Benevolence, where Karyn is concerned, becomes a curious form of selfishness. "I truly believe that what goes around comes around, and that by doing good deeds things will work out for me in the end. It's the 'Pay It Forward' theory," says 29-year-old unemployed Stefani McMurrey, proprietor of SMartHats.com, who gave Karyn $1. Like Karyn, McMurray has maxed out her credit, and is currently living off her home equity loan; she sees Karyn as a kind of soul sister in debt. "Karyn and I would be great friends, and I'm sure we're a lot alike," she says.

This is a common refrain from Karyn's contributors: She is the everywoman of a specific market share, a contrite shopper who you would want to hang out with, who you would want to be your friend. It takes a certain lack of pretentiousness to confess your mistakes to thousands of strangers; and in the age of corrupt CEOs and underhanded ethics, Karyn's blunt approach is appealing -- and familiar -- to many.

"I think Karyn is filling some kind of vacuum the baby boomers have created in our society. In a country where everyone seems to blame everyone else, or offer excuses for their actions, she's actually accepting responsibility and doing something about it. She's admitting her errors to the world and asking nicely for help," says Jay Konieczka, a 27-year-old research scientist who gave Karyn $2 despite being in "even more debt than she is.

"I, for one, am starved for people like Karyn," he says.

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Karyn was not the first person to put up a Web site asking strangers for money. The practice has a name -- "cyber-begging" -- and one directory called the "Amazing Send Me A Dollar Webboard" had documented 69 cyber-begging sites as of last August, including a 1999 site called "Save the Suburbanites" for a couple that wanted to raise money to quit their jobs and travel for a year (they cleared a mere $61), and the "Amazing Gimme a Buck (Please) Website," which raised $65.31 for its owner. Most sites received little traffic and even less cash, perhaps because they lacked the humor or sympathy of SaveKaryn.

Karyn's closest compatriot online is probably Todd Rosenberg, the proprietor of the Odd Todd Web site and an earlier "Today" show darling. Last year, after losing his job at the Web site Atom Films, Rosenberg began posting cartoons online that made light of his unemployment. Like Karyn, his plight hit a nerve; through a PayPal link and "Odd Todd" merchandise, Rosenberg managed to collect $15,000. Unlike Karyn, however, he couched the solicitation as a "tip" for his cartoon, rather than an outright donation (even if fans ultimately knew that this was what it was).

Karyn, on the other hand, has made no bones about the fact that she's simply begging for a dollar to cover her debt. And as her site has rocketed to fame, imitators have sprung up all over the Net, some with even more outrageously selfish requests. If Karyn can get $20,000 to cover her Gucci tab, why can't some other person, say, get people to buy me a BMW, pay for my breast implants or buy me a house? There are even satirical sites like Don't Save Karyn and Save the CEO, who purports to need money to move his company to Mexico.

Most of these sites are pale imitations of Karyn's, and have, not surprisingly, raised little to no cash. Those that tell more sympathetic stories do slightly better. Help Me Leave My Husband, a woman who wants to go to nursing school so she can afford to raise her family after her upcoming divorce, has raised $2,173.51. And HelpJennifer, the site of a 24-year-old Canadian woman with Lyme disease, has managed to raise a little more than $4,000 to cover her $50,000 in hospital bills.

Jennifer Glasser of HelpJennifer confesses that she was inspired by Karyn's site: "I thought if someone was willing to give her money for that, that someone must be willing to give me a hand: I didn't get into this through shopping; it was out of my control." Her own rather sincere site has received money primarily through readers of her blog and friends she's met online. "I was concerned that my site wasn't entertaining or gimmicky in some way, and maybe people wouldn't donate because of that," she says.

Those who have given to Jennifer, though, tend to gravitate to her simply because her needs are "worthier" than Karyn's. Says Nicolas Lambros, a 32-year-old restaurateur who gave Jennifer $30, "I read about Jennifer only after I read about Savekaryn.com and decided Jennifer's purpose was the better way to go."

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