Greed or need sometimes pushes people to different, including not the most honest and worthy deeds. Someone sacrifices their moral principles in order to earn extra money, but does not risk breaking the law, while others follow the slippery path of crime. Everyone wants to be successful and wealthy, but not everyone is ready to go to extreme measures for this. In addition to such radical methods of solving financial problems as robbery or blackmail, there are more inventive, but sometimes no less disgusting ways to get a profit. It's about people who tried to make money in medicine at any cost, and this is what came of it.
1. Sale of varicella-zoster virus
It is known that having smallpox as a child is much safer than having it as an adult. For this reason, many parents deliberately infected their offspring so that in the future they would not be threatened with a disease that could cause serious complications in adulthood. Doctors opposed the artificial spread of the virus, but this did not stop the parents. Wendy Verkit, a native of Nashville, Tennessee, set up an unusual smallpox business.
When her own children caught chickenpox, it occurred to Wendy that there was money to be made from it. She created a community on Facebook, where she posted an ad in which she offered everyone to buy cotton swabs and lollipops treated with contaminated saliva for $50 each. The clients were parents who thought it was better if the child had chickenpox now than to be at risk in the future. Virket's business was quickly shut down because sending a disease-causing virus (which can be extremely dangerous to adults who did not have chickenpox as children) by mail is a criminal offense.
2. Breast cancer will help you get free breast implants
Some women with small breasts dream of breast implants, and not everyone has the money needed for the operation, but Jamie Lynn Toler of Phoenix, Arizona, has found an original way to do without spending a lot. The 27-year-old woman began telling friends and colleagues that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and needed a large amount of money for the operation. Toler even opened a website to collect donations, and eventually received about $8,000 in her accounts.
Philanthropists began to get suspicious when Jamie turned down an offer for free cancer surgery. Instead, the woman had her breasts enlarged using the services of a plastic surgeon from another clinic. She paid him in cash so as not to leave evidence, but the doctor told one of Jamie's former colleagues about the operation, and she went to the police. The hapless Miss Toler was arrested on charges of fraud, and the court sentenced her to one year in prison, followed by three years of probation.
3. Prison will cure all diseases
The life of James Veron from North Carolina was not the best of times - there was no job, no money for health insurance, and in addition, health problems began. In order to somehow raise the standard of living, James did not find any other way out but to go to jail. Of course, the man approached the matter with all seriousness and thoroughness. In 2011, 59-year-old Veron came to one of the bank branches and handed over a note to the cashier demanding to give him $1. When the bank employee realized that this was not an application for a loan, but a robbery, he immediately pressed the so-called panic button, and the elderly robber patiently waited for the police and did not resist at all during the arrest, because all this corresponded to his plan in the best possible way.
James expected to spend three years behind bars so that doctors could carry out all the necessary operations, because by law the state is obliged to provide prisoners with medical care. However, Veron's plan did not work 100% - his actions were regarded as a simple theft, and not an armed bank robbery, so he received a shorter sentence - the amount that James demanded from the cashier was too ridiculous.
4. Simulation of pregnancy and sale of a non-existent child
Many childless couples dream of having a child, and most succeed sooner or later. However, some people, due to various physiological reasons, are not able to have children, so they have to resort to the services of so-called surrogate mothers, who, for a certain amount, go through the procedure of artificial insemination, bear the baby, and then give it into the hands of "customers".
Serena Carol Matthews and Scott Thomas Smith decided to capitalize on other couples' desire for the joys of parenthood and published an advertisement in the newspaper that they were ready to give up parental rights to their child, who was due to be born some time later, for a monetary reward. They selected six of the wealthiest clients from the clients who applied to them and took a substantial amount from each of them as an advance, and one of the women who was ready to acquire an adopted child even agreed to pay their utility bills. Matthews and Smith got hold of pregnancy tests that came back positive and some ultrasounds of the "baby-to-be" so the hoax wouldn't be discovered ahead of time.
However, when, after nine months, the long-awaited child was not presented to applicants for the "position" of his parents, they suspected a simulation of pregnancy. Serena and Scott tried to go on the run, but they were quickly found. The investigation showed that the couple were part of a large organized network for the sale of non-existent children, the victims of which were more than twenty childless families in different states. Later, the court sentenced Matthews and Smith to 27 months in prison and ordered them to pay a hefty fine in favor of the defrauded clients.
5. Fictitious death for insurance claims
Like many people, Jean Crump dreamed of easy money. However, as a kind woman, she did not want to harm anyone, so she decided to make money on corpses, or rather on staging the death of non-existent people. Crump, then 66, worked in a mortuary, and together with Faye Schilling, 60, a specialist at a blood donation center, they came up with a scheme that allowed them to extort money from insurance companies.
Jin and Fei forged insurance documents, issuing them for fictitious patients (there are suspicions that in some cases they were real, but already deceased), and after some time they announced the "untimely death of the patients" and applied to the insurance company for compensation. They staged funerals, and once even feigned an "exhumation" by putting a dummy in the coffin and adding some beef for convincing weight, and then cremated the "corpse" and forged cremation documents so that the absence of a body in the grave would not arouse suspicion. Thus, the scammers managed to earn about $315,000 until the insurance companies began their investigation. Convincing evidence of the criminal activities of the woman and her accomplices was presented by an FBI officer who managed to ingratiate herself with her, and a doctor,
The fraudster was sentenced to a year and a half in prison.Bonus:
Name Sale In 2005, one of the largest online casinos, Golden Palace Casino, paid a 33-year-old woman to change her name to GoldenPalace.com. The offer came after the American published an ad on eBay.com, in which she stated that she was ready to change her name to the client’s choice for a decent amount, and as a result, the sale took place. The woman claims that she was inspired to take a desperate step by caring for five children, whose upbringing requires significant amounts, which she did not have. Children are already used to calling their mother Goldie and do not pay attention to the fact that she received a name in honor of a site dedicated to gambling. However, someone went even further: a few months after the conclusion of the contract with Mrs. Goldie, the same casino paid $ 15 thousand to the parents,
Source: estet-portal.com.
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