If you want to support people you know personally, great. If you want to support folks after an event like a natural disaster, give to an established organization with a track record and strong ratings from independent monitoring groups. Or give locally where you know the management team/board is running an efficient and honest nonprofit.
A similar scam happened on another chat website I frequent. A long time poster, and seemingly one of the nicest posters on the site, reported that his son had stolen everything from his house the night before. Immediately there was talk by others about setting up a Go Fund Me account and people began giving. I noticed that the date the fund was set up was actually before the date of the alleged burglary. I believe most people got their money back. The “nice” poster then claimed he didn’t know who set up the Go Fund Me account, which, of course, could be true. It makes me wonder who actually has the control over these accounts.
Also only donate to people I know. Someone I know from HS (who organizes the reunions)’s house burned down recently. Donated to the go fund me that was set up for him. The scam that is the subject of the OP, the homeless guy (they said that part was true) did a similar scam (claiming to have given money for gas or something) previously. Well, if he lands in jail, as he should, at least he won’t be homeless!
I only donated to GFM once—my cleaning lady’s brother was in a nasty landscaping accident and out of work for many months. His wife was pregnant and had to stay in bed for the last 6 weeks of the pregnancy.
In case folks don’t know, GFM charges 2.9% plus a 30 cent per donation fee. I tend to donate directly to people and causes when I choose to give, avoiding the internet websites like GFM and thus the fees as well.
Youcaring.com is an alternative to GoFundMe and has no mandatory fee. Thus 100% of your donation goes to the intended party. Of course you can change to zero the suggested amount that is prefilled (added on) to cover administrative costs.
My D did a GoFundMe to help her do a trip down and through the southeast. It was her dream to travel around and spread the joy of ukulele. She used the money to buy ukuleles that she would give to people after she gave them lessons. Her music friends helped her find places to teach where people of all ages could enjoy and benefit. She traveled around for 6 weeks, using my car and staying with friends, family and friends of friends and family. The money she had left over she used to buy more ukes, which she donated to a program in the city. I donated to her campaign.
Other than that, I have donated twice. Once to the family of a kid D and oldest son went to school with whose father was dying of cancer, The money went to pay the copays, deductibles and other related expenses. I also donated to a local law enforcement officer who was badly injured in an accident. While his medical expenses were covered, his wife had to stop working to care for him, so the money went for that. When a friend’s D committed suicide, her siblings ran a campaign to help their parents pay for the funeral. Oldest son and D donated but I just gave the parents cash in an envelope.
This fraud blew me away. I also didn’t guess that the homeless guy was in on the scam. I guess since he’s going to jail, he won’t be homeless, at least for a while. I hope that the government seizes all of their assets and sells them to pay the people back. It seems wrong to me that GFM should have to eat the cost since they didn’t know it was a fraud.
I wonder if gfm has insurance to cover fraud, when no assets remain.
I gave to Youcaring once–a friend’s brother severed his hand in an accident. (His hand was re-attached, but only partly functional.) I wouldn’t give if I didn’t know the person.
My son recently had a creative project funded on Kickstarter. He asked for 10K, got 18K. He already had followers from other projects who were happy to support him, I guess. I had no idea he was doing this, and was surprised it worked for him. He has one year to deliver his product.
My son told me that if you donate to kickstarter and the project doesn’t go within the time frame, donors get their money fully refunded.
I really doubt it. This is the kind of think Lloyd’s of London would insure, but that’s really expensive.
I don’t think a $400k loss for GFM is all that much.