Within the days for the reason that Lapu Lapu festival tragedy, the place 11 individuals have been killed when an SUV drove right into a crowd of individuals, a whole lot of 1000’s of {dollars} have been donated to victims and their households.
GoFundMe has been verifying fundraisers to ensure the donated funds will profit grieving members of the family and help in restoration efforts.
Nonetheless, one fundraiser caught the attention of a Vancouver Filipino resident and he or she thought one thing didn’t appear proper.
Raquel Narraway mentioned she was devastated to listen to what occurred on the Lapu Lapu pageant on April 26.
“I feel it’s (an) understatement to say that as a result of it’s my neighborhood,” she informed World Information.
Narraway was not on the pageant however is closely concerned within the Filipino neighborhood.
“Each time one thing occurs in (the) Filipino neighborhood, within the Philippines, or in Canada, and even within the Canadian neighborhood, I at all times wish to do one thing. It’s simply in my nature.”
She needed to compile all of the GoFundMe pages on her Fb so individuals can discover them simply to donate.
Nonetheless, there was one GoFundMe that had obtained lots of donations nevertheless it was not on the verified record.
Earlier than Narraway shared the publish, she determined to ask different Filipino teams on Fb if anybody knew the individuals.
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“I already searched them on social media, and nothing got here out,” she mentioned. “So, like, huh, that is very suspicious.”
Narraway mentioned that the names related to the fundraiser usually are not Filipino names however she nonetheless didn’t wish to leap to conclusions.
“I promised myself that if it seems that I’m flawed, that they’re legit, then I’m going to donate as effectively,” she mentioned, “as a result of I’ve executed lots of fundraising prior to now as effectively, and I’ve began like GoFundMe myself for lots of people.”
She mentioned she hoped it wasn’t a rip-off, however after her Fb publish, she came upon it was.
Narraway mentioned that somebody commented on her publish saying they knew the individual within the image. They requested that individual to touch upon Narraway’s publish and he or she did saying she was not concerned within the Lapu Lapu pageant and that somebody was utilizing her image fraudulently.
Because it seems, that individual lives in Las Vegas and a few of the photographs used have been on this individual’s profile.
Narraway added that she’s comfortable she was capable of assist individuals keep away from donating to a marketing campaign the place the cash wasn’t going to assist a sufferer and he or she additionally helped individuals ask for a refund if they’d beforehand donated.
“I’ve chatted with GoFundMe right now as a result of I’m actually apprehensive that the individuals who donated usually are not going to get their a refund,” she mentioned.
“So that they assured me that if the fundraising is confirmed fraudulent, they’ll return the cash routinely, however they couldn’t inform me what’s the standing of the investigation now.”
On Wednesday afternoon, GoFundMe confirmed that the fundraiser has been faraway from the platform, all donations have been refunded, and the organizer has been banned from any future fundraising.
“At no level did the organizer have entry to the funds,” a spokesperson acknowledged.
“GoFundMe has zero tolerance for the misuse of our platform and takes swift motion in opposition to those that search to benefit from the generosity of our neighborhood.”
The spokesperson acknowledged that the group will work with regulation enforcement when its platform is misused.
Desmond Reid who works in one of many close by faculties and got here to the memorial at East forty first Avenue and Fraser Road on Wednesday mentioned it doesn’t shock him somebody may attempt to capitalize on the tragedy however individuals must concentrate on the nice.
“We stand with the Filipino neighborhood and once more, I’m simply proud to be Canadian,” he mentioned.
Mark Dizon, who got here to the memorial on Wednesday, mentioned it’s horrible that individuals would attempt to generate income in a state of affairs the place persons are grieving and family members misplaced.
“I noticed it by an Instagram story the place somebody mentioned don’t donate, this can be a rip-off, however lots of people had already donated,” he mentioned.
© 2025 World Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.
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