In short
World of Secrets Podcast Episode Summary
Episode Title
The Child Cancer Scam: 3. The Recruiters
Episode Description This episode investigates the exploitation of families in Colombia who are struggling with childhood cancer. It centers around Isabel, a woman who pressures a sick girl, Anna, to send videos from her hospital bed as part of a fundraising campaign. Despite the large sums raised, the families receive little to no financial support.
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Key Themes and Concepts
- Exploitation of Vulnerable Families: The episode highlights the emotional and financial toll on families with critically ill children, particularly through deceptive fundraising tactics.
- Recruitment for Scam Campaigns: Isabel serves as a recruiter for a broader scam, exploiting Anna's illness and the desperation of her family for funds.
- Impact of Misinformation: The parents are misled about the operations of the supposed charity, leading to feelings of betrayal and disillusionment.
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Summary of Events
- Initial Contact with Isabel:
- Isabel Hernández sends numerous messages to Sergio, Anna's father, requesting photos and videos of Anna in the hospital.
- Sergio, overwhelmed with his daughter's treatment, struggles to comply with her requests.
- Pushing for Content:
- Isabel's persistence leads her to directly message Anna, asking for more photos despite Anna's exhaustion and resistance.
- Anna ultimately stops responding to Isabel due to lack of progress in the fundraising efforts.
- Scam Revelation:
- After waiting for funds that never materialize, Anna questions Isabel about the money raised through her video.
- Isabel claims the foundation has disappeared and that nothing was done with the video, despite evidence that it raised a significant amount of money.
- Investigative Journey:
- The host, Simi Jelaosho, travels to Colombia to meet Anna's family and learn more about their experience.
- Interviews reveal the depth of the family's struggles and the exploitation they experienced at the hands of Isabel and the larger network behind the scams.
- Meeting with Isabel:
- Isabel reluctantly agrees to speak on camera. She claims she was unaware of the scam’s true nature and was motivated by financial need.
- She admits to feeling guilty about the victims of the scam but continues to deflect responsibility.
- Broader Implications:
- The episode uncovers connections to other scams operating in different regions, including Ukraine, indicating a systematic approach to exploiting vulnerable families.
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Key Takeaways
- Emotional Toll: The use of children’s videos in fraudulent campaigns not only exploits the families financially but also inflicts emotional distress on already vulnerable individuals.
- Moral Ambiguity: Isabel, despite her role in the exploitation, presents as conflicted and remorseful. This highlights the complexity of human motivations in dire circumstances.
- Systemic Issues: The episode suggests a broader network of scams preying on families affected by tragedy, drawing parallels to similar operations in different countries.
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Final Thoughts This episode of *World of Secrets* unpacks the disturbing reality of how vulnerable families are exploited through deceptive fundraising efforts. It serves as a potent reminder of the need for vigilance and transparency in charitable organizations, especially those targeting disadvantaged individuals.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. On June 11th, 1998, a deputy from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department went missing. Hey, if they'll kill a cop and bury them, what are they going to do to me? What really happened to the missing deputy? Valley of Shadows, a new series from Pushkin Industries about crime and corruption in California's high desert. Listen to Valley of Shadows wherever you get your podcasts.
0:36The Interview. The best conversations from across the BBC. Today we are spending trivians on war and peanuts on peace. With the people shaping our world. You're making decisions that will have long-term consequences for the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Wind power in the United States has been subsidised for 33 years. Solar for 25 years. That's enough! The Interview from the BBC World Service. Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcast.
1:14It's October 2023, and Sergio Carré is in a Colombian hospital with his sick daughter. A woman called Isabel Hernandez is sending him voice messages. Lots of them.
1:35Good morning, Mr. Sergio. How are you? God bless you. I have always told you this is a process to make things happen, but you also need to do your part. I have asked for photos and videos and you have sent nothing. It seems like you are not interested. Sergio is interested. He needs help, financial help, which is what Isabel is promising. but he has a lot on his mind. His seven-year-old girl, Anna, is receiving treatment for a brain tumour. He sends Isabel photos of her in hospital but she wants more.
2:16I need clear photos with the girl in them. They need to be good shots. Get in front of the bed and take proper photos. He's not very good with his phone. Usually, Ana looks after it. So when Sergio doesn't reply, Isabel starts messaging Ana directly. Hola Ana, como estas? Anita. Anita, tell your dad to send me more photos of you. All the photos you have from the clinic or foundation, send them to me, please. Without the hat on. Okay, my love? Ana sends a voice note back.
