31-year-old Jessica Ann Smith raised more than $10,000 for her cancer treatment — but she doesn’t have cancer.
She was arrested on Tuesday after her husband discovered her scheme and alerted authorities to his wife’s lies.
via NYDN:
She’d allegedly set up a pair of fundraising campaigns in June, claiming she needed help paying medical bills and raising her kids following a colon cancer diagnosis that wasn’t real.
“Jessica is facing tremendous medical bills, travel costs, paying for the care for her children and missed work,” her GoFundMe campaign allegedly read before it was taken down by the web campaign platform, which reportedly deemed it fraudulent after Jessica had collected more than $4,700 dating back to June 10.
Her Facebook fundraising account, which was also shut down, collected $8,553 since being launched June 10.
After becoming aware of the alleged scam, Robert Smith reportedly went to Uwchlan Township Police and told them “to the best of his knowledge, his wife does not have cancer of any form and that she is covered on his medical insurance through his employer.”
She had opened the fundraising accounts under her maiden name.
Robert, who was joined by an associate when he went to cops, also reportedly provided police proof of deposits from a joint checking account he shares with his wife. That account started receiving payments through PayPal after Jessica started her fund-raising drive.
While Jessica is said to have told police she was undergoing chemo treatments from a Penn Medicine physician, who reportedly told authorities the alleged fraudster was a patient, but she had received iron infusions for anemia, but there was no mention of cancer.
According to the report, Smith also told her employer she needed time off recently because her father had died. He’s fine.
Her husband agreed to “in sickness and in health” not “faking sickness and lying about your health.” He did the right thing.
