Well, every aspect of this story is just terrible.

This is not going to end well for him / her.

Wow, that sucks. As bad as it is to scam and lie to people, she's clearly got some other mental issues going on. Heck, everything she told the Destructoid guy could be some lie too.

hey, look at that. it was all a sham. all you noodniks who thought it was legit, get back in here and eat some crow.

clearly this person needs help.

I'm not sure who would use "I'm transgender" as a cover story. Regardless, Pensof claims to have also talked to one of her teachers, so he didn't get the story just from her.

A compulsive liar wanting attention and pity.

Well, she's identified as female online since at least 2009 according to this page:
http://www.create-games.com/profile.asp?id=30777

While apparently she still identifies as male in the real world, for school and such, so if it's a lie, it's one she's committed to.

Wikipedia now has an article about her and this incident.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloe_Sagal

who gives a shit what s/he identifies as? s/he lied to everyone about needing a medically necessary surgery. it's a sham and people like that should be charged criminally.

Clearly, that was obvious regardless of it being truth or fiction. And the fact that she (which I assume is what the subject ultimately wants to be) wants transgender surgery only further proves that. Almost anybody who is in a transgender situation whether because of medical or mental reasons has issues going on upstairs because of the way the average person treats transgender people. The amount of racial hatred, bias, bigotry towards minorities or even just gay folks is nowhere near what a transgender gets. They are treated as freaks of nature, like they have some disease, its actually quite disgusting.

Anyway, I gave my $20 bucks and got it back through refund. If Chloe had been truthful and said she needed it for SRS, I wouldn't have a problem with it at all and still gave. I don't regret it, but I do wish she had been upfront about it.

Don't stop believing.

And that's fine. If s/he wants to solicit donations for the surgery on that basis, I have no problem with it. More power to people like that. But when you start posting shady shit about how you are dying and need some necessary surgery to live, that's fucking straight up fraud.

I agree with you. It's fraud unfortunately no matter how you slice it and she should be prosecuted. She clearly should be put in a mental hospital somewhere, but honestly I think she wouldn't make it (and most mental hospitals are not equipped for that special kind of case). It sucks, but unless there is a miracle out there for her, I'm pretty sure she's going to take her own life just to try and make herself some kind of martyr.

I don't think fraud charges are necessary, or possibly even legally applicable, since the crowdfunder was closed and everyone got their money back. From a legal standpoint, likely the most she could be charged with is attempted fraud.

I apologize for giving a shit. Sorry I gave a shit everyone! Please forgive me!

i never got my money back, i used paypal

Wow, I'm just reading up on this now. Sad, but not surprising. It does make me feel good that some people on this site were kind and generous enough to donate their hard-earned money to someone they'd never met or even heard of for what they felt was a life-saving procedure. It's nice to know that there are such good-hearted people, not just in the world, but in this forum specifically.

But I'd be lying if I didn't also add that I do feel a little vindicated that it was such a fraudulent claim. I'm no trauma surgeon, but as a physician I'd like to think I can at least sniff out a preposterous medical claim when I read one, and that one seemed impossible on several different levels.

At least one other user had to submit a paypal claim to get their money back, but they got it:

Same here.

This is really sad; if you have the means to save your child from death, you should do so, regardless of whether you agree with their choices.

I love it when people only read the first post in a long thread before replying.

Doesn't she realize that there are far more effective, honest, respectable ways to go about getting the funding required for a sexual reassignment surgery?

Testify!

This is really sad; if you have the means to read an entire thread, you should do so, regardless of whether you agree with others' choices not to.

Hi there,
Thanks for your patience as we work through this matter.
Contributions made through Indiegogo are typically final and nonrefundable by Indiegogo. Please see our Refund Policy here: http://support.indiegogo.com/entries/21081743-refunds
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