3:03She tells Isabel she'll be in the hospital tomorrow for chemo and she'll send her the photos. Then she's going home.
3:18Oh, Anita, thank God your process is almost over. Thanks to our Heavenly Father, you will be back with your family, your little brother and everyone who loves you. But don't forget to send the photos. That's why this process has been so slow. You haven't sent them. Photos and videos are necessary to get help. By Christmas 2023, Anna is exhausted from the cancer treatment. But she's also tired of Isabel's demands.
4:03Anna says she isn't going to send any more photos because Isabel hasn't done anything with the ones she's already sent. Don't say that, my love. Of course, I have done plenty. I send them to the man at the foundation. Things have happened. Don't worry. Send me more. Don't be like that.
4:28Anna repeats herself. She doesn't have anything else to send her, and she can't even fit any more photos on her phone. This is very bad, Anna. Very bad indeed.
4:44But then, Isabel stops messaging them. Months pass, then a year. And in January 2025, Anna sends this message to Isabel.
4:59She wants to know what happened to the money she thought Isabel was going to give them.
5:09No,
5:14little one, that foundation disappeared. Things didn't work out, so I no longer have any contact with them. That's why I never called you again or followed up with that, because it disappeared a long time ago. Your video was never uploaded. Never. Nothing was done with it. You hear? But that video was uploaded. And the campaign page says it's raised a quarter of a million dollars.
5:48This is World of Secrets. Season 10. The child cancer scam.
5:58A BBC World Service investigation. I'm Simi Jelaosho. Episode 3. The Recruiters.
6:16I'm bumping along in a pickup truck on a dirt road in northwest Colombia. I've entered a protected area for the Zenu indigenous community. Forest engulfs this area. Plenty of banana, papaya and mango trees line up the paths while crops, like maize, cling to the hillsides. After more than a day of travel, we pull up to Anna's family compound of whitewashed houses nestled between green hills. Lunch is cooking on an open fire and wisps of smoke hover over a thatched roof A man with a big warm smile greets me with a hug He's wearing a wide woven hat made of arrow grass His name is Vidal He's the head of Anna's family We are happy and proud to have you here with us We don't know where you come from but we welcome you to the current community.
7:21Difficult to reach, but impossible to forget.
7:27I can see you and I do feel that way already. He then introduces me to his whole family. His wife, daughters, nephews.
7:42And to Ana's father, Sergio. a slim man in his 40s with short cropped hair. Then finally to Anna. She gets up from the small handmade chair she's been rocking on.
8:01She also gives me a big hug. She looks so different from the girl I saw in that video. She looks happy and her hair has grown back. It now falls around her shoulders. Thank you for having me. Yeah, will you show me around? Sergio leads us to where he and Anna live. There's a lot of greenery around us. Shrubs, trees. Sergio takes us to his home, which is made out of bamboo and has a straw roof. And the first thing I see is a tiny, tiny puppy drinking milk. Right in the middle is a hammock, a very colourful hammock. This is your home.
8:54Ana is showing me her little puppy. She's just told me that he's one month old. Ana and her puppy, Chocolate, are inseparable. And Ana and her father are glad to be back home.
9:13We had to start over because I was in Cartagena for a year during Ana's treatment. It was very hard. Ana doesn't have a mother, so I am mom and dad at the same time. Ana can tell you about the treatment. How did you feel, Ana?
9:35Ana tells me she didn't want to eat and felt really bad, but thanks to God, she's well again. I saw the video of you and Anna all the way in London so I'm really, really happy that I've been able to make it all the way here to meet you in person and to find out exactly what happened.
10:00Anna's family live in a compound which they share with dogs, cats, turkeys, parrots, pigs and various other animals. They've lived here for generations. I was born right here. Our great-grandmother was a traditional doctor. Then our grandfather, Josemaria Care, was also using traditional medicine, as was her father. And then Vidal, my brother, inherited the tradition, working with herbs and plants. and since I also understood plants, I learned how to treat snake bites. Vidal shows me his medicinal herb garden growing wild on the hillside next to the house. He's been passing on this ancestral tradition to Anna, who follows closely behind us.
10:54Here, where we are, there are all the plants we need. We use traditional healing plants such as roots, bark, leaves and flowers. They are all necessary for the well-being of our people, family and friends. Everyone.
