A scammer stole photos of a dying baby so that he could con people into giving him money via GoFundMe.
The internet can be a wonderful place. It allows us to connect with people anywhere in the world at the click of a button. It also allows people to raise money for those in need. Chances are all of you reading this have heard of GoFundMe. Many of you might have even donated to a cause on the site, and some of you might have even used it to raise money yourselves.
Sadly, the internet can also be a pretty dark and horrible place. Although GoFundMe was created with the sole purpose of helping people in need, the system is one that many people take advantage of. People see it as an opportunity to make money by tricking its users into thinking they need it for something non-existent, fabricated, or exaggerated.
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These fraudsters can set up scams that are everything from mildly annoying to downright disgusting. A grieving father recently shared a story on Reddit about someone who lands about as high on the disgusting end of the scale as you possibly can. After his son passed away at a little less than a month old, his cousin started a GoFundMe page for him, his wife, and, of course, their baby.
One scammer saw this as an opportunity. The unnamed man took the photos from the original GoFundMe and set up his own. He created a backstory, claiming the baby to be his own, and people began to donate. Before setting up the page, he blocked the baby's parents. Thankfully, a friend of the mom's sister saw the page and it has since been shut down.
The original post on Reddit has been commented on by a number of other parents who have had similar things happen to them. Photos of their children being stolen so that scammers can use them to make money. Once GoFundMe is informed of the wrongdoing, they can shut the page down and refund the donations. However, there will be some that have gotten away with it, and we hope by reading this, parents in similar situations will take extra precautions to prevent it from happening to them.