DO SOMETHING.
Backing up – on 7/4, city_glitter posted a message claiming that her cat had been set on fire by persons unknown, asking for help to pay the vet bill.
The first I’d ever known of her was a message in wordweaverlynn‘s journal, pointing people to that entry. She and many others got the word out in a big way, which led to over $12k in donations.
wordweaverlynn and the others who spread word of the initial post are blameless in their desire to help. There were no obvious signs that this was a hoax, and a couple of people who were vociferously supportive of the perp have damned good reputations—reputations that the liar was more than willing to use in order to commit her crime. None of those people did anything wrong.
city_glitter did. She committed fraud.
She also violated LJ’s TOS and still has a working account, which is a lesser yet not insignificant issue.
I’m seeing a LOT of outrage about the situation, but I’ve yet to run across anyone saying, “I donated, so I filed a fraud complaint with the police today” or even a statement that they’ve personally made an LJ abuse report.
There are procedures in place to deal with thieves. Use them. Encourage those who donated to use them.
The same goes for people who abuse their LJ accounts—you can get her account shut down. (I didn’t get involved, so I don’t think I have grounds to file complaints with LJ. They’re funny that way.)
