This story is as old as GoFundMe itself: someone grabs photos of a sick child/stranger/animal, slaps them up on a GoFundMe page, and tries to bilk donors out of their hard-earned money with some sob story.
Thankfully in this case, a family member spotted the fraudulent fundraiser before it spread.
A New Brunswick woman says her daughter’s cancer diagnosis was exploited after someone she didn’t know set up an apparently fake GoFundMe campaign.
The page for 14-month-old Marlie Curwin, who has leukemia, gathered hundreds of dollars before it was reported to administrators and shut down Tuesday.
But the child’s mother says she’d like the person responsible tracked down and punished.
“I was very mad that somebody would use my daughter’s illness to try to benefit and get money,” Erin Curwin told CTV Atlantic.
It is unclear how much money was raised prior to removal of the fundraiser and what action, if any, GoFundMe will take against the person who started it. It wouldn’t be that difficult to pull their logs and provide an IP address to law enforcement but hey, what do I know.
The family’s own GoFundMe page for the little girl has raised over $10k — we won’t link to it here as there’s really no need to. However, Marlie is still looking for a bone marrow donor. Healthy Canadians from the ages of 17 – 35 can register with Canadian Blood Services here.