11:15This is anamu, which we use to cure bad colds. And it is also used for cancer. When cancer is just starting, it is controlled with anamu and its roots.
11:30Vidal prepared this drink for Anna when she fell sick but she just kept getting weaker After two months of herbal remedies I felt something was really wrong I said to her dad, take her to the health centre
11:47Anna was transferred to a hospital in Sincerejo, the nearest city But when they found a tumour on her brain she had to move to a cancer ward in the larger city of Cartagena, four hours away. They confirmed it was a malignant tumour. She had surgery and then her treatment began. It was a massive shock and incredibly hard for us as a family, especially because she's normally such a happy child. It was devastating. She was in hospital for months at a time. Her treatment was covered by the public health system, but Sergio had to sell all his cattle to pay for everything else. For a month, he had nowhere to stay in the city and had to sleep rough in a park.
12:37He came to rely on Vidal sending him money.
12:44So one day in August, I told him, honestly, I don't have any more money to send you. And he said, don't worry about it. Someone from Israel came to help me. He said he works with an international NGO and promised to access some resources for us.
13:04Sergio was running around getting medication sorted for Anna when his phone started ringing. He was too busy to answer, but they kept calling. When he finally picked up, he says the woman on the other end told him she was a friend of a senior nurse in the cancer ward. Isabella told me she wanted to sponsor the little girl's treatment, like a godmother. But I didn't know her at all, so I just said, no thanks. It's already paid for, I don't need that.
13:42Then, out of the blue, she showed up looking for me. This time with a man. The man was from Israel. They knew I was out of work, so the Israeli guy said he would help me financially. He says this man from Israel had an offer for him.
14:07He said we'll make a video, so you will have some money when you go back home. He asked me if I worked and I said no. He asked what our people are known for and I said handicrafts. So he said that afterwards he would have a project for me where I could do woodwork or work with pigs and earn some money once this treatment was over. This wasn't so strange, because indigenous communities here get help from NGOs in Canada, which is where he said he lived. He gave me hope. I needed help because I didn't have any money put away for the future. Isabel basically said that if this project worked out, I would get money.
14:47And she assured me it would work out. Just going back to the Israeli man, what was his name? What did he introduce himself as to you? I knew him as Eri. He was a short, fat man with a beard. He wore a cap and he spoke Spanish. He was helping Isabel. May I show you a photo and you can let me know if you recognize this person? I show Sergio a photo lineup of four people. And without hesitation, he points at the image of Erez Hedari. Who is Eri? Eri? Yes. I don't have any photos. him. But just now, seeing him, I remember him straight away.
15:34Erez Hadari again, this time in South America, recruiting families through local people and seemingly making promises of work and money. Sergio says on the day of filming, Isabel sent a car to pick up him and Anna. They took us to a church and then to another house to film. There were two people asking Ana to say she was ill and that she was alone and needed help. They made her cry and tell her that story.
16:14Ana says they put eye drops on her to make her cry and it made her feel bad. They sent me a script, which I didn't understand. And so instead, I told them about what I had been through, the whole difficult process, and that I had suffered a lot. How did you feel that day? How did you feel about making the video with them? I felt sad. It made me cry having to do it.
16:43Sergio says just before the filming started, he was given a contract to sign. but he didn't understand it because he can't read and he wasn't given a copy. He says he was given a million Colombian pesos, or 260 US dollars.
17:07Sergio and Vidal say they didn't know the campaign video was online until we showed them.
17:17We all lost hope. The whole family became disheartened. They used Ana to raise funds for their own benefit, not for her. You feel discouraged. Your morale sinks. You feel frustrated, disheartened, angry, helpless. But despite everything, Sergio wants to put it all behind him.
17:45I felt cheated and taken advantage of. But anyway, now I'm happy because the little girl got better and she's come home to the family. I had to live it in the hands of God.
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18:08It's late afternoon and the weather's cooled down. I can see three pigs just munching away at the vegetation. Anna's sister has just fetched some water from the drum and she's taken it to the kitchen. Behind her are a few ducks and ducklings following. The rest of her family are just casually chilling on the porch, chatting away. It's just a lovely evening as the family winds down from the day. I can hear music being played off her phone at the back. and everyone's just trying to unwind and relax as the evening comes. And when I look above me, I can see a group of vultures just circling with their wings widespread and they seem nearly as high as the clouds.
18:56And it just makes me think about this family living a very humble life in this remote area and how they too are sort of being preyed upon by these people.
