Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: SC-Sp00k on August 12, 2002, 04:48:13 PM
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Cyberbegger cashes in
From Giles Hewitt in New York
August 07, 2002
A WOMAN who set up a website to apeal for help to clear her shopping debts claims the money is pouring in.
Karyn is a 20-something New Yorker. She is single and works as a freelancer in TV production, but went on the Net asking people to help pay her $US20,000 ($37,950) debt.
It's not a great sounding proposition, and nothing is offered in return, yet it seems people are queuing up to help out.
Since setting up her website - http://www.savekaryn.com - in late June, Karyn says she has had more than 200,000 hits and the money is starting to roll in, albeit along with some pretty unpleasant hate mail.
Karyn - she vows it's her real name but will not give a surname - started the website after she ran up the debt of $US20,221 ($38,370) on her credit card indulging her passion for designer clothes.
The home page lays out the bottom line: "My name is Karyn, I'm really nice, and I'm asking for your help."
It asks all visitors to the site to fork out $US1 ($1.90) - or maybe $US2 ($3.80) or $US5 ($9.50) - and help whittle down the debt total to zero.
The first week she got $US5 ($9.50), the third week $US455 ($865) and the week ending July 28, $US1,350 ($2,560).
On the surface, the idea would appear to be a complete non-starter: a perfectly healthy, well-educated, highly-employable young woman "cyberbegging" for loose change because she allowed her designer-shopping bug to get out of control.
Hardly a worthy cause, but Karyn's success, it seems, has come from embracing rather than side-stepping the obvious question of why anyone should help her.
"I'm going to be honest here ... I wasn't out saving the world. I was just at Bloomingdales," is her website's frank assessment of how she got in such a mess in the first place.
"What's in it for you, you ask? I'll be honest, nothing is really in it for you," she adds, stressing that she will not pose nude or go on a date for money.
In a telephone interview, Karyn defended the website and herself against the charge of irresponsible freeloading.
"I'm not a lazy person. I never have been," she said, pointing out that her irregular freelance television work involved long hours for little pay.
She also spends a lot of time updating and refining her website.
"It's not just one page saying: 'Hey! Give me the money.' It's like a gazillion pages with funny things on it. And I get a response," she said.
"People e-mail and say: 'I went to your website and it made me laugh for five minutes and for me that's worth a couple of bucks. Here you go'."
Not all the e-mails are supportive. In fact out of the 2000-plus she has received, Karyn has filed around 50 per cent in a file labelled "mean".
"Initially, I thought it was like a fun thing, but then I got some really scary e-mails, like: 'I can find you in 72 hours and how would you like to be looking down the barrel of my gun'. It was really weird," she said.
The website has its own online detractors and has even spawned a satirical rival at http://www.dontsavekaryn.com, set up by Karyn-haters "Bob and Ben".
"We too are internet panhandlers. Please help us waste your money. We are nice ... no money will be used to help homeless people or starving people in Africa," Bob and Ben tell visitors to the site.
Understandably perhaps, Karyn is extremely protective of her anonymity, giving away only the fact that she lives in Brooklyn.
All donations arising from the website are paid through an online payment service or sent to a PO box number.
Some e-mail responses have included job offers, while others have been complimentary about her writing style.
"I've even talked to a couple of people about maybe writing a book," Karyn said.
"But," she added, "If I did do that, my first $US20,000 ($37,950) would go to charity I swear."
Its nice to know that stupid people still exist amongst us.
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oh my god, I thought it was a spoof mail, until I clicked on the link to the website and went to the real site.. I can only hope this is some psychology or sociology experiment.
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Internet bums... how interesting. Instead of sitting on the street all day sticking their hand out asking for money, they do it at home using a computer on the internet.
Just when being a bum couldn't get any easier..
-SW
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ya know... I just realized I ran up a 20,000 debt too........... :D
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Cool idea... Guess it's working too. :D
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i need a new computer, i'm a nice guy, if you send me some money to buy a new computer i will let you shoot me down
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gimmie us yer address. I'm sure something appropriate will arrive when you least expect it.
(Had yer rabies shot lately?)
:D
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Rip has a site just like this trying to work up funds to pay of his BMW debt. So far he's gotten 85 Cents U.S. ($35,000 Canadian).
AKDejaVu
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Hey! The domain name http://www.buymeacatalina.com is free!
Perhaps I should consider buying it... heck, I'd actually fly it! :D
It's not like I'm going on a shopping spree or something stupid... we are talking a Catalina, gents! :D
Let's see, I'll start with domain names such as:
http://www.buymeaferrari.com
http://www.makemefilthyrich.com
http://www.youhavetoomuchanyway.com
Hey, it works for those TV preachers, ain't it? :D
Daniel
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Jeeeeeezuzzz buymeaferrari.com and makemefilthyrich.com are ALREADY taken and working, check it out! :eek:
I'm truly dismayed :D
Daniel
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The Ferrari guy has already collected over $500.
