how much did "ruth" make?

[Sobeknofret]

I know I donated but I can't remember how much. I'm guessing it was in the 10-20 amount.

[Kellbells]

I have $100 for the Chicago trip, never a thank you.

But I don't regret it. A few years ago during a move, I had several people bend over backwards for me. I see it as good karma to pay it forward when I can; she seemed like she needed it and I was in a position to help both financially and from the 'I feel obligated to do this' standpoints.

Now if she used it for a pedicure, I hope it resulted in some karma toenail fungus. :) I will certainly be more cautious in the future.

[silverspoons]

I offered to give her money for her trip to Chicago. She said she was staying about 3-4 minutes away during her journey. I offered to fill up her gas tank and buy her groceries at the store across from the motel. I stayed up waiting for her call and she never called. If she had met me I even had some cash(and I never carry cash) to give her. I knew the owner of the motel and almost went down and left money for her(the motel had only 12 rooms and only 4 were occupied so I thought I would be able to find her). I was ready to spend several hundred dollars but only if I gave it in person. I always had doubt deep down but was so convinced when she said she was in my area and was so specific about it.

[Ampak]

Your avatar is going to haunt my dreams. Is that Josh's sexy face? :shock: :lol:

It is the creepiest smuggar Instagram photo IMO :)

[church_of_dog]

It is the creepiest smuggar Instagram photo IMO :)

He's gazing at her but you just know he's really thinking about the milkshake :dance:

[Arete]

You guys are better people than I am. I would have been pissed if I had given RR money. Yes, I have spent money on frivolous entertainment and things I don't need, but it has always been with the understanding that it was frivolous entertainment or something I didn't really need. It's the eternal conflict. I am willing to give generously, but try reaching into my wallet without permission and I will smack that hand down. Still, the givers put good energy into a world badly in need, and that is never a waste.

The money she got under false pretenses is not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is that she is a fraud who has made a mockery of a very dangerous problem-the Quiverfull ideology.

[wild little fox]

$30 total. She did thank me. Twice IIRC - once via email and once on the blog.

[keen23]

The thing is, FJ readers were not her only supporters. There are likely many others out there. This was a complicated, long running scam. Anyone who gave money shouldn't feel foolish. She knew how to push buttons with her audience to make them want to give her things. She knew her target audience and how to play up on their sympathies.

[FabFamilyof5]

While I never donated I can tell you that appealing to people's emotions means she probably made quite a bit. Not enough to live off likely, but enough for extra fun money.

It's definitely possible to get a good amount of donations online. About 8 months ago my oldest cat needed long term hospitalization and surgery. She was an inch from death an we were given about a 40% chance she would make it through. Very generous people online gave upwards of $2500 for her bills. Of course, I also had pictures, hard copies of the bills and published the information of where she was at in case anyone wanted confirmation of the story. The donations saved my cat's life.

Ruth has been doing this for years. Crafting stories and appealing to people's emotions. Having blogged for years gave her credibility in some people's eyes. I think it's probably possible for her to have received thousands of dollars over the years.

[NDC22]

Hmmmm, do we all start letting PP know she is a scammer so at least they may shut her down. Since PP makes her give her banking info to them they tend to err on the side of complaints during investigation. I know I had an etsy person shut down through pp after they received my complaint and a few others after mine.

[Lainey]

You guys are better people than I am. I would have been pissed if I had given RR money.

Oh, I'm pretty pissed.

[Mela99]

Man. Money for lies.

[AmyP]

I never believed the father character. He was just too perfect. It was like she took every imaginative rant about what an ATI family must be like and wrote the perfect characters to fit. Sociopath patriarch, helpless undereducated women, it was a great read. Of course everyone believed the story, it matched what they already thought!

I was on the fence though, until the lesbian adoption. No repressed religious girl would ever adopt her child to lesbians. Methodists would be about as rebellious as she would be likely to get!

[SoSoNosy]

I sent her around $400 or so, over the course of her blog. I don't regret it; I could afford it without depriving my family of anything, and if she was legit she desperately needed help.

[honeyinthesunshine]

I think she wasn't thanking folks because she was receiving TONS of donations. She couldn't keep up. She said she was only making like $40, if anything, and with everything else going on on her blog,I don't think people questioned that bit. She was still crying poverty at every turn, and I think more people were donating than were necessarily saying they did so, because as much as the story was compelling, there were doubters, and no one wants to look the fool. I think she replied to high post count donors, for appearances' sake, and to lend legitimacy, but honestly, this was nothing more than a long con. She wasn't, in my opinion, morally ambiguous, she could give a shit about the folks kind enough to help her out, (which is doubly shitty, because people who were kind here may never be again) she wanted money, she wanted accolades, she wanted adulation.

