CAMPAIGNS High-tech begging pays off in big way for this big spender

New Yorker finds unique way to pay off debts.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean has raised more than $3 million over the Internet. It's an impressive sign of these high-tech times.
But so is Karyn Bosnak's story. She raised $20,000 on a Web site, but not for political or charitable causes. The 29-year-old New York woman was trying to pay off her credit-card debt, driven by her indulgences in designer clothes, Gucci shoes, gourmet coffees, fancy restaurants and the gym.
Now she has logged her experience in Save Karyn: One Shopaholic's Journey to Debt and Back (HarperCollins, $13.95). The book is expected to become a movie.
Bosnak begins with her move to New York from Chicago and her new job as a television producer. Seduced by the rich smorgasbord of good-life stuff, she enthusiastically mined New York's trendy Bloomingdale's, Barney's, Bergdorf Goodman and pricey restaurants. Then, whoops. Her talk show was canceled.
Way over her credit limit, she decided to solve her problem by panhandling on a Web site -- SaveKaryn.com -- with her story, which she told honestly. It was June 2002. By that time she had moved to Brooklyn, stopped having her hair done, switched to drugstore makeup, she said, and, in short, reformed. "If you have an extra buck or two, please send it my way," she pleaded, describing herself as a "chick who spent too much money."
Her efforts launched her into a publicity blitz with coverage in newspapers such as the New York Post, USA Today, The New York Times and London's Guardian. She was invited on the "Today" show and "Good Morning America."
And people sent her money. By November of 2002, four months later, she was debt-free.