Hmmm... this might be something to consider the next time HTC does a major update to the game engine... yeah... http://www.buymeabetterpc.com :D
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hum...maybe I should hop on the bandwagon:
http://www.buymeasturmovik.com
http://www.ineedastuka.com
http://www.109fortheadm.com
If any of these work, I promise to replace all the blank ammo in the Rook ammo bunkers with live ammo :)
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Originally posted by Sandman_SBM
The Ferrari guy has already collected over $500.
Hmmm... this might be something to consider the next time HTC does a major update to the game engine... yeah... http://www.buymeabetterpc.com :D
Or how about: http://www.heyHTChowaboutloweringyoursubscriptionchargeforuscanadiansbecausetheexchangerateiskillingus.com (http://mailto:billing@hitechcreations.com)
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I bet she'd get more money if she showed some boobies... :D
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Wow 1st time i have ever seen this....Was cracking up while reading all of those websites...Cant believe someone would actually give money for such purposes.
Strange very strange indeed.
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There is nothing new under the sun. I saw an ad similar to this more than 20 years ago. Fella placed an ad in a magazine that read;
Send $1 to the following address: and gave his P.O. box number.
The money poured in for him too.
Regards, Shuckins
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heh, she's not the dumb one. The people sending her money are. ;)
then again, if they are truly entertained by the site and feel it was worth a few $, that's their call. :)
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Originally posted by AKDejaVu
Rip has a site just like this trying to work up funds to pay of his BMW debt. So far he's gotten 85 Cents U.S. ($35,000 Canadian).
AKDejaVu
hehe, Bill Gates paid for my BMW
;)
(Come to think of it, YOU guys paid for it! You bought MS products! :D)
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Hey http://www.buymeabiggerjohnson.com is not taken! I've heard they have operations now but they are somewhat expensive.
I never have been to sure about those mechanical devices. You want me to stick what in where and do what?
AH has that affiliate program. I could earn money as well by putting a link from buymeabiggerjohnson.com to AH.
Where's my Frontpage Express to get started?
P.S. I checked out her website. What a real see you Next Tuesday... :rolleyes:
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TOTAL MONEY RECEIVED FROM NICE PEOPLE TO DATE: $4,105.84
She is certainly not the idiot.
The people sending her the money... well, I'm sure that covers a broad spectrum of intellect from the amused to the truly idiotic.
No, I AM THE IDIOT FOR NOT THINKING OF THIS FIRST! ARRGGGHHHHHHH!
Charon
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America long since failed the stupidity test. If I had told someone, in the 60's, that I could put one of the most common elements on the planet, into a bottle. And people would spend millions on it. They would have just givin me a very strange look.
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I walked at the Arbat street with my friend, Africa, a week ago. We walk looking for a place to eat, drinking beer from the bottles, and a young girl shows us a paper cup saying "young men, can you pour some beer?!", and Africa answers immediately: "Go steal!" (Idi voruy!)...
A dream of every Soviet schoolboy: if everyone will give me one kopeyka - I'll get 3 million rubles! Enough for candies, ice-cream and movies, hehe.
Designer clothes?! I see people who almost starve every day. It's THEM who needs money, not that stupid cow who is obviously too ugly to find a man who'll pay for her.
I bet it's a virtual character who's actually a bald man with a fat ass.
I have a question that bothers me since I learned about dangerous germs and microbes: is stupidity infective?
Another thing I remember... A Gipsy whoman sitting in the subway, begging "I need money for bread". An old whoman stops and gives her BREAD, the whole piece. The Gipsy starts shouting at her and THROWS THE BREAD AWAY!!! :eek: Beggars in the subway get more money then an IT engineer. I give money only to people who are honest and say they need a glass to cure the hangover.
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nm.
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HEres what you need
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She's up to $6,700 now. People are idiots.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/bosnak1.html
"Oh, on a related note: we'd hit it." :D
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maurader, or move to a country where the dollar means something :) jk
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Originally posted by Ripsnort
hehe, Bill Gates paid for my BMW
;)
(Come to think of it, YOU guys paid for it! You bought MS products! :D)
I do feel sorry for you. You actually DO seem to believe your own roadkill. Amazing.
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Originally posted by Wlfgng
maurader, or move to a country where the dollar means something :) jk
Or, get people from countries where the dollar means something to help me out... yah that's it... yah...
http://www.payformyAcesHighsubsciption.com (http://www.hitechcreations.com):D
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Guys i wont be flying tonight or for the next few! its time i took care of my debt! .............
lol
box ;)
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Thats a riot..
lots of people get paid more then 20k us for doing alot less then that web page..what is the problem.
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Doesn't anyone remember Homer Simpson's telemarketing scam, send $1 to Happy Dude, whatever Evergreen Terrace, Springfield....