Yesterday, we told you about Meghan Terry and the NY Attorney General’s efforts to protect New Yorkers from crowdfunding fraud.
Today, we’ve got a small development in that story. NY AG Eric Schneiderman’s office says Terry turned over around half of the $2600 raised via a GoFundMe page for 22-year-old Collin Murray, who drowned just days before he was due to graduate from SUNY Brockport. It appears as though GoFundMe will cover the rest.
The Press & Sun-Bulletin reports:
In a statement Thursday, [GoFundMe spokesman Bobby] Whithorne said the company has been in touch with the organizers of the scholarship, which was set up last year by Murray’s family.
“GoFundMe will make a donation to ensure the donor’s intentions are honored and the scholarship receives all of the money raised,” he said. “We appreciate Attorney General Schneiderman’s oversight, and we will work directly with his office to resolve this issue.”
Once again, GoFundMe took the opportunity to tell the media that fraud is an “extremely rare” occurrence on the platform. Mmm hmm, yup. Listen, guys, it’s alright to admit that your “fraud prevention” technology isn’t perfect. No one’s is. Hell, the entire world economy nearly collapsed a few years back because publicly-traded banks were committing financial fuckery left and right; if they can do it, so can random people on personal crowdfunding sites.
Anyhoo, it’s a nice gesture that GoFundMe is making up the difference. Not releasing the funds to Terry and giving them directly to Murray’s family might have been a little easier but hey, whatever, none of my business.