The dedicated wife behind a record-breaking crowdfunding campaign fears scammers robber her critically-ill husband of funds – by CLONING the page.
Kate Brandon, 33, raised a staggering £430,000 in nine days to pay for husband Mike to have pioneering last-ditch treatment in America.
But she believes they could have raised even more had they not been ripped off by fraudsters who put up fake versions of their appeal online.
Crooks used details from her GoFundMe page and set up copycat appeals on sites such as Craigslist and Reddit – but with the donation page linked to their own bank account.
This meant that many generous members of the public were being inadvertently cheated out of their cash.
More than 22,000 donors from around the globe helped to send Mike, 31, to the US for a clinical trial.
She said: “We’ve had a lot of problems with people scamming since the campaign started to pick up.
“Someone copied the YouTube video and attached their own false links to the page.
“I had about 50 friends and family write to YouTube about it to complain and they wouldn’t do anything about it.”
Desperate Kate, 33, of Bristol, set up the #donate4mike fundraising page in April with only six days to go before the payment deadline for the pioneering treatment.
It was the last glimmer of hope for the couple after exhausting all treatment options available in the UK for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
It reached £453,260 and was the biggest in the UK until it was surpassed by the one set up in memory of murdered MP Jo Cox.
But Kate now fears that although they reached the target, some of the money that was destined for the appeal, was stolen.
She said: “We’ve had a lot of problems with people scamming since the campaign started to pick up.
“Someone copied the YouTube video and attached their own false links to the page. I had about 50 friends and family write to YouTube about it to complain and they wouldn’t do anything about it.”
The scammers are understood to have posed as Kate following high profile coverage of her appeal.
She was prompted to issue the warning after claiming the problem was rife since the campaign was launched.
Due to its nature, it is impossible to know how much scammers have earned.
Since the target was reached in April, scammers have continued to copy the appeal in a bid to scam the public out of cash.
Pages have appeared online as recently as this week from fraudsters posing as Kate.
Websites like Reddit and Gumtree are also being used to attract ‘donations’.
Recent examples include scammers using Kate’s appeal, copied directly from the Gofundme page, but then asking for cash to be sent through Payza, a payment website similar to PayPal.
Kate said fraudulent fundraisers have been reported to police but that they were unable to take action.
