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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Managing an independent, nonprofit newsroom is staggeringly hard. There’s no cushion in our budget—no backup revenue, no corporate safety net. We can’t afford to fall short, and we can’t rely on corporations or deep-pocketed interests to fund the fierce, investigative journalism Mother Jones exists to do.

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