• onslaught545@lemmy.zip
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    23 hours ago

    You don’t have to promise anything in return for it to be fraud. If I start a Go Fund Me because I have cancer when I really don’t have cancer, the people donating aren’t promised anything in return. It’s still fraud.

    • RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      The cancer example is plausible, but I am not sure you would always win.

      In that case you are asking for help for a specific reason. They “get to feel good about helping solve your problem”.

      Your deception deprives them of their having done something good with their money - which is the tort.

      In OP’s instance, he was saying that he had a birthday and you are giving him a gift.

      Not the same - you can make the same argument, but it is even thinner gruel.