How to Report GoFundMe Fraud

Reporting a Campaign to GoFundMe

Review GoFundMe's policies. GoFundMe has specific policies that prohibit fraudulent, misleading, or deceitful campaigns. However, some situations that may seem suspicious to you are not actually considered fraudulent on the platform. Familiarizing yourself with the policies can help you submit a stronger report. If you can point to a specific policy issued by GoFundMe that the campaign violated, GoFundMe will be more likely to take action.

Gather information about the fraud. While you need the URL of the campaign at a minimum, it isn't enough merely to direct GoFundMe to that campaign and tell them it's fraudulent. GoFundMe will be more likely to investigate the campaign if you have substantial, concrete evidence that the campaign organizer is attempting to deceive donors. Gathering information may require you to go beyond the campaign page itself. For example, you may have found out through checking the organizer's Facebook page that they live in a different state than the beneficiary and are not related to them in any way. Keep your information factual instead of speculative, opinionated, or personal. A campaign isn't fraudulent, for example, just because you've had a disagreement with the organizer or know them personally and believe they aren't trustworthy.

Contact GoFundMe directly. Once you have the information necessary to support your allegations that the campaign is fraudulent, you can give that information to GoFundMe directly on the website. If your report is legitimate, GoFundMe staff will investigate and possibly shut down the campaign. You can report a fraudulent campaign to GoFundMe by visiting https://www.gofundme.com/mvc.php?route=contact/form&pid=2991_When_should_I_report_a_campaign.

Provide contact information. You cannot submit an anonymous complaint to GoFundMe. The platform requires you to provide your name and telephone number, as well as the email address associated with your GoFundMe account. GoFundMe will not provide your name or information to the campaign organizer to protect your privacy. However, if their investigation reveals criminally fraudulent activity, they may have to share your information with law enforcement for follow-up.

Describe the fraudulent activity. As you click through the GoFundMe form, you'll have space to provide factual details regarding why you believe that particular campaign is fraudulent. Include as many specific details as you can. Avoid speculation or opinion. If you received information from someone else, at a minimum you should include their name and their relationship to the campaign organizer. If you made any attempts to contact the campaign organizer, include a summary of those attempts and any response you received. Let GoFundMe know if you or anyone close to you has donated to the campaign, and what amount.

Submit your report. Look over your report carefully to make sure everything you've submitted is accurate, and proofread for typos. You will receive an acknowledgement that your report was received. However, GoFundMe will not contact you to follow up on your report or provide you an update on the investigation. You can always monitor the campaign page itself to see if donations are closed or if the page is taken down. You may be contacted by law enforcement if the GoFundMe investigation reveals evidence of a crime.

Reporting a Campaign to Law Enforcement

Document evidence of the campaign and any fraudulent activity. If you don't have enough evidence that fraud is taking place, law enforcement simply won't have enough to go on. You want to have enough evidence that law enforcement will at least launch an investigation. Generally, you should be able to show that the organizer intentionally misrepresented the facts in some way, and that they did so to try to take advantage of people's generosity and charitable spirit. If you have evidence that the person never in fact used the funds they raised for their stated purpose, that can be helpful too. Start by taking screen captures of the campaign page itself and any other websites where you found information, such as the organizer's website or other campaigns the organizer opened on other crowdfunding platforms. Make copies of any other information you have, such as email or other communication with the campaign organizer.

File a police report with local law enforcement. Particularly if the campaign organizer is local, you may want to report the fraud locally. In most cases, your local police won't do anything if the organizer is located elsewhere. However, you can still file a report if you wish. Even if the organizer is located far away, local police may get involved if the campaign purports to benefit local victims, or if significant numbers of people locally have donated to the campaign. If you file a police report, make sure you get a copy of the written report and keep it for your records. It may be helpful when filing complaints with other law enforcement agencies, and can help them coordinate their efforts.

Submit a complaint to the FTC. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) takes consumer complaints from people who have been defrauded by fake charity scams, including crowdfunding scams on sites such as GoFundMe. To start your complaint, visit the FTC Complaint Assistant. On the menu that says "Select a category below," choose "Other." Then click on "Charitable Solicitations." Provide as much information as you have on each of the complaint pages. You do not have to provide your personal information to file a complaint with the FTC. However, providing contact information can help them in the event they want to follow up with you to get more information.

