Internet Begging

It's back. Well, it probably never went away.

A few years ago, we had the story of Karyn who rant up more than $20,000 in credit card bills and had trouble paying it back. So she set up a website asking people to help pay her bills. And people did. Complete strangers gave her money over the internet to pay off her shoes, dinners, clothes, and other items. She even wrote a book about her experience.

You can learn more about her experience at www.savekaryn.com

And now, we have Dustin Diamond begging for help to save his house. Dustin Diamond is best know has Screech from Saved by the Bell.

Apparently, he got involved in a land contract, and the bank somehow want the house back. His website is thin on transaction details, but apparently, he has terrible credit, feels he was cheated by some sort of land expert in NY, and he has a little more than a month to come up with $250,000.

So he set up a site to sell t-shirts asking people to save his house.

It should be noted that while the Seattle PI has posted this story, www.Snopes.com has not weighed in yet, so it could still be a fake. Sadly, it seems real to me, though.

Google coughs up some hits on Land Contracts, including RealEstateABC.com

This may be what happened here. The guy couldn't qualify for a loan based on bad credit so he buys a house on a land contract. Then if that violates the seller's mortgage provision, the bank demands immediate payment.

In other words, someone with a histroy of not paying his bills, got into a real estate deal that violated terms of a contract, and, since he's not making enough as a comedian to qualify for his own mortgage, he turns to the net to ask for help.

The lesson, kids, is save your TV money.