Urgent;I've had a phishing email re my donation to gofundme

[mimivanne]

Just checking my emails.1.19 pm, email from 'Nate' at the GofundMe trust and safety team requesting a copy of my government issued photo ID ,evidence of my connection to the campaign such as links to social media.
Failure to respond within 48hrs will result in the refund of my donation.
Checked GofundMe t @ c's ,states they will never request personal details.
Very worrying

Is the info being requested in order to refund? I thought people were just being refunded.

I assumed the info was being requested to either leave the donation or ensure the account wasn't a fraudulent one? Presumably if they suspect an account is fraudulent they lock it, ask for proof, and then unlock once proof is obtained.

This is scandalous.

But yes, they must be rattled.

Yy as hemlock says, my interpretation is that they're contacting "Donald trump" and saying "unless you provide id that DT is in fact your name, we will refund"

Christ alive, this has taken a weird turn.

It's hard to believe that there isn't something ropey happening here.

If what they're trying to do is block donations under false names the more logical approach would be to refund/cancel those ("this is a breach of our terms of service, your donation has been refunded/cancelled, please feel free to submit a new donation under your real name") rather than emailing people asking for info that they should know very well that they shouldn't be asking for.

There's no legit reason they would need to know about anyone's social media activity.

I just checked my spam and I've no scammy email like OP's.

I do have one asking me to verify my email address, which obviously I'm not going to do now!

On here because the other thread is full.

Yes blocked as well, even though cleared the cookies.

They are riled!

This is nothing less than harassment. If it was directed towards any other group but women it would be considered a hate crime.

The thing is, to donate, you don't actually set up an account.

You just donate. And they offer you the option to do that anonymously, in your own name, or in another name, say, on behalf of someone else.

So, if you were concerned about fraud, it seems pointless to offer all these options. If I wanted to donate on behalf of a friend, or a child, their name would be on the donation and mine on my credit card. This is clearly a scenario which GoFundMe are happy with and encourage.

They obviously do not have a built in concern about donors names not matching CC details.

Except on this campaign.

Angry I presume they've refunded and then blocked people's accounts, the request for ID will be to give people a chance to reopen accounts.

I cannot see a reason for social media activity though, which is why I think it should be reported to GoFundMe as possible phishing.

OP What have they asked for exactly wrt social media?

If what they're trying to do is block donations under false names the more logical approach would be to refund/cancel those ("this is a breach of our terms of service, your donation has been refunded/cancelled, please feel free to submit a new donation under your real name") rather than emailing people asking for info that they should know very well that they shouldn't be asking for

I have never ever been refunded any donations of any kind before, no matter what name I've donated in. This is insider work, and I hope that it shows just how badshit crazy they are.

the request for ID will be to give people a chance to reopen accounts.

No the request for ID will be to try and DOXX them in real life.

DON'T TELL EM PIKE.

At the very least they deserve a storm of "WTF are you playing at?" emails so they think twice about pulling this kind of shit again.

This exactly, if you've donated they have the info needed to refund to the same account. No need to confirm your identity to do a refund, info is already on file. If donation hasn't gone through yet it can just be cancelled. So that's not why they're asking for additional info.

I'm still thinking TRA working for GoFundMe is the most likely scenario.

Most has a spoof@ account you can report this sort of suspicious activity. It looks phishy to me.

the request for ID will be to give people a chance to reopen accounts

There are no accounts for donors on GoFundMe. You don't open an account with them. There's no account to verify.

Why on earth would a donation site need details of a customer's social media activity or links to the campaign?

The whole darn point of crowd-funding is that people without direct links to a cause can get involved and give money

ATeardrop Ok.. I will agree with that if this turns out to be a phishing scheme. However, asking for ID is really normal for online businesses. So I'd hold off on panicking until that's confirmed.

Has anyone who has received one of these request emails forwarded them to GoFundMe and had a response yet?

Also asking for photo ID is Phishy.

If they want to find someone on Facebook but only have a name and email but the person has set their settings to be unsearchable by email, then a photo would help sort through different accounts with the same name.

Defo an inside job.

I'd suggest forwarding to ZenDesk as well as GoFundMe, since it's very much not in their interests to have their platform potentially used for phishing. Even if someone at GoFundMe has gone rogue ZenDesk won't want to be associated with anything dodgy.

barracker If money exchanges hands through an online business there will be a transaction record, where contact details will be stored, and linked to future purchases with the same contact details. Usually email address. It might not be an account in the same way you have a log in account, but it will mean that they have the means to verify and block you if needed.

The only instances when I've been asked for ID have been online banking (money laundering concerns), airlines (passport details, pretty obvious anti-terrorism concerns) and Air BnB (AFAIK that's because some hosts are taking people into their own homes - so they need protection for safety reasons). All of these seem reasonably legitimate reasons.

Buying stuff, donating stuff... never, ever been asked for ID. No reason to. Either your bank card details check out, in which case they have your money, or they don't, in which case they reject your attempted sale. There is no legitimate reason for them to need ID. None. None at all.

Robin Ince is a TERF. Thank fuck for that.

I'm concerned that there are people saying that it's normal for online retailers to ask for photo ID. It isn't, and if they do you should complain.

"Buying stuff, donating stuff... never, ever been asked for ID."

Because your account has clearly never been flagged for attention. Most people's accounts aren't.