GoFundMe scams seem to be growing by the day. While the GoFundMe fundraising site can be a great resource for people who need to raise funds for legitimate charities and needs, it has also become a hotbed of fraud. And with the site taking a nice 5% cut of every dollar that is donated through GoFundMe, it seems the company’s motivation to shut down fraudulent campaigns may not be too high. After all, the site makes money whether or not a campaign is legitimate.
GoFraudMe was started by Adrienne Gonzalez to keep the company and the site’s users accountable. It all started when Adrienne reported a fraudulent campaign, and GoFundMe did nothing about it. She knew the campaign was fraudulent because all costs for Bart (the zombie cat) were covered by the Tampa Bay human society, yet someone was raising funds to cover for the care (that didn’t need to be paid for). While the company does shut down some apparently scammy campaigns, it doesn’t seem to be all that aggressive in doing so. The Bart campaign is still active as of today!
Eventually Adrienne got so fed up with the fraud she was seeing, that she started GoFraudMe to report on instances of suspected fraud and other shenanigans on crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe. The site is filled with unfortunate tales of people jumping on tragedies to start campaigns with no intention of turning over funds to the real victims. A particularly egregious example is this case… A grandmother lost her life trying to protect her grandchildren from a convicted sex offender. And someone with no connection to the family tried to capitalize on it by putting up a GoFundMe campaign. It seems that there is no shortage of instances of people using the illnesses and deaths of strangers to try to make a quick buck.
Put GoFraudMe on your daily reading list. Adrienne does a great job of finding fraudulent campaigns, and she’s a fantastic writer who will keep you entertained!
Reported fraud campaign . Still see that it’s there collecting money. Anyone condoning fraud is just as guilty.
https://www.gofundme.com/getting-housing-for-me-and-my-son
This girl is asking for money to house her and her kids because she’s too busy with school to work. First off she doesn’t have custody of any of her kids, she sees two of them one day a week, per court order. The other lives with family because he’s mentally ill. Secondly she only takes 4 classes at community college and lives in a state funded house for rehabbing women. She told a judge on January 11th 2017 she can’t pay child support or contribute to her children’s needs because she needs to focus on her career. I’m all about helping those in need but asking for $2000 is a bit much. You’re too busy already, without children present to work but want a home for you and 3 children? Don’t use them for this. Please.