August 9, 2016

How Much Are Internet Kidneys Going For These Days?

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From my inbox this morning, here is the entire message:

Please I want to sell one of my kidney o+

I don’t think I need a kidney at the moment, but maybe later. And anyway, I need one in A-negative. If you’re going to spam me with this stuff, the least you can do is have the decency to hack into my medical records and offer me one of the right blood type. Lazy, lazy, lazy.

So is this the latest internet scam? Or has it been going on for a while and I only found out about it today? How does it work? Maybe if I reply, I’ll then get a long sob story about why this poor guy needs to sell his kidney and I’ll be so heartbroken I’ll PayPal him $10,000 to put his life back together. That’s the best I can figure out. Anyone have a better idea?

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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