A New York couple was recently arrested after police investigated them for four months. This couple scammed kind-hearted people out of thousands of dollars by making a GoFundMe page asking for donations to help pay medical bills for their child they falsely claimed had cancer. They are both 35 years old and were charged with endangering the welfare of a child and felony fraud.
Police stated, “The investigation revealed conclusively that the child was never diagnosed with cancer or any other medical condition that was alleged in the GoFundMe solicitation.” GoFundMe released a statement and claimed that all donors will receive a refund, and the couple has been banned from the platform.
This type of thing probably happens a lot unfortunately, but people get away with it. It’s easy to target kind people with a fake sap story. Thankfully the donors of this specific scam are being refunded, but I’m sure there are many other scams that go unnoticed. These heartless parents scammed many innocent people.
To not be scammed like this in the future, here are a few things you should look for when determining if a GoFundMe is legit. Look for the purpose of the campaign and how the funds will be used, notice if direct family members and friends are making donations and supportive comments and check if the intended recipient is in control of the withdrawals and if not, is there a clear path for the funds to reach them? Also make sure there is no misleading or factually incorrect information.
Hopefully people are more cautious of GoFundMe scams and other abused websites and are not being stolen from. If you notice anything that seems to be faulty or violates the GoFundMe terms and conditions, you should report the fund page immediately.
