<div>Hi, my name is Cindy Palecek. I’m 67, single, never married. I have been retired from being a Physical Therapy Assistant for 8 years. I had to retire on disability, due to having both hips replaced and a hip revision. Plus, I’ve been blessed with having arthritis on both sides of my family. Yeah!!! After my first hip, in 2011, I lost my job because I was not ready to come back to work, after the 12 week medical leave. I then found jobs on an as needed (PRN) status. I purchased insurance through the marketplace, and never had a paid vacation. My second hip was done in 2016, leaving me 1 inch short on my left leg. I was very angry. My hip revision was done in 2018 to correct my leg length discrepancy, but I’m still a quarter inch short on my left leg, with nerve damage. Prior to being a therapist, I was a CNA. During that time I hurt my back, twice, when transferring a resident. My coworker went before I did, causing twisting of my back. I was off of work for a week, Both times. Three years ago, I ruptured a tendon in my right foot, walking 3 miles. It was a complicated surgery. My foot did not heal in straight alignment. I am always walking on the side of my foot.
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<div>This is really hard for me to do. In fact, it’s quite embarrassing and degrading for me. My life feels so unsettled. I feel so devastated. I was always in control of budgeting my money, being taught the envelope system by my mother. When I get my Social Security check, money goes into 28 accounts, all my bills for the month and the year. I always have enough money to pay my bills. Living on a Social Security check, only, I had about $200 left for the month. I was never rich, just getting by, but now I am in a financial hardship. I got involved in 2 scams at the same time, this year. A phishing scam and a romance scam. I was looking for an at home job. I was contacted by Jocelyn. She said I could work one hour day, using AI, optimizing data for advertising companies, and make money. That sounded exciting to me. So she trained me 5 hours a day. I have a learning disability, resulting from being hit by a car at age 4. So I just figured it took me longer to learn this new technology. When I optimize data, I received commission from advertising companies. But after 8 to 10 tasks, the system randomly selected combined tasks, which went into a negative balance. I was responsible for paying the negative balance of my own money. I initially used $12,000 of my own money. Eventually, they convinced me to take money from my investments, and then loans. They had me so brainwashed into thinking this was a real job, that I argued with people who tried to tell me it was a scam. I was at Associated Bank trying to take some money out. My account was frozen. As I was talking to Julie, in her office, I thought if I could tell her what I was doing with Rocket Lab, I could convince her that this was a real job. She picked up the phone and called the police. I was forced to make a police report. I then told the police to follow me home because I had a romance scam to report. The romance scam developed from Plenty Of Fish, a dating site.
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<div>Between the 2 scams, which happened between June 2024 -March 2025, I lost $200,000 out of my investment money, and 12,000 of my own money. I was also left with a second mortgage on my house and on my car. I was debt free for 10 years before the scam. Now I’m left with $100,000 to pay off on my house and car loan and the other 6 loans I was convinced to take out. I did have a detective work on my case, and the secret service. He only got $1300 back for me.  I finally was able to combine all my loans into one. So now I have one payment at 5.99%.
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<div>I did find a job as a food demonstrator, 4 days a week. But this requires me to stand for 6 hours in one spot. It’s very fatiguing on my back and feet. But I have to tolerate it, to pay off the $100,000. I just figured out why my right foot hurts after work. When I get into my car after work, my right foot starts to throb with pain. I just figured out that’s from the nerve damage in my foot. So that’s not going away. I’ll have to talk about Doctor about pain meds.I figured I have to work till I’m 97 to pay off this amount of money, because I’m just living on a Social Security check.
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<div>I know I can’t do that. This job does not have benefits. If I don’t work, I don’t get paid. Vacations are out of the question. I hope I never get burned out. Last summer, I had a guy take interest in me. Nothing developed, because of my scam. So romance is out of the question for me.
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<div>I’m 67 years old. I’m supposed to be enjoying retirement. I had plans of traveling with friends, but that’s not going to happen. I am going to be in constant reminder of this scam for the rest of my life. I am going to have to work until I’m in my 90s to pay of this $100,000 debt. Life has been very lonely, that’s why I’ve been trying to develop a relationship. But that is not ever going to happen because of this scam. Men don’t want to get involved with women that don’t have money, which is me. I really have no excitement in my life to look forward to. But I own a house and car, and have created my own flower garden.
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<div>Im hoping you will take my life story into consideration to help me. I have no life to look forward to, just working to pay off my scam debt. I did do a research on how people deal with this type of situation. The answer was suicide. I cannot do that.
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<div>Im working 4 days a week as a food demonstrator. At least I get to talk to people, but at the end of the day when I go home, I’m in a constant state of, “ What can I do to get more money to pay this stupid scam off so I can enjoy my life.” I would rather be spending time with my retired friends and going to the YMCA to strengthen my body. But I have no time for that, it’s just work, taking care of every day things, housekeeping, and yard at work. At least with winter, I don’t have the yard work. I have a very nice neighbor snowblowing for me.
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<div>Please have a giving heart. I want to get this scam loan paid off so I can put it behind me and start enjoying life again. Right now I feel so unsettled. I have longevity in my family. My mom died at 95. She was very witty until the day she died. So I have many years ahead of me. I do not plan on dying. I have a guardian angel keeping me alive.
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<div>Any amount of money would be greatly appreciated, from the bottom of my heart. Donations will be used for extra monthly payments to decrease my balance and interest on the scam loan. I had sent this out two months ago, but just recently discovered it was sent out privately. I changed it to public. I hope there are compassionate people there who will donate to my cause.
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<div>Thank you from the bottom of my heart  
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Kerrie Huebner

Betty Emmel

Debra Pyne

Lisa Gorchels

Nate and Deb Weyenberg

Michelle Oddo

Scam Victim forced to get a job when she’s on disability

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

fundCountryCode

NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

fundCurrencyCode

US + Non-charity COs Only

locale

fund country is US and user language is English

personId

comms-internal-person-ids

Enhanced Story Experience Users

Suggested Goal Experience Users

user language is English and fund country: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

Streaming widgets beta user

paymentProcessor

3DS payment method

user language is English and fundCountry: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

GoFundMe Employees

ipAddress

Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

paymentMethodType

checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

paymentProcessorAccountId

fallback mode accounts

proCampaignId

p2p legacy startfundraising page

AMP24 New Funds Only PROD (DO NOT MODIFY)

countryCode

charityId

UKCharities

Federated Search Internal Testing

route.pathname community

US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

International Only

fundId

braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

currencyCode

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

writePath

Stream Notification

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

unclaimed charities

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

Users Receiving Braze KYC Validation Failed

Native 11.3.0 and above

Influencer - Prod

US fundraisers and US users

ai_title_page

anyword

openai

control

manual_entry

userEmail

template_id

userId

fundUrl

isCharityCo

email

appVersion

shouldBucketIntoExperiment

partnerId

donationCadence

isActiveFundraiser

isPartner

isMobile

npoProfileOptIn

fundIsLinkedWithMeta

hasSessionDonation

isCampaignOwner

fundHasInstagramDeepLink

Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

userCurrencyCode

Localized Currency

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

isChallengeFundraiser

challenge-fundraisers

Payment Identity Launch Verification - Production

New funds eligible - Posters v2

CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

Scam Victim forced to get a job when she’s on disability

Still $19,725 to go. Help us build momentum.