In the wake of the Vancouver Lapu Lapu festival tragedy, Lower Mainland resident Raquel Narraway was looking for a way to help her Filipino community when she discovered a GoFundMe page supporting victims of the car attack, but quickly became suspicious of its authenticity.
She came across the fundraiser after compiling all the GoFundMe pages related to the tragedy on her Facebook page so people could find them easily to donate.
“I’ve been active in the Filipino community, and I always want to step up when something happens like this,” Narraway, a real estate agent, told The Epoch Times in an interview.
Eleven people were killed and dozens injured after a vehicle drove through the Filipino street festival on April 26. Adam Kai-Ji Lo, 30, has been charged with eight counts of second degree murder and police say more charges are expected.
The GoFundMe page said it was raising money for the children of an alleged victim, Reyna Dela Pena, who the description said was killed in the car attack, leaving behind two boys. Something about it did not add up for Narraway.
In the story, the organizer, who was not Filipino, said they were watching the victim’s two children at the time of the attack. Narraway said this immediately raised her suspicions because in Filipino culture, parents almost always have a friend or family member step in and watch their children if needed.
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“I was reading the story, and to me, it doesn’t make sense,” she said.
Narraway said she started asking others in the Filipino community if they knew the alleged victim. She found it even more suspicious when no one recognized the woman after posting her story on a Filipino Facebook community group with 30,000 members.
“My suspicions grew, and grew, and I couldn’t sleep,” Narraway said.
Through social media channels, she was eventually able to identify the woman pictured on the GoFundMe page, who said the images were used without her permission.
Narraway said she immediately reported the fundraiser to GoFundMe and the Vancouver Police.
Fundraiser Taken Down
GoFundMe said it has removed the fundraising page, and has launched a specific main page dedicated to verified fundraisers for the festival victims.
“The fundraiser has been removed from the platform, all donations have been refunded, and the organizer has been banned from any future fundraising,” a spokesperson from the company said in a statement to The Epoch Times.
GoFundMe says that the organizer of the fundraiser never had access to any of the money donated.
“At no point did the organizer have access to the funds. GoFundMe has zero tolerance for the misuse of our platform and takes swift action against those who seek to take advantage of the generosity of our community,” the spokesperson said.
The company said it has robust security measures to identify fraudulent activity on its platform. It said that all donors are protected with a giving guarantee and will be refunded if the fundraiser is found to be fake.
Narraway said it was her past experience with online scams that helped her identify the latest one.
“I have encountered a lot of scammers, not like this, but I always have eyes for things,” Narraway said.
She said that donors should only contributed to verified fundraisers.
“The scammers are really good at using your emotions,” she said. “As the public, we should still think about doing due diligence, or just be careful.”
