Karyn Bosnak: the successful cyberbeggar

Have you ever heard of this? Maybe yes, maybe not and maybe you even think it's kind of staled tale but the "busy-body & big-mouth" woman in me still want to point out her personal opinion about this person. So ready yourself to read out my rambling. Okay, lets begin with brief introduction of Karyn Bosnak (Info source: wikipedia)

Source: bbc.co.uk

Karyn Bosnak, originally a television producer, raised in the U.S. state of Illinois, who has lived much of her adult life in the greater New York City area. Up until 2000, she had a relatively high-paying job, and wasn't really concerned about going into debt to feed her affection for buying designer-label products. However, when she was laid-off, her credit card debt of more than $20,000 started looming larger every month she was unable to find steady employment.Only then she created the her website named as savekaryn.com and became one of the notable " cyber begging ".
Savekaryn.com launched to request voluntary donation from the public. An early version of the site announced "WANTED: $20,000. CREDIT CARDS ARE BAD. Hello! My name is Karyn, I’m really nice and I’m asking for your help! You see, I have this huge credit card debt and I need $20,000 to pay it off. So if you have an extra buck or two, please send it my way... Together we can banish credit card debt from my life." Her request echoed the matter-of-fact style of her initial plea to the online community, which she had made using craigslist.org.

Bosnak was not the first individual to openly solicit voluntary donations via the Internet; documented examples go back at least as far as 1998. However, she was one of the first to have a clearly defined goal (rather than "I want money", she stated that she needed a specific amount to eliminate her credit card debt). She regularly updated the site with amounts received and progress made toward her goal. Once she had paid off her debts, as promised, she stopped accepting donations, and instead added links to other sites belonging to other people with specific needs.

Such a interesting story she have here aren't she? She manipulated people compassion and generosity with her blunt confession of bad credit card habit and most people think she is genius to think such way to settle her debt without even working. Nay, to me, I don't she is not that genius at all because "begging" for money cannot even fit the word genius! To me she is just as sly as thief for "robbing" out people mercy from those who need it the most (orphaned / bed-ridden / refugee / war victim etc.) yet I understand her motive on doing so. However, she is right about one thing that it's better if she asked for help from those who willing to help than doing something illegal to clear out her debt.

However, I think she is a very good blogger/writer! I read through her Original site & her current site and found out that her regular candid and often humorous writing. entertaining and inspirational. I already read her book and gave her 2 thumb-up! Nowadays she is not a cyber-beggar anymore but she more into persuading / urging people to donate to welfare organization such as UNICEF, animal haven, Oprah's Angel Network etc as a give back in return of people generosity in helping her.

To tell the truth I think I am a "cyber-beggar" too because I keep begging you people to read my "boring" post and keep asking you people to comment! Hahahaha! Okay, please do comment, comment and comment!