Madison Russo: Fake Cancer Patient Scammed Donors Out of $37K, Pleads Guilty

Madison Russo, a 20-year-old Iowa woman, has agreed to a plea deal in first-degree theft after claiming to have cancer and defrauding donors out of thousands of dollars.

Russo initially pleaded not guilty to the charges on January 25th of this year, according to court documents.

According to the New York Post, Russo was arrested and charged with stealing over $37,000 from 439 donors between February 2022 and February 2023.

To receive money from donors, the Iowa woman allegedly claimed to have acute lymphoblastic leukemia, stage 2 pancreatic cancer, and a “tumor the size of a football” that wrapped around her spine.

Madison Russo made a series of TikTok videos in which she lied about her circumstances in order to entice people to donate to her GoFundMe account.

According to the Daily Mail, she wasn’t caught until multiple medical professionals alerted the police that she was faking her “stage 2 cancer diagnosis” due to irregularities in her ‘chemo’ TikTok videos.

When police began looking into Russo, they discovered that she had stolen photos shared online by real cancer patients and passed them off as her own to bolster her bogus claims.

The police obtained a search warrant for Russo’s home in Bettendorf, where they discovered evidence against her.

According to court documents, they discovered an IV pole with a feeding pump filled with cotton swabs, a wig, and anti-nausea medication prescribed in the name of a relative.

Russo’s medical records also revealed that she had never been diagnosed with any type of cancer or tumor, according to police.

After GoFundMe was made aware of the scam, she was banned from the platform, and everyone who contributed to her fraudulent campaign was reimbursed.

Unfortunately, before being caught, Russo made money from her false condition through a variety of people, organizations, and platforms other than GoFundMe.

She spoke at St. Ambrose University, the National Pancreatic Cancer Foundation in Chicago, and on a Project Purple podcast.

Police also discovered that Russo received private donations from businesses, nonprofit organizations, and school districts.

Russo’s sentencing will take place at a later date. She could be sentenced up to ten years in prison. Russo has a pretrial conference scheduled for September 8 in Scott County Court.