19:13Isabel searched for Sergio, made promises of help She hounded Ana for videos and photos when she was sick And then, when asked, just told Ana that the campaign had failed Your video was never uploaded, never, nothing was done with it You hear? After weeks of back and forth between the two of us Isabel has finally agreed to speak to me
19:45On June 11th, 1998, a deputy from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department went missing. Hey, if they'll kill a cop and bury them, what are they going to do to me? What really happened to the missing deputy? Valley of Shadows, a new series from Pushkin Industries about crime and corruption in California's high desert. Listen to Valley of Shadows wherever you get your podcasts.
20:16The Interview. The best conversations from across the BBC. Today we are spending trivians on war and peanuts on peace. With the people shaping our world. You're making decisions that will have long-term consequences for the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Wind power in the United States has been subsidised for 33 years. Solar for 25 years. That's enough! The interview from the BBC World Service. Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
21:08world and America meet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
21:26Isabel Hernandez arrives at the agreed location in Cartagena to meet my colleague Jose. I'm in a video link from London.
21:38She's dressed in a yellow blouse with her hair pulled back under a white headband. She toys with her phone while she takes her seat. She seems quite tense and reluctant to talk. We explained that this is her opportunity to share her side of the story. Isabel says she was unemployed in August 2023 when a family friend from Israel introduced her to someone who was offering six months' work to help a foundation.
22:16The information they gave me was that they were a foundation and that they were looking for children with cancer to offer them some help. So I went to each family and spoke to them. I told them what the man told me. There were some families that accepted, others didn't. When I had like two or three families that agreed, the man came here to Colombia and I was basically his guide. She won't say who that man was and will only continue the interview if we agree not to ask for information about him or the foundation he was working for. She says she's scared to speak out. Didn't you ever get a feeling that something wasn't right?
23:01I did, but they offered me a good salary to get the children and told me if those videos did well, they would pay me for six months. But that never happened. They told me that the videos didn't do well. I didn't have access to any of that. I didn't even see the videos. They also said that when the war started there, in Israel, they closed the charity. I don't know how true that was. Just like Roy in the Philippines, Isabel says she was only following their instructions. But we know from the voice notes that she was very persistent with Ana. Why did you ask a young child again and again and again for photos and videos of herself, instead of going through her parents or asking her guardians?
23:49No, never. I never told a child to send me photos or send me videos. No, not me. Look, Isabel, I have evidence that you have done this. And I'm just trying to understand why. I play the voice notes Isabel sent after Anna asked what she had done with the photos she'd already given her.
24:22Does she remember that voice note? The voice sounds weird. It's definitely Isabel speaking. Why would you keep pushing for photos? Keep pushing a child, by the way. I asked for the photos before they told me that the video hadn't been uploaded to social media. Once they told me they couldn't upload the video, nothing was done. I never asked for anything else or called her. I felt really bad because I knew that Mr Sergio was a humble person who is really struggling financially. The man really needs help. But earlier, she said the foundation told her the videos were uploaded, but they didn't do well.
25:10She keeps claiming she never saw the online campaigns. So I pull out my laptop and show her two campaigns of the children she recruited, Anna's and then a little boy's. I am just going to bring up and show you a campaign for the kids that you asked about. I cannot believe it. So you can see in this campaign they've raised over$800 ,000. How does that make you feel?
25:52Terrible. What's going through your mind right now? A lot of pain. I helped those children because they were also victims. Sick children. Did you realise what they might do? If I had known they were going to do this, to play with the lives of sick children, I would never have got involved. I couldn't. I'm a mother. I have got my own daughters. And I understand the frustration of the parents. And they must think I'm to blame. But believe me, I'm not. Now that you've heard these, is there anything that you would say to Anna and her father Sergio now. I'd want to apologise for what happened and I really want them to understand that I didn't know things would end up like this.
26:58Before I left Ana and her family, Sergio showed me something interesting on his phone. It was a text message from an Israeli number.
27:34cover all the legal costs. It's important that we get justice. Please contact me. Sergio replied, but it didn't lead to anything. So I'm going to try. So far, the name that keeps coming up is Erez Hadari. He's the one that registered Wars of Hope in Canada. But Wars of Hope and Chancellor Tikva are also registered in Israel. Erez's name isn't on those registration documents. There are lots of other names. Will this guy from Israel, who contacted Sergio, be able to tell me more? How does he know that they didn't give the families the money?
28:26It's gone through.
