Woman's Cancer Battle A Fraud, Police Say

[Anthony]

​

A California woman has been charged for allegedly pretending to have cancer and scamming dozens of Facebook friends with a fake cancer diagnosis.
Cristina Lagman, 39, from Riverside County received thousands of donations and gifts after she had posted her story on her Facebook page.
Lagman asked her followers for money saying she was dying of terminal cancer and was facing financial hardship.
“I’m trying to stay as active as possible,†Lagman posted in February, “but my lower back is really starting to hurt me, as the cancer is in my spine.â€
Lagman would post updates about her suffering through chemotherapy. She also posted pictures of herself with a bald head and wearing cancer awareness T-shirts.
“I am so scared..I have fought really hard..I don’t think I really believed it might really take me till today,†Lagman posted in February.
“I’m down to possibly just weeks..my children and parents are in their own worlds and I’m left with the burden of dying by myself,†Lagman wrote.
Authorities said Lagman’s posts during her cross-country road trip began to raise the suspicions of some of her Facebook friends. People wondered how she could manage the trip while she was supposedly near death and in dire financial straits.
Valerie Cortes noticed a picture that Lagman posted of herself receiving chemotherapy was a stock photograph posted widely online.
Cortes confronted Lagman and told her that a lot of people had doubts that she had cancer, she then offered to take her to a doctor to confirm her diagnosis.
"She had no proof. I asked her to show me a prescription bottle, a doctor's visit, paperwork, something," Cortes said.
[video=youtube_share;T2rXf75-Sfg]http://youtu.be/T2rXf75-Sfg[/video]
After a few months of investigating, police say her cancer story was a fraud. They didn’t find any trace of her cancer and never came across her medical record.
"I am angry with her. I am disgusted by her. She has caused our community to doubt when people say they've got cancer and need help," Cortes said.
Lagman is sticking to her story, she said that indeed has cancer and the allegations against her are what’s false.
“That’s how cancer is,†Lagman said. “Every day people are told they’re not going to make it and miracles happen."
Lagman was charged with felony theft by false pretenses. Riverside County court records show that losses are estimated a little over $3,000. She is due in court for arraignment December 2.

 

[Onionman]

I don't even know where to start with this one! What are terrible thing to do. Taking advantage of people's generosity simply to fund a lifestyle. The horrible thing is that people may start to question the honesty of genuine sufferers. I hope the justice system makes an example of her.

 

[dolittle94]

This is the reason why generosity is getting harder and harder to come by. People who are sick in the mind like this lady fake these tragic stories and then when the truth comes out it makes it difficult for you to help out someone else in a similar situation because you don't know if what they say is the truth. I saw something similar to this before, except it was about a homeless guy. Although he apparently wasn't homeless because some civilians were a bit suspicious and they caught the guy on video as they followed him a few blocks and saw him get into a fairly nice car and drive to a neighborhood and go into a house. They knocked on the door, confronted the man and found out that it was indeed his house and when they accused him of fraud he got angry at them and threatened them. This is one of the reasons why I can't bring myself to even donate a bit of money to any person standing on the side of the street with a cardboard sign.

 

[mimsee]

I feel bad for all of the good people who did the right thing in trying to support someone they thought was having a very hard time. I will never understand how a sick mind such as this can live with themselves after conning hardworking and good people out of their money. I am glad that she was found out and that now she HOPEFULLY will stop trying to scam people...but from her persistence in stating her innocence, I can tell that she will continue doing this for the rest of her life.

 

[Gelsemium]

I don't know how can someone fake cancer just to scam people. More, how did this pass undetected by everyone?

 

[pattycake]

I don't even know where to start with this one!

Haaaa!!!! Busted! That's where to start! LOL! Man... People are something else. But the thing is, we don't have to distrust anybody who makes a claim, all we have to do is be more alert to reality. Say for instance in this case where some FBers wondered how she could travel and be dying and poor, that led to finding the stock photo and then led to her being busted. You see, people should be alert to reality in the first place. If we were, then no one could scam us. We can't do anything about somebody who decides to deceive to receive, but we can make it impossible for them to accomplish with awareness.

Understand?

 

[Gelsemium]

We could say lol busted, but it's not funny at all when all those people were scammed.

 

[Peninha]

This sort of deceiving is criminal, people wanted to help and now will be fearful to help again because they felt deceived this time.

 

[pattycake]

We could say lol busted, but it's not funny at all when all those people were scammed.

It wasn't credit card charges. These people didn't part with anything they couldn't afford to. So what matters is that they busted her and a lesson is learned.

 

[caparica007]

That's right, I am glad she got caught, she won't deceive anyone again, what a liar.

 

[pattycake]

That's right, I am glad she got caught, she won't deceive anyone again, what a liar.

I doubt that she has learned her lesson and won't try it again. She may in fact cook up a new plan, because for one thing, she's denying any wrongdoing and still insisting that she has cancer, which indicates that her mind is firmly set on getting over and she'll be cooking up a new approach. But the general public need to become more attuned to reality in order ward off deceit from succeeding.

 

[shandrum]

Wow, now this is so sad. I think of the countless number of people that I know, that we all know that have lost their lives to cancer or are fighting the fight of their lives. I really don't even know what to say, but this lady really needs some help and a jail sentence. If, by chance she does have cancer, than my apologizes. She now has to produce the evidence that she does indeed have cancer to a court.

 

[pattycake]

Wow, now this is so sad. I think of the countless number of people that I know, that we all know that have lost their lives to cancer or are fighting the fight of their lives. I really don't even know what to say, but this lady really needs some help and a jail sentence. If, by chance she does have cancer, than my apologizes. She now has to produce the evidence that she does indeed have cancer to a court.

Y'all just need to chill out and stop overreacting to everything and realize that there's people out there who won't hesitate to pull a fast one for money. None of us should be so blind to reality.

 

[Sweetheart]

Ridiculous but in California some people will try anything to make money. She reminds me of the TV show "Shameless". The guy on that made his son pretend he had cancer so they would get all kinds of things for free. I don't like Facebook there's all kinds of nonsense going on with this site. This lady is not much different than a woman begging in a gas station. Panhandling on the internet. They think of it as a job actually. I had one lady tell me she made $300 an hour begging. I won't give anybody money on the street after I heard this.