lot, frolicked around and passed donation bags around at the event. Cortes thought that it was unusual for someone who had four to six weeks more to live, ABC7 reported.

When Lagman was asked to show some evidence of her illness, she failed to provide any. She could not show any paperwork, a doctor's visit or a prescription bottle. People started questioning the authenticity of her diagnosis. It was when Cortes asked her if she would take her to a doctor. Lagman said that she had been treated at multiple hospitals like UCLA Medical Center and Loma Linda University Medical Center. Further investigations revealed that there was no medical record for Lagman's cancer treatment. Cortes said that Lagman had made her angry and disgusted. She was the reason why the community would now doubt people talking about getting diagnosed with cancer.

"First to Know" reported that Lagman shared multiple posts on Facebook that showed her intention to make people aware of her apparent disease. She wrote about her children and parents who were "in their own worlds" while she was left with "the burden of dying" by herself. She also wrote that she was scared. "I have fought really hard ... I don't think I really believed it might really take me till today," she wrote.

According to investigators, Lagman may have received gifts and donations worth more than $3,000 through GoFundMe website. She is charged with theft by false pretences.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au