Cyberbegger cashes inFrom Giles Hewitt in New York August 07, 2002A 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."
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