Oy Chihuahua - Lympnoma Strikes Again!

You'll pardon me, as I have a headache from trying to follow the shenanigans and tomfoolery I'm about to lay down on you. Brace yourselves, readers - it's time for a tale of scamming, free stuff, and (fake) cancer. Lympnoma strikes again!

So a little background: about a year or so ago, a few product formulators and company owners started receiving emails from a woman inquiring about free products for her daughter, a young woman suffering from "non-Hodgekins lymphnoma" (her spelling). The emails were all strikingly similar, along these lines:

"Amanda's Wish
I am writing on behalf of my daugher, her name is Amanda and she
is 17 and she has cancer, non hodgkins lymphnoma, she loves your products and I was
wondering if there was anything you could send to her, anything would
be cherished and appreciated,Thanks her address is Amanda Neil"

Amanda Neil was the young woman's name, and the email requests for free products always came from the same source, her "mother." About 10 months ago, one of the formulators who received this email posted about it in the Regretsy forums, because something seemed off about the whole thing. Lo and behold, several other company owners and formulators stepped forward with copies of their own emails from "Amanda Neil," all asking for free product because of "lymphnoma." Please enjoy reading some of the back story on "Amanda Neil" here: Regretsy.

You might ask, "well, Soctopus, what's the big deal? Why not give the cancer patient a few free things to brighten her day?" Because when enough people became involved, some of them started searching for "Amanda Neil" on the interwebs, and *boy* did they ever find her. A list of Amanda's outlets:

https://twitter.com/manda__mayhem
http://www.myspace.com/mandamayhemofficial#!
http://www.myspace.com/amandamayhemrocks#!
http://mandamayhemofficial.blogspot.com/

There's a lot of info in those links! Whew, am I ever BEAT from all that reading. I learned about Amanda's blog, her make-up favorites, her music, her love for "BooBoo" Stewart (I can't even, with that name). You know what I didn't read or learn about? Lymphnoma. Because it's not part of her life. It's not even a real disease. Lymphoma, however, is - a debilitating and scary dyscrasia. People with lymphoma deserve support and respect. People who fake having *lymphnoma* in order to receive free stuff deserve to rot in a special hell. Thankfully, the ladies and gentlemen of Regretsy swiftly went to town on "Amanda Neil," leading to the deletion of her prior blogs/FB profiles/internet presence. Because she was caught red-handed. So what brought on this blog post, since all of this is circa 10+ months ago?

"Amanda" surfaced again, with the same scam, asking for free products from Solstice Scents, one of my favorite indie fragrance/B&B companies. Same exact email. Same exact request. Oy. So this blog post is for you, "Amanda Neil," to remind you that the interwebs never forget. Never. Not ever. Not when someone scams small businesses, and not when they scam in a small, tight-knit community. Although you were right about one thing, "Amanda" - Solstice Scents *is* awesome. Too bad you won't get some free products to try them. Better luck next time, and good luck with your lymphnoma treatments!