So, this particular case is old. Really old, actually. But I feel like I’d be doing everyone a disservice if I failed to post it just because it’s old.
As most of you know, I prowl around a couple GoFundMe campaign sharing groups on Facebook; partly for research purposes *cough*, partly because I try to help out where I can. For example, a pet owner in Pennsylvania was facing a large vet bill per her campaign and I chimed in to let her know we have an awesome surgery center here in Richmond that does discount surgery so cheap it’s worth it for pet parents all over the east cost to travel here for it. It’s called Helping Hands, check it out. They did an amazing and affordable job on my foster cat Merle Haggard, who needed two rotten teeth pulled out of his adorable little head.
Merle Haggard exists and he really did have rotten teeth which were taken out by Helping Hands without a GoFundMe campaign, praise God or whoever.
I digress. Again.
Someone popped up in one of the GoFundMe groups I’m in today asking for money and all the red flags that can go off did: vague request, no evidence, she even requested members send money via Western Union. Jesus Christmas, don’t ever send money to someone you don’t know via WU. I digress once again.
A search of her name brought up this. The campaign is, as expected, no longer active on GoFundMe.
If one does a reverse image search of that campaign photo, you find this:
I wish I could say this is the first time I caught a baby used in a fake campaign. It isn’t. I have no words, for all the words I usually have I just can’t. Who does that? Who goes on Google, finds a picture of a sick baby, and takes it like this for a fake GoFundMe campaign?
Can we just not. This is sick on a new level.
I remember like four years ago I tried to upload a video to Facebook with my foster cats being gay and I built it in iMovie using a track I had, Facebook was like fuck no copyright violation and never uploaded it. Why can’t GoFundMe do the same thing? Rhetorical, I suppose.
People are really out there stealing photos of sick babies. And GoFundMe is letting them. Do not pardon my French but this shit needs to stop.