Crowd-funding scam: Scammers have taken advantage of this family, who lost a father and son in the Australian bushfires on New Year’s Eve, by setting up a fake fundraiser in their name.

You can read the full story by Michael Black (ABC News, Australia) at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-02/fire-victims-family-outraged-at-fake-online-fundraiser/11837920

This story also broke on Facebook. The scammers had set up the fundraiser using a relative’s name, and her heartbreaking post was shared by Bega News at https://www.facebook.com/BegaNews/photos/a.389386961088424/3203288859698206

I received news about this scam within just hours of a different type of fake fundraiser that had already appeared in Facebook posts. This other one involved phone callers seeking donations to support the volunteer activities of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service.

I have obscured the caller’s phone number because it is irrelevant, and it defeats the purpose if we get distracted by it. Scammers switch phone numbers all the time, and they rotate through fake phone numbers, so there’s no point us blacklisting this particular one. Instead, we need to be alert to the general signals of a scam, and always check before revealing personal and financial information to anyone.

Before you donate to any fundraiser or charity, read this:
Watch Out for Charity Scams
https://thatscamshow.com/2020/01/04/watch-out-for-charity-scams/

And here’s another important thing… Nobody wants to talk about scams.

It’s easy to understand why people avoid topics that are so nasty, but we have to get information out into the open so that we can be safe from them.

If you have friends or family who are compassionate and likely to want to donate to a cause they care about, please share this post (and the Watch Out for Charity Scams post) where they can see it. Maybe talk about it too.

The world needs us to be compassionate and kind,
so please don’t stop caring.

We can be ‘good people’ and scam savvy at the same time.