Faking cancer to collect cash.

It’s hard to imagine a more reprehensible con job, but that’s the allegation Calgary police are now investigating, amid accusations a popular Calgary hipster pulled off a $10,000 sickness scam.

“That’s where we are right now — we’re still in the process of determining exactly what this is we’re dealing with,” said Const. Martin West, a fraud investigator with the Calgary Police Service.

“It’s not illegal to ask friends for money. But if it were true, if someone was taking funds under the guise of having cancer, that’s a straight case of fraud.”

What it’s alleged to be is a dastardly case of milking heartstrings for money, after friends of a Calgary music promoter banded together to raise thousands of dollars to support him through the illness.

But now police have been told Kristopher Cook didn’t actually have brain cancer, and the cash raised by last summer’s benefit concert — up to $10,000 — was pocketed under spurious circumstances.

It was July 8, 2011, at Calgary’s Broken City bar, when friends gathered for a show headlined by popular indy band Miesha and the Spanks, all to raise money for Cook.

The 29-year-old Calgary scenester had apparently told friends he was suffering from brain cancer, the same disease which killed his sister only a few years before.

And so, with bills piling up and medical treatments draining his account, friends — including best friend Miesha Louie — put their talents together to raise money for their sick friend.

“He was there, dancing around shirtless and drunk,” said Darren Ollinger, a former friend of Cook and one of the many acquaintances who packed Broken City that night.

“If a guy has cancer, you have to show your support — everyone did.”

The official complaint to police alleges that Cook was never sick, making the entire story up to scam his social circle into emptying their wallets, and then vanishing.

Ollinger says he believes the accusations against his former friend a “110% true,” but he understands why people easily trust Cook.

“He has this dumb, harmless feel to him — you can’t help but trust him,” said Ollinger.

The same allegation have been making the rounds online, with various social media sites and at least one blog repeating the accusations against Cook, who is now rumored to be living in Victoria.

“I played the benefit, I encouraged friends and family to donate money to help him because he was my best friend and he needed help and who the hell would make this s--- up?” wrote Louie on Reddit.

She said it was shortly after the concert that another close friend approached her, saying the cancer story was a hoax.

“Why did this brand new Macbook Pro suddenly appear in his possession the day after the benefit? Why wouldn’t he let anyone go to the appointments with him for support?” she wrote.

The allegations echo a notorious Ontario case, where a woman defrauded kindhearted friends and strangers into giving her $12,000 in donations.

Ashley Kirilow received ten months house arrest and 100 hours community service for shaving her head and lying about having the disease in order to solicit donations and hold fund-raising events.

With no charges filed and Cook’s whereabouts unknown, the Sun contacted his father Bernie Cook in Toronto, seeking comment and an explanation.

But the elder Cook says his son hasn’t spoken with him in 18 months, and there was no mention of cancer at the time.

Bernie Cook also says the oft-repeated story about a sibling dying of cancer is not true, and news that the police are now investigating a possible fraud case linked to his son is alarming.

“That’s obviously a serious concern to me,” said Cook.

michael.platt@sunmedia.ca