28:31Hello? Hi, can you hear me? Who is it? Hi, my name is Simi. I'm a journalist and I'm calling from the BBC. How are you doing? How I can help you? I've been looking into a couple of charities over the last year, charities that claim to help families with children with cancer. And I've spoken to a couple of people in Colombia and they said that you got in touch with them and you offered to help them. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, but I just translated, OK? I work and I help because I speak Spanish. I try to help the families after I heard about what happened to them. The man only agreed for us to use this conversation if we didn't reveal his identity.
29:20So he's voiced by an actor. One time I speak with this lawyer in Israel to try and help this family. And I try to connect the lawyer with the family to help them because they are from Colombia. and this organisation is in Israel or in other places. This lawyer tried to help, but we didn't have more communication with the father. That's it. I don't have more information. I cannot help. It feels like he knows more, but he claims not to have the names or contacts for the people he worked for. After this, they asked me to work with them more. You know, help them because I speak Spanish. So I help what I can because I think everything is good.
29:57I see them send money for families, you know. I see them pay money to the families in the beginning. But after this, one time I asked them, I see them take a lot of money in the campaign. And they'll tell me 50 % from this money goes to Facebook, goes to advertising. Then they said maybe even more. And then they say that the other 50 % would go to the families or other kids. It's hard to get out of him what exactly he was doing for the foundation, beyond translation. but he seems to have knowledge about how the associations work. I ask him if he knows an Erez Hadari. Yes, I heard about one person who worked with him.
30:37Okay, did you ever meet him? No, no. No. Do you know anything about Erez, where he's based? No, I don't have any information about that. Do you remember the name of the foundation? No. If I mention some names to you, will you let me know if you remember? Yeah, we can try. Have you heard of a charity called Walls of Hope? Yeah, yes. But not only did I hear this name, they also have other names. Have you heard of Chancellor Tikva? Chance? Maybe it's the same. I don't know. Do you think the charities are being run from Israel? Look, I see the charities and the campaigns have addresses in the US. The foundation takes the money in the US.
31:25But with the campaigns for kids, the people in charge of this are religious guys. Rabbis, you know, some rabbis. There's this guy, Menachem, okay, with their campaign. What I remember is that I heard about the guy with the same name. Menachem is in Britain. I don't know if he lives or works there. Religious guys, rabbis, and a man in Britain called Menachem. I ask him for more details, but he says he doesn't know. I don't remember. I don't know the last name, OK? But he's a religious guy, yeah. And I hear this guy does the same with kids and families in Ukraine. With kids? Where? In, oh, do you mean Ukraine?
32:07Ukrainian kids, yeah. Like, they do the same, you know? He is saying the organisers of the campaigns are active in Ukraine. We're soon about to discover he's right. those organisations, there are several of them, and each time it's a different one. They work kind of like a conveyor belt. There is always a demand. Let's put it that way.
32:41That's next time on World of Secrets.
32:49This has been episode 3 of 6 of season 10 of World of Secrets, the child cancer scam from the BBC World Service. Please do spread the word about World of Secrets. We've got this and nine previous seasons for you to delve into. The Child Cancer Scam is presented and investigated by me, Simi Jelaosho, with Jack Goodman and Ned Davis. In Colombia, our reporters are Jose Antonio Lucio and Alan Pulido. It's written and produced by Neil McCarthy and Rob Wilson. Rebecca Henschke is the executive producer, and the sound design and mix is by Andy Fell. Voice over by Margarita Rodriguez, Juan Carlos Perez, Jorge Caraballo, Noam Auerbach and Jaffa Umarov.
33:40It's a BBC Eye production for the BBC World Service.
33:49On June 11th, 1998, a deputy from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department went missing. Hey, if they'll kill a cop and bury them, what are they going to do to me? What really happened to the missing deputy? Valley of Shadows, a new series from Pushkin Industries about crime and corruption in California's high desert. Listen to Valley of Shadows wherever you get your podcasts.
From the publisher
A woman called Isabel pushes a little girl to send videos from her hospital bed. It’s part of a recruitment drive for sick children in Colombia to take part in campaigns. What does she know about the hundreds of thousands of dollars that appear to have been raised? It’s money the family never saw. Who was she working for, and what can she tell us about this scam?
Season 10 of World of Secrets, The Child Cancer Scam, is a BBC Eye investigation for the BBC World Service.
Please note, the image is being used for illustrative purposes only and the child depicted is a model.