Thousands of online GoFundMe fundraising campaigns have been set up to help victims of the devastating wildfires that have burned parts of Los Angeles County, but officials are warning to be wary of fraudulent GoFundMe accounts. .
Since the first wildfires broke out on Tuesday morning, GoFundMe campaigns created by or on behalf of fire victims have begun to pop up to help with disaster relief, reconstruction, immediate short-term accommodation, clothing, and more. We asked for all kinds of financial support to cover our emergency needs.
Close friends of natural dye artist Erin Berkowitz, who lost her Altadena home in the Eaton Fire, launched a GoFundMe fundraiser Wednesday night to help replace art supplies and supplies lost in the fire. But by Thursday morning, she learned that a fake Instagram account was imitating her and reaching out to friends and other followers who shared a link to a fake GoFundMe fundraiser.
“They copied my photos and profiles on my social media to look like theirs, and our usernames were almost identical, just adding an underscore to some of their names,” she said. said.
The fake GoFundMe had her accurate information. The only difference is that the web page URL is slightly different.
Berkowitz, along with her friends and family, immediately reported the fake account, and the fundraiser was immediately deleted within 24 hours.
“To deal with it in the worst moments of your life, the scariest, most upsetting, sad moments of your life,” she said. “It was very worrying and stressful for something like that to happen.”
To combat such scams, GoFundMe has created a centralized online hub containing all verified fundraising pages related to wildfires in the Los Angeles area.
Los Angeles County District 5 Supervisor Kathryn Berger is also encouraging people to donate, but she also urges caution with online fundraisers, especially GoFundMe.
“There is fraud going on. There are GoFundMes that are not legitimate,” Barger said. “If you don’t pass the smell test or the lie is too good to be true, call my office just to be safe and I’ll flush it out for you, but don’t fall for these scams. Please.”
Here are tips on how GoFundMe verifies fundraising campaigns on its platform, collects fees, includes tipping features as part of the donation process, and how to check if your campaign is legitimate. Masu.
How GoFundMe verifies fundraisers
As of Monday night, the centralized hub had 103 webpages with more than 1,200 active and verified GoFundMe fundraisers.
A GoFundMe spokesperson said that for a fundraiser to be considered verified, it “must go through an enhanced due diligence review process” that includes human and technical tools to detect abuse. .
The company said members of its Trust and Safety team work directly with fundraiser organizers to verify connections to the individuals and families they are raising funds for and assist in establishing beneficiaries.
“If a fundraiser is held to help someone other than the organizer, the funds will be held securely by our payment processor until the beneficiary’s information is verified, and then transferred directly to the GoFundMe recipient.” said the spokesperson.
Once a fundraiser is verified, they will be added to a central hub.
If anyone who wants to donate to a fundraiser has questions about the fundraiser, GoFundMe encourages them to use the contact button to contact the organizer and ask questions directly.
If your inquiry goes unanswered, or if someone has concerns about your fundraiser, they should report it to the company. Anyone can alert the company to suspicious activity by clicking the “Report Fundraising Activity” button. This will result in an immediate investigation to verify the legitimacy of the campaign.
If an investigation is conducted and authorities find that the fundraiser was fraudulent, anyone who donated to the fundraiser will receive a refund. Through the GoFundMe Donation Guarantee, the company guarantees donors a full refund.
“GoFundMe has zero tolerance for abuse of our platform and is cooperating with law enforcement investigations of those accused of wrongdoing,” a spokesperson said.
What are the fees for donating on GoFundMe?
When you donate to a GoFundMe fundraiser, there is a standard transaction fee of 2.9% plus 30 cents per donation.
A company spokesperson said the fees help the company “pay payment processors and securely deliver funds.”
What is the “tip” feature if I want to donate on GoFundMe?
When donors click the Donate button, they are taken to a page where they can choose a one-time or monthly monetary donation and enter the amount they would like to donate.
Just below that is a “Tip GoFundMe Service” feature that automatically sets your tip to 14% of the amount you donate to your fundraiser. The tip amount will go directly to the GoFundMe company. The amount can be reduced to zero or increased to 35% of the gift amount.
According to the company, chip functionality is completely optional.
“GoFundMe is primarily supported by voluntary tips and relies on completely voluntary contributions from donors to maintain quality customer service, trust and safety protections, and world-class fundraising technology. ” said a company spokesperson.
If a fundraiser isn’t verified, how can you tell it’s legitimate?
GoFundMe officials and other experts advise people who want to donate to a GoFundMe campaign to do a little research before becoming a donor.
Check out our fundraising page. Make sure your fundraiser has a clear title, image, and story description. Check the description for typos or spelling errors.
Support your fundraising description. Consumer Action spokeswoman Ruth Susswein says cross-reference the details in the description and the creator of the fundraiser with social media accounts and local news coverage.
You can also find address and other contact information using an online search engine like Spokeo.
You can also check whether an image is AI-generated, edited, or the source of the photo by dropping it into the Google Reverse Image Search tool.
Understand what your funds will be used for. What is the purpose of the fundraiser? Is the organizer transparent about how the funds are used?
Check beneficiary connections: What relationship does the organizer have with the recipients of the funds?
Look at the comments and donations. Have your immediate family, friends, or community members donated or left supportive comments?
More importantly, trust your intuition.
“If you feel something doesn’t feel right, know that you’re right and trust that feeling,” Susswein says.
Times staff writer Grace Twohey contributed to this report.
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