As one family is grieving the loss of a daughter, they’re also warning others to be careful when donating online after learning a scammer raised nearly $3,000 using their tragedy.

Kali Crushell Harris, 27, was a wife and mother of four. She was killed the night before Thanksgiving in a car crash on I-24 in Marion County as she was finishing her shift as a delivery driver for FedEx.

In the days that followed, her mother, Jennifer Goodson Webber, created a GoFundMe to raise money for her funeral expenses.

But it wasn’t long after that she learned her page wasn’t the only one.

“They copied and pasted everything that I put on my page about my daughter,” Webber said.

“I can’t understand how they could just take somebody else’s pain… and then put it on a page like I had to raise money for their self, for God knows what.”

A scammer had mirrored her fundraiser and collected thousands of dollars under her name.

The only difference was that Webber’s fundraiser was on the platform ‘GoFundMe’, and the scammer was on a site called ‘GoFundraiser’.

To understand how common these cases are and how to avoid them, we spoke with Michele Mason, President of the Better Business Bureau of Chattanooga.

Mason says fundraising scams are becoming more common as people turn to online platforms to support families in crisis.

“We’ve seen many reports of people replicating requests on platforms, whether it’s GoFundMe or others,” Mason said.

“This was a little bit unusual, where it started at GoFundMe and then the replication happened on a different platform. Most likely, that’s because GoFundMe has put protections in after recognizing some of these scams to help make sure that donor funds are going to the right place. ”

She recommends donors always verify links directly with family members or organizers when possible.

“Sometimes that’s hard because the platforms themselves don’t necessarily have the ability to detect fraud versus an actual campaign,” Mason said. “So you do probably need to go to the family, just confirm the link to their page.”

Mason also encourages donors to use credit cards when giving online, calling it the safest option.

“That just adds protection for you as the donor, and also for the family. That way, you can move the funds back to where you intended for them to be.”

If someone believes they’ve donated to a fraudulent fundraiser, Mason says they should report it immediately to the donation platform and their bank.

“They will have an opportunity for you to report a fraudulent site,” she said. “It’s probably best for the initiator of that campaign to be the one to report it, but certainly have others report it as well.”

She says, the BBB also uses give.org to verify charities as reputable or not.

“We have 20 standards that we use to evaluate those,” she added.

As the holiday season approaches and more people look to give, the BBB urges donors to research before they click, to ensure kindness reaches the people who need it most.

“It’s still up to us… to do our research and make sure we’re on the right sites and giving our money where it’s going to help those intended,” Mason said.

If you’re interested in donating to Webber’s GoFundMe, visit the link by clicking here.



Source link