In 2014, Leigh Kendall and her partner Martin Parker welcomed a little baby boy named Hugo who was, unfortunately, born prematurely at just 24 weeks and died at 35 days old.
As they processed their loss, the grieving parents also shared photos and stories of Hugo online in the interest of spreading awareness of premature births. It was a noble effort, in the face of unimaginable pain.
Imagine their surprise when two years later, they were tipped off to a GoFundMe campaign featuring one of those photos of their deceased baby boy, asking $10,000 for medical bills.
“I was disgusted that someone would do that, use a picture of my baby for their own gain,” Leigh said.
‘I didn’t really know what to do,’ Leigh added. ‘I filled out a complaint form on the website but you don’t know how soon these will be seen to. I went on Facebook and asked my friends for support – they were fantastic, they also complained to get it taken down.’
The fraudulent page was taken down within a few hours after Leigh’s friends complained en masse to GoFundMe.
‘Most kind-hearted people would give money for sick babies, it’s a natural thing to do,’ she added.
‘I could not bear the thought of people giving money to a liar.’
Though GoFundMe took swift action to remove the fraudulent campaign, we’re wondering why it ends there. Surely they have the IP address of the person who set it up? Why aren’t they providing that information to authorities in order to get scumbags like this prosecuted? If the worst outcome for a scammer is that the page is taken down, no wonder they keep putting them up!
Nail. Them. To the wall. Seriously.