NEWMARKET, ONT. -- Jennifer Glasser, unemployed and $50,000 in debt because of medical expenses, had nowhere else to turn, so she started panhandling. But instead of begging for handouts on a street corner, she set up a Web site, http://www.helpjennifer.com, asking for donations.

The 24-year-old has done better than she had hoped, collecting about $6,500 in three months.

Panhandling has made its way onto the information superhighway: A growing number of people have launched personal Web sites to push their hard-luck stories, in hope that sympathetic readers will throw a dollar or two their way.

"I don't have any illusions about what I'm doing," Ms. Glasser said.

"I've paid a number of medical bills and given some money to my mother, which is a huge help and an emotional relief."

Her mother, who in less than two years has spent much of her savings on her daughter's illness, said Jennifer has given her about $5,000. The woman was too embarrassed to disclose her name.

Since she was a child, Ms. Glasser has suffered from inexplicable bouts of fatigue, diagnosed at various times by doctors as Grave's disease and chronic fatigue syndrome. About 18 months ago, she said, her illness was so bad she had to quit a job she loved as a production co-ordinator at a Toronto animation shop and move back to the family home in Newmarket, Ont.

In desperation she has tried alternative therapies, such as intravenous injections of vitamin supplements, which are not covered by Ontario health care.

More recently, Ms. Glasser was referred to a doctor who diagnosed her as having Lyme disease and recommended she consult a specialist in New York, where she underwent a series of tests.

Facing the computer in her family's home in a quiet, tree-lined neighbourhood, Ms. Glasser spoke enviously about the success of Karyn Bosnak, who runs SaveKaryn.com, the Amazon.com of cyberbegging. According to her Web site, Ms. Bosnak, 29, had lived it up in Manhattan for the past few years, overindulging in designer clothes and shoes, until she became unemployed and could not pay the $20,221.40 (U.S.) on her credit cards. She lives in Brooklyn.

Ms. Bosnak got the idea for her Web site after reading a supermarket sign with an unusual request: Wanted: $7,000 to pay off debt. Since June, people from all over have donated nearly $13,000 to Ms. Bosnak through her entertaining and humorous site, which features her diary, a weekly debt update and an on-line store of SaveKaryn.com T-shirts and mugs. After auctioning on the Web auction site eBay the luxury goods that put her into debt, Ms. Bosnak has whittled her debt down to $730.03, according to her site.

Her Internet notoriety has landed her numerous fans and attention from People magazine and NBC's Today show, which has led her to talks with a publisher and producer for possible book and movie deals.

But she has had her share of detractors. Karyn-bashing is rampant on chat groups and on anti-Karyn sites, such as DontSaveKaryn.com.

"This is where you can make frivolous waste of your hard-earned money happen," said Bob and Ben, who operate DontSaveKaryn.com -- on a first-name-only basis -- from Dayton, Ohio. "It is this lovely page that will help you help us to waste your money."

They have collected $36.

Ms. Bosnak, who describes herself as "honest" and informs her visitors that the donations are considered gifts by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, said: "You are not giving your money to a charity, but rather a chick who spent too much money."

In recent months, a host of other cyberbegging sites have cropped up, but none appears to have the success of Ms. Bosnak's or Ms. Glasser's. Nicholas Miltier, a university student from Portsmouth, Va., who needs a new car to replace his beat-up Toyota Camry, said he has not been able to garner a single penny.

Lendmeabuck.com, which belongs to a female student with credit-card debts, has received a paltry $21.25 (U.S.). Penny Hawkins, a homemaker in Washington state with two young daughters, said she is trying to raise $12,000 for daycare and school expenses so she can begin a career as a nurse, which would help her obtain a divorce. Since August, Ms. Hawkins said she has made nearly $1,300 from http://www.helpmeleavemyhusband.com, which has received a lot of media attention and is followed by fans who track her progress in school.

She said other sites are not making money because "they're not put together well" and "they're not entertaining."

Cyberpanhandling has led to sites that spoof the phenomenon, such as the Internet Squeegee Guy, who will clean the inside of the monitor for spare change, and Morty, the U.S. businessman created by a struggling writer at http://www.savetheceo.com, who wants to relocate his factory to Mexico because his employees are trying to form a union.

Helpjennifer.com has some way to go if Ms. Glasser, who has endured hate mail for her cyberbegging, is to reach the $50,000 (Canadian) goal. Most of the money Ms. Glasser has raised came from one donor in Tennessee who responded shortly after she opened her site in August. An even longer shot is the additional $100,000 she wants to raise to pay for intravenous drugs to treat her Lyme disease.