I've doubted her for a while, and never donated, but said nothing, as she was virtually untouchable here. What clinched it for me, and maybe I'm late to the party here, was the post she titled "my father's dead".

It was the title. Not, "news from my family" or "I'm having a personal crisis" but the stark and dramatic "my father's dead" (cue violins) it struck me as off. Who says that like that? It reeked of bullshit. It was an attention getter, and to read the posts in that thread, no wonder she did it. Kindness over-fucking-flowing and donations rolling in.

I have an aunt who has done this type of shit before (I actually called my dad and had him read this, it's so similar to her regular storyline it's uncanny) it's always crisis after crisis, and then boom someone's dead. Person is actually alive, scam found out, rinse, repeat.

I don't think any part of this is true.I think it's an amalgamation of different stories, cobbled together with the glue of "necessary anonymity" and she did what any good business person would do.She saw Gothardites coming forward and thought, hey, I can get in on the sympathy ground floor, and then she went straight to fucking those sad people. Same as psychics charging the sad single lady thousands to remove the curse keeping her from true love, same as the guy on okcupid catfishing some poor schmuck for "rent money", same as the stripper who really likes YOU. It's nasty, and shitty and dirty. It's not in any way ambiguous.

Just my opinion.

[Arete]

Oh, I'm pretty pissed.

Aw Lainey, for that I am truly sorry. :( You put good out there, and it is never a waste to try and change the world's tone. She will remain what she probably will always be, a lying scammer who scams.

[Rachel333]

Wow, so she raked in quite a bit of money from a scam without suffering any consequences. No wonder people do this kind of thing.

[Mustang Sally]

Oh, I'm pretty pissed.

Me too. I gave her $70 and I am not exactly rich.

I was pissed when I thought someone had actually tracked her down at work, but I'm even more pissed out to find she just lied to everyone and took the kindness of strangers under false pretenses. I didn't expect anything in return for my money but honesty, and she couldn't even give that. (And no thank you, either, but I wasn't looking for one when I gave.)

ETA: I just drank a beer so I am slightly less kumbaya about this than I was earlier.

[treemom]

Just curious to know if you got a thank you? I wonder if she only bothered to thank people who sent at least $100 or something.

No. I wasn't originally going to post how much I gave because people have said snarky things to me in the past but I did a 500 one time and several more 10-50 dollar gifts and never got a thank you.

I am not bragging, nor do I think it is deserved. I am very lucky financially and have had a lot of help me out when shit was bad when I was a kid. I am paying forward all those stranger's kindness to me.

[DarkAnts]

No. I wasn't originally going to post how much I gave because people have said snarky things to me in the past but I did a 500 one time and several more 10-50 dollar gifts and never got a thank you.

I am not bragging, nor do I think it is deserved. I am very lucky financially and have had a lot of help me out when shit was bad when I was a kid. I am paying forward all those stranger's kindness to me.

Its nice to see people helping others. I dont think its snark worthy. It helps restores my faith in humanity when crap hits the fan.

[treemom]

And I was suspicious before I gave the 500, but it didn't hurt me or impact me and if she was genuine I knew it would have a big impact on her life.

And I won't stop giving when I feel the feeling to give.

[treemom]

Its nice to see people helping others. I dont think its snark worthy. It helps restores my faith in humanity when crap hits the fan.

People were pretty assholish about and to me over the Alecto/emmiedahl trip and how OMG I might have given them money.

One of the flouncing admins/mods who left during alectogate apparently shared some pretty shitty views on me and my "generosity". But what the fuck ever...my life will go on.

[Kailash]

No. I wasn't originally going to post how much I gave because people have said snarky things to me in the past but I did a 500 one time and several more 10-50 dollar gifts and never got a thank you.

I am not bragging, nor do I think it is deserved. I am very lucky financially and have had a lot of help me out when shit was bad when I was a kid. I am paying forward all those stranger's kindness to me.

I cannot imagine not saying thank you for the smallest donations, let alone $500. How incredibly entitled (s)he must feel.

[DarkAnts]

People were pretty assholish about and to me over the Alecto/emmiedahl trip and how OMG I might have given them money.

One of the flouncing admins/mods who left during alectogate apparently shared some pretty shitty views on me and my "generosity". But what the fuck ever...my life will go on.

I remember that. It was sad to watch people try to discredit you simply because you wanted to help keep FJ going. It was part of the reason I almost stopped coming to FJ.

[Closed Womb]

And I was suspicious before I gave the 500, but it didn't hurt me or impact me and if she was genuine I knew it would have a big impact on her life.

And I won't stop giving when I feel the feeling to give.

Just out of curiosity, was your $500 donation before or after she said she makes "$40 in tips on a good month". (RR Blog 9/5/10)

Not that I should give a crap about particular lies, at this point.