Faking Illness Online

[HardOCP News]

People that fake having a serious illness online are a bunch of sick bastards.

Some psychiatrists have started using the term Münchausen by internet (MBI) to describe this behaviour. Whereas Münchausen syndrome requires physically acting out symptoms to get attention from doctors, online scammers just have to be able to describe them convincingly.

 

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From the article:

....She began providing the round-the-clock emotional support that Mandy craved. "I could spend an hour with her in the morning, a couple of hours in the afternoon, then I'd be up at night after the kids went to bed, sometimes until one o'clock. Instead of having a glass of wine with my husband in the evening, I was on the computer listening to Mandy talk about her latest infection," she says. "She was always on the verge of death. If I denied her and she died, then how would I feel?"...

Sorry, but if you disrupt your life this much for a random stranger on the Internet, you deserve what you get for your naivety.

 

[unLucky17]

From the article:



Sorry, but if you disrupt your life this much for a random stranger on the Internet, you deserve what you get for your naivety.

spot on

 

[pothb]

.... This isn't news.

 

[TwistedAegis]

Catfish II: Outbreak

 

[HardOCP News]

.... This isn't news.

This isn't a forum post.

 

[pothb]

Sure it is. Steve.

But this is not news. It happens all the time.. the only thing different is someone fell for it big time! Which has also happened... like with that looking at the orb bull.

 

[ghost6303]

wait, what? there are trolls online? this is the first im hearing of it...

 

[jiminator]

what is her email address? She has an inheritance she needs to be made aware of....

 

[tubular]

Wow, that article was pretty intense

 

[NKDietrich]

.... This isn't news.

Stop faking Asperger's online.

 

[beowulf7]

They're attention whores.

 

[CommanderFrank]

We've had our share of them here over the years. If they are truly sick, we try to help to a point. If they are not....well....we make sure they find help elsewhere.