You’ve probably heard of the gofundme.com site, where all sorts of stories are posted of people seeking donations. Some are tragic, others are trite. You may be touched by a particular story, perhaps one in which an entire family is killed in a house fire.
You click the “Donate Now” button and donate $50. So just how do you know that family who died in the fire really existed?
Gofundme.com and similar sites are loaded with “campaigns,” just tons of them. Think of the logistics involved if these sites hired people to verify every campaign. This would require enormous amounts of time and a lot of people and expense.
People don’t think. They just assume every campaign is for real. Do you realize how easy it is to start a campaign? Gofundme.com, for instance, only requires that you have a Facebook account with a valid-looking profile picture of the campaign starter, and at least 10 Facebook friends (last I checked, anyways).
It’s all based on the honor system. You take their word for it, though some campaigns are high profile cases. People have given money to fake campaigns. How can you prevent getting conned?
Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert to BestIDTheftCompanys.com discussing identity theft prevention.