A Connection Made

From Gina, as chipngrace, on one of the horse forums:

"I just wanted to emphasize the financial situations for those in need of lung transplants. My SO is 42 and has cystic fibrosis and had a double lung transplant in October. He is a college professor with good insurance that paid for it, however, there are SO many costs not covered by insurance, he's been forced to do fundraising as well. Even post tx, he has several lab and clinic appointments each week with co-pays. He had to move into a hotel in a city 1000 miles from home which he lived in from last August until today. He's finally HOME today!

Anyway, he'll be forever in debt financially. Too many bills that just never will get paid, he's on disability now (required at least a year after), and his check barely covers rent, let alone starting to pay off bills. He can't get a car, because of his bad credit/med bills piled up. His parents bought him one in their name to drive home, but they'll be coming to get it since he'll be driving in Chicago/Minneapolis and it is insured in Mass. At least he lives in walking distance of the L in Chicago, but that means he's stuck there. Also, he is still weak and just over 100 lbs at 5'11" so he can't carry much, so if he goes shopping for food or whatever, he can only get what he can carry.

It's a blessing, though, and it saved his life. His lung function was 12% weeks before the transplant, it is now around 108%. He has spent the last few weeks walking up hills, going door to door canvasing for a democratic candidate. It's worth it, and every single person who has helped, has been appreciated and not gone unnoticed."

Posted on May 7, 2008. Thank you to another Troll Squasher for the find. Perhaps this will be helpful if those kind hearts that donated to Pepe decide to pursue legal action...

Please keep the CFers who loved and prayed for Pepe close to your hearts, because they have lost someone dear to them this morning.

Pepe was a fake....

About a month ago, I, like so many others, was pulled into the story of Pepe, a young woman with CF waiting for her double lung transplant. I discovered her blog via another CF blog, run by a respectable guy who obviously didn't know he was being duped.

The original purpose of the blog was for friends and CF supporters to get together and send Pepe/Gina a Wii while she was in the hospital via a PayPal account. Her supporters raised almost $600 in December of '07 alone. As the blog progressed, Pepe/Gina's condition deteriorated. At this point, hundreds, if not thousands, of people were praying and commenting on the "Friends of Pepe" blog, only to find out she doesn't exist.

Or, rather, she DOES exist, but as a troll.

Once exposed, the authors took the site down, and readers were left feeling cheated in so many ways.

Not anymore. Consider this the first of many trolls to be publicly exposed and scorned for their actions.

After some digging, here's what we know:

Pepe's real name was Gina, which we knew from the blog. She's friends with Paul, from this site/blog (which is now down).

Paul has a Flickr account, which includes this picture:


The same picture that shows up under a commenter's mentioned troll name, jedisdream.

Jedisdream has a photo album here:
http://public.fotki.com/jedisdream/

and YouTube videos here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/jedisdream

Of course, we expect both of these to come down ASAP, so here's some more information about the Gina/jedisdream behind Pepe.

She's 25, from Minnesota, and rides a horse named Gracie. She has a second horse named Chipotle. Both were mentioned several times on the "Friends of Pepe" blog.


Gracie and Gina have ridden at Dillman Training Center and Trott Brook Farms, and Gina posts under "chipngrace" on http://www.midwesthorsetalk.com/.

You can also find Gina here:
http://www.chronicleforums.com/Forum/member.php?u=87709


The photo above is of "Gracie", and was on her fotki page, as well as on the message boards.

Her name is not Pepe. Gina does not have CF, nor has she had a double lung transplant. She has, however, stolen money, and misrepresented herself to thousands of people. Gina has an accomplice in Paul, in some form or other. And she has misrepresented herself as the young woman above, and third from the left (who is believed to be a friend and completely unaware):



The woman below is the real Pepe/Gina, and her name is Gina Marie Fiorentino of Saint Michael, Minnesota. She has been publicly identified as a troll.