A viral fundraising campaign that collected hundreds of thousands of pounds for a homeless military veteran was an elaborate scam planned by the supposed good Samaritan and a New Jersey couple, US federal prosecutors revealed. More than 14,000 donors gave around $400,000 to the GoFundMe campaign after reading an emotional story about Johnny Bobbitt Jr, a homeless veteran who supposedly spent his last $20 to buy petrol for a stranded driver on a dark highway in Philadelphia. An investigation led by the US Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey and local prosecutors found that the three people had made up the entire story to take advantage of public generosity. All three people involved later faced state and federal criminal charges for their roles in the scheme.
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