Across the world, desperate parents of sick or dying children are being exploited by online scam campaigns, the BBC World Service has discovered. The public have given money to the campaigns, which claim to be fundraising for life-saving treatment. We have identified 15 families who say they got little to nothing of the funds raised and often had no idea the campaigns had even been published, despite undergoing harrowing filming.
Nine families we spoke to - whose campaigns appear to be products of the same scam network - say they never received anything at all of the $4m (£2.9m) apparently raised in their names.
A whistleblower from this network told us they had looked for “beautiful children” who “had to be three to nine years old… without hair”.
We have identified a key player in the scam as an Israeli man living in Canada called Erez Hadari.
There are many great organizations out there doing awesome work. The website Charity Navigator does a good job rating different organizations for their transparency and how much of their funds are actually spent on their mission. They gave the “charity” mentioned in the article a 2 star rating.
So… What are those two stars for then?
They give fine grain details on the Chance For Hope Foundation page. There are some pieces of info the charity posts transparently, but they’re missing critical items like any financial statements. The Charity Navigator rating system basically only recommends donating to charities with a perfect 4 star rating.