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Comment by bluetidepro | Hacker News Reader

> The three face potential sentences of five to 10 years for the second-degree crimes.

Does anyone know more details on the actual crimes? I didn't see it in the article. I haven't followed this story that closely as it's popped up this week more and more, but I'm confused about what part of what they did was actually illegal? Didn't just gullible people on GoFundMe fall for a fake sap story?

EDIT: I guess I just missed it in the article. Makes sense: https://definitions.uslegal.com/t/theft-by-deception/

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Since the articles cites CNN, here is what I found over there:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/16/us/gofundme-scam-donor-trnd/i...

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/15/us/couple-homeless-man-gofund...

> The couple, Kate McClure and Mark D'Amico, and the man, Johnny Bobbitt Jr., face charges of second-degree theft by deception and conspiracy to commit theft by deception, Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina said Thursday.

> Does anyone know more details on the actual crimes? I didn't see it in the article.

First sentence:

"The US protagonists in a viral fundraising campaign for a homeless man have been charged with theft by deception and conspiracy."

> Didn't just gullible people on GoFundMe fall for a fake sap story?

Yes, but there are laws that make various forms of such behavior criminal, such as fraud and criminal deception.

>> but I'm confused about what part of what they did was actually illegal? Didn't just gullible people on GoFundMe fall for a fake sap story?

> Yes, but there are laws that make various forms of such behavior criminal, such as fraud and criminal deception.

It's kinda depressing that some people seem to think the law ends (or even worse, should end) at caveat emptor.

So I'm guessing 'theft by deception' is a great example of arbitrary law. If it were applied universally I'd expect most adtech firms would be out of business.

How is it arbitrary? Deception seems like a pretty objective measure to me. If it would put most adtech firms out of business then that’s a problem with adtech, not with the law.

Theft by deception. https://definitions.uslegal.com/t/theft-by-deception/

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