Anti-Gay Message Hoax Claim Sparks Online Backlash, Bistro Probe

When Gallop Asian Bistro Dayna Morales posted a copy of a credit charge for a customer's dinner on Nov. 13 to the Facebook page called "Have a Gay Day," she may not have realized what would happen next.

Within a day, her report of having been shortchanged by a customer who reportedly wrote a homophobic note on the receipt went viral on the Internet. TV News crews from New York and Philadelphia came to the Route 202 restaurant to interview her and her coworkers, who stood by her claim.

She even received unsolicited donations from supporters—which she said she was donating to the Wounded Warrior Project—and thousands more offered their support online and on social media pages.

But the winds have changed since a family contacted NBC News, in New York, with copies of receipts and a bank statement they say tell a different story—that in fact, they paid a tip and were shocked to see Morales claim they did not.

And within a day of that report, an equal-but-opposite rush of online postings are reporting the allegations of a scam—even apparently reaching Turkey.

Caught in the middle, the Gallop Asian Bistro management has been trying to look into the case in hopes of determining exactly what happened. A manager reached for comment said an internal investigation is underway, but would offer nothing more.

"Right now, we have no comment while the investigation is ongoing," he said.