Man lied about having terminal cancer to raise $30,000 to enter World Series of Poker tournament
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: YouTube/The Nick Vertucci Show / Ethan Miller/Getty Images
A man has admitted that he lied about having colon cancer in a bid to raise some cash.
Rob Mercer wanted to take part in the Las Vegas World Series of Poker tournament, but needed some money to do so.
So, in a bid to raise the funds he needed, Mercer lied about having cancer so he could create a GoFundMe page with the intention of using the money to get him to Vegas.
The event ran May 30 - July 18 of this year.
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Mercer, who hails from Vallejo, California, lied and said he had stage 4 colon cancer and managed to swindle thousands of dollars out of kind-hearted donors.
He need $10,000 to take part in the buy-in for the No-limit Hold'em World Championship, but raised somewhere between $30,000 - $50,000, including a stay at a suite in five-star hotel, the Bellagio.
"I did lie about having colon cancer. I don’t have colon cancer. I used that to cover my situation,” Mercer told Las Vegas Review-Journal.
"What I did was wrong. I shouldn’t have told people I have colon cancer. I did that just as a spur-of-the-moment thing when someone asked me what kind of cancer I had.
“I’m sorry for not being honest about what my situation was. If I would have done that from day one, who knows what would have happened."
In light of his falsehoods, Mercer has been contacted by someone at GoFundMe for violating its terms of service.
But does the 37-year-old have any plans to personally return people's money? Nope.
Mercer shared that he won't be paying back the money to his donators as he still believes that he's sick, but with undiagnosed breast cancer rather than stage 4 colon cancer.
GoFundMe has since confirmed that people will be getting refunds, however.
A spokesperson told the newspaper: "GoFundMe has zero tolerance for the misuse of our platform and takes swift action against those who exploit the generosity of our community.
“We have removed this fundraiser for violating our terms of service, all donors have been fully refunded, and Rob Mercer has been banned from using the platform for any future fundraisers. Additionally, GoFundMe cooperates with law enforcement investigations of those formally accused of wrongdoing."
Apparently Mercer didn't get very far in the highly anticipated poker tournament, as he was eliminated within a few hours.
In hindsight, it was probably a good thing he didn't get very far, as I don't think the people who donated towards his fund would be been best pleased if he'd walked away with millions.