Kaycee Nicole Swenson - ein Mädchen, das nie existierte

Was das englische Wiki weiß:

Zitat

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Kaycee Nicole, aka Kaycee Nicole Swenson, was a fictitious persona played by an American woman named Debbie Swenson (born Deborah Marie Dickman 1960) Between 1999 and when the hoax was discovered in 2001, Swenson, playing the role of Kaycee, represented herself on numerous websites as a teenager suffering from terminal leukemia. Kaycee was reported to have died on May 14, 2001, and her death was publicized on May 16; shortly thereafter, members of the online communities that had supported her unraveled the story and discovered that Kaycee had never actually existed. Debbie Swenson confessed on her blog to the hoax on May 20, 2001

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaycee_Nicole

Das ist nun schon eine Weile her.

Habt ihr damals auch von dieser unglaublichen und pietätlosen Aktion erfahren?

Ich glaube, jener Hoax hat dann in der Forenwelt einige Nachahmer gefunden, leider ....

Noch etwas Info dazu.
Leider findet man im Internet fast nur englisch-sprachige Quellen dazu.

A Beautiful Life, an Early Death, a Fraud Exposed

Zitat

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ON May 14, Kaycee Nicole Swenson, an effervescent 19-year-old, died from complications surrounding leukemia, which she had been battling for nearly two years. From her home in Kansas, Kaycee, an unyieldingly optimistic high school basketball star, had chronicled her remissions and relapses in her online diary, or Weblog, which she had dubbed Living Colours.

For nearly a year, thousands of people went to the site to follow her travails. Many came to feel as if they knew her, and a few talked with her regularly on the phone. Some sent her gifts. Others with cancer spoke of her as an inspiration. On May 15, when Kaycee's online followers went to her Weblog, they found a small image of a rose, accompanied by an announcement of her death:

''Thank you for the love, the joy, the laughter and the tears. We shall love you always and forever.''

Hundreds of people, none of whom had ever met Kaycee, were crushed by the news of her death. ''So many people reached out to this beautiful girl who was so positive in the face of adversity,'' said Saundra Mitchell, a screenwriter in Indianapolis.

But Ms. Mitchell was one of the first to cast doubt on what turned out to be an intricately detailed fabrication. A few days after the death announcement, Debbie Swenson, a 40-year-old homemaker, confessed to having invented the life and death of Kaycee. Ms. Swenson, who has two teenage children and lives in Peabody, Kan., a small town about 50 miles northeast of Wichita, had posed as Kaycee's mother.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/31/techn...ud-exposed.html

Das war eine schlimme Geschichte damals!

Wer kann sich noch daran erinnern?

Kurios - und traurig

Ja, und diese Art von Betrug soll gar nicht so selten sein.

The short life of Kaycee Nicole

Zitat

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For two years, a young American girl recounted her brave struggle against leukaemia in a daily online diary. This month she died. Thousands of web-users sent condolences. But, as Bobbie Johnson reveals, there was just one problem ...

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https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2...daymediasection

Das Problem war, dass diese "Kayce Nicole" niemals gelebt hatte.

Solch eine Art hoax gibt es immer mal wieder.