Blogger Admits to Baby Blog Fraud

Beccah Beushausen, a 26-year-old social worker from the Chicago suburb of Mokenka wrote a blog about a subject so intense and emotional that she was reached a million hits on the night she wrote her most heartwrenching post.

The story behind the blog? Beccah wrote under the name "April's Mom" about her decision to carry her terminally ill unborn child to term. People got so involved they wrote to say they were praying for her. Moved by her emotional story, they sent cards, flowers, gifts. The only problem? It was all a lie.

Beccah wasn't even pregnant and there was no April. But Beccah reported to readers of the blog that little April was born at home and died a few hours later. She even posted a picture.

It was the picture that did it. The photo she used was of a doll, and many readers weren't fooled.

Beccah says she's sorry, she didn't mean for it to get so out of control, but once she had so many readers she didn't know how to stop the charade.

Well, it's really easy, Beccah. Take down the site. Stop writing lies. Continuing was never necessary. It's a childish prank.

The most disturbing fact is that Beccah is a social worker. One can only wonder what type of position she holds, and whose lives she has influence over. So far, it is said she hasn't profited financially from her fraud. But hasn't she at least in one way?

Beccah wants to be a writer. She wrote a fiction that had readers in tears and hanging on her every blog post. She used to be a wannabe writer no one had ever heard of, now she's a writer who's talent for drawing the reader is well-established.

In the end, it's really the responsbility of the reader to determine whether or not what they read on the internet is real, genuine or true. It's time to acknowledge the overwhelming amount of dishonesty people display when they are hiding behind screen names and take a little care in what we choose to take as read.