Scammers pretend to be grieving Toledo grandmother with fake online fundraiser

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - A Toledo grandmother is warning others to be careful when donating to causes online. She set up an online fundraiser to pay for her grandson’s funeral, only to find someone impersonating her and using her photos to get money.

It’s an unfortunate situation for the family involved in the fundraiser, but also for people who may be donating to the cause under the impression it’s legitimate. Officials with the Better Business Bureau say that there are a few ways you can do your double checking online before donating to the cause.

Kezia Johnson says living everyday life has been hard.

“We lost a loved one that was very dear to all of us,” Johnson said.

After her 21-year-old grandson Keaun Bracey died two weeks ago, Johnson said she set up a GoFundMe page.

“I put up the page to have a celebration of life for him down here in Toledo,” Johnson said.

The very next day, she says she received a call from a family member saying there was a second donation page on a website called Fundraisergo. While it lists Johnson as the organizer, she says she hasn’t gotten a single penny.

“I said well, I don’t know anything about that and it wasn’t me that did it,” Johnson said.

The site has the same pictures as the ones shown on the GoFundMe Johnson created.

“They stole the story,” Johnson said.

At one point, the description was also identical. Johnson says the family already had the funeral and she’s since reworded the GoFundMe to help pay for his memorial. But this fundraisergo page still claims to be collecting money for a funeral that already happened.

“He had family and friends that really loved him and you’re playing on that because this is really hard for us,” Johnson said.

Leaders with the Better Business Bureau call scams like that “cloning,” where people copy a legitimate fundraiser to a different website.

Lane Montz, the president and CEO of the BBB of northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan, says because GoFundMe and Fundraisergo are both real websites, it can be hard to tell what’s the original page and which is the copy. But there are ways to double check before you click donate.

“Go to Google search and you can put in wording, it will tell you all the places that exact wording appears. Then you can see that there are multiple sites for the same cause, and that is very suspicious,” Montz said.

He also recommends you reach out to the organizer and ask questions about the cause to feel it out.

As for Johnson, she says she hopes in her case, someone can be held responsible.

“They need to be stopped, this is not fair,” Johnson said.

That fake fundraising page now says it’s currently under review since it’s been reported multiple times.

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