Oh, the shame of it!
Much like everyone else, we were moved by David Rose’s extraordinary story. Last week, he “penned” a heartbreaking goodbye that was published on his blog and the story of the deaf 24-year-old, with such severe cerebral palsy that left him confined to a wheelchair, was quickly picked up by international media outlets.
It turns out that Rose’s story was so extraordinary that it is not true– it has been revealed as a hoax, with a sick fraudster inventing him in an act of “role-playing.”
The ruse was uncovered by reader of the entertainment website The Chive who felt things didn’t add up– specifically, Rose said he tweeted through Tobii, which lets users “type” by tracking their eye movements, but his tweets actually came via TweetDeck.
“Somebody using a Tobii ocular reader would never use TweetDeck,” The Chive’s John Resig explained.
And it turned out that the photo of Rose above was a picture of Hunter Dunn, a young man from Virginia with cerebral palsy who praised Tobii technology on the company’s website.
With his back in the corner, the fraudster was forced to fess up, but offers up no apology for his repulsive actions.
“David was just a character, a part of my psyche,” he admitted on the blog Dave on Wheels Exposed, still using the blogger profile for Rose’s made-up sister Nichole.
“No celebrity or fame was intended in this ruse,” he continued. “There was never any attempt to meet anyone in person, just simple role-playing.”
Read how the hoax was uncovered here.
This is wrong on so many levels….
What do you think?