File a complaint with the FBI if you were a victim. The FBI runs the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), which accepts complaints from actual victims. You can also file a complaint on behalf of someone else who was victimized, provided you have that person's name and contact information, as well as information about the financial transaction. If the campaign is still ongoing, you may not be in the position to file a complaint with the IC3 unless the funds have already been collected and withdrawn. To start an IC3 complaint, visit https://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx and click the red button.

Contact the office of your state's attorney general. Each state's attorney general has a consumer fraud department that investigates complaints of fraud. Your state's attorney general may be interested in investigating GoFundMe fraud, particularly if the campaign has a state or local connection. For example, suppose there was a tragic shooting in your town. You later see a GoFundMe campaign for the victims, but the organizer has no ties to the victims and has not contacted any of the victims' families. Your state's attorney general might be interested in investigating that matter. You can find contact information for your state's attorney general at https://www.naag.org/naag/attorneys-general/whos-my-ag.php.

Report disaster-related fraud to the National Center for Disaster Fraud. The federal Department of Justice has a particular department that handles fraud associated with natural disasters and victims of natural disasters. You can contact them by calling 866-720-5721. For example, suppose your neighborhood was hit hard by a tornado. You later see a GoFundMe campaign organized by an individual with no ties to your neighborhood who lives in another state. There is no evidence that the money this person is raising will ever reach your neighborhood, and they haven't contacted any person or organization providing relief in your neighborhood. Call the National Center for Disaster Fraud for assistance.

Identifying Fraudulent Campaigns

Evaluate the relationship between the organizer and the beneficiary. The moment a tragic story hits the news, fraudsters may attempt to capitalize on the event by setting up crowdfunding pages to raise money for the victims. A campaign is more likely to be legitimate if the organizer is closely related to the cause the campaign claims to benefit. Typically a legitimate organizer will explain how the money raised will be distributed to the beneficiaries. If they claim to be working with a local person or organization, you can easily contact that person or organization to see if they know anything about the campaign. If the person lives far away from the beneficiaries of the fund, and there is no mention on the campaign page of the person's connection to those beneficiaries or how they plan to get the money to them, that's a red flag.

Read through donor comments. If the campaign is legitimate, you'll typically see donations and comments of support from people who are close to the beneficiaries. You might also see comments or messages from the beneficiaries themselves. When a legitimate campaign starts, the first donors and comments typically will be people very close to the people or issue the campaign is intended to benefit. If all of those donors seem to be random or have no connection to the beneficiaries, that may be a red flag.

Research the organizer's background. Legitimate campaign organizers can come from all walks of life. The fact that someone has no background doing this sort of thing, or that this is their first GoFundMe campaign, isn't necessarily a red flag. However, if you're suspicious you can do a search online for the organizer's name and see what you uncover. It may not necessarily be evidence of fraud, but if the person seems shady, the campaign may not be legit. For example, the person may have a link on the campaign page to their Facebook. When you click on it, you notice very few personal comments or connections. The whole page seems to be nothing but advertisements to donate to the campaign, and it was only created a few weeks before the campaign started. That could be a red flag.

Fact-check the information provided on the campaign page. Sometimes, a fraudster will overstate the gravity of a situation to attempt to get more money out of donors. Particularly if the campaign is tied to a recent disaster or traumatic event, it should be fairly simple to find objective reporting of the incident online. Beyond overstating the facts, it may also be that the campaign organizer is flat-out lying about the reason they're seeking donations. For example, they may claim to be raising money for someone who was recently diagnosed with cancer, when in fact that person is completely healthy.

Look for similar campaigns on other crowdfunding sites. People seeking to defraud others may try to cast their net as wide as possible by setting up accounts on several different crowdfunding websites trying to achieve the same or similar goals. Evaluate any other campaigns you see the same way you did the original one. Figure out who's donating to them, and who's connected to the organizer.

Message the organizer for more information. When in doubt, you can always go straight to the source. GoFundMe provides a method for sending a message directly to the organizer of the campaign – simply click the envelope icon next to the organizer's name. Be careful about taking on an accusatory tone. Keep your communication polite and cordial. Copy or screen-cap your message before you send it so you have a record of the exchange. If you don't receive a reply from the organizer within a few days, check the activity on the page. If they've been active since you sent your message, that means they've seen it and have chosen not to respond. In that case, you may want to either send a more stern follow-up message or go ahead and escalate your complaint to GoFundMe directly.