A Chicago native, Bosnak migrated to New York in 2000, immediately becoming a "Sex and the City" style shopaholic. After racking up more than $20,000 in credit card debt from designer handbags and expensive clothes, she decided to ask the public to help her pay the bills.In a moment of online inspiration, Bosnak created SaveKaryn.com, asking anyone who visited her Web site to help chop down her debt, one dollar at a time. It worked.

Bosnak says she received about $13,000 of "cold, hard cash" in online donations. Many others have followed in her footsteps, begging for money for practically anything — from breast enhancement to money for a divorce. The majority of these attempts are fruitless, but not all of them.