The accountability of the world's largest crowdfunding platform has come under fire after a Canberra family waited days to have false and misleading information within a medical fundraising post withdrawn.
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A post on the US-based online platform GoFundMe had sought to raise money to pay the medical expenses of a young woman who was involved in the collision on Hindmarsh Drive on May 19 which claimed the life of 20-year-old Matthew McLuckie.
The post contained the claim that the injured woman, whom police believe was the perpetrator in this horrific incident, was "ran off the road".
This is contradictory to the police account, whereby Matthew McLuckie's vehicle was struck head-on by one of two cars, both travelling at speed on the wrong side of the road. The car which struck Matthew McLuckie had been stolen. The driver of the third car is still sought by police.
The grieving McLuckie family had repeatedly remonstrated with the US-based platform to have the post and content removed, describing it as "appalling" that a fraudulent version of events can be posted without any assessment of its truthfulness.
However, it took multiple demands from the family to even have the post reviewed, before it was eventually removed after several days of repeated pressure.
"The way this company managed this situation was just wrong in every way," Tom McLuckie, the father of the deceased young man said.
"The casual way in which our concerns were treated by GoFundMe was appalling. These big, faceless companies have no empathy at all for people in our position.
"I would strongly urge people to boycott GoFundMe and use another platform."
No direct phone numbers are offered on the GoFundMe website for people with urgent requirements such as this.
In its emailed response to questions from The Canberra Times, GoFundMe said that it "had a zero-tolerance for hate, discrimination, abuse of power, and the misuse of our platform".
It also said that "one-quarter of our global team is dedicated to trust and safety, including experts with diverse backgrounds in forensic science, government relations, and criminal justice".
Social media commentator Dr Andrew Hughes, who is a lecturer in marketing at the ANU's school of management, expressed his surprise at the company's slow response given it has been caught badly before with its platform used for scams and fraudulent claims.
"They [GoFundMe] have had to step up their practices because people using online platforms to scam or defraud others is very common," he said.
"But that being said, there is always a significant lag effect in responding because these companies are based offshore. They actually don't have a lot of resources on the ground in places like Australia to do this review work.
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"You can well understand how situations such as this have the effect of re-traumatising victims, families such as this who have lost a loved one.
"This is where these sorts of crowdfunding platforms really need to lift their game, they need to get these posts down as quickly as possible when the complaints come in, then check their legitimacy before they allow them back up."
GoFundMe is a for-profit company that collects 2.2 per cent plus 30 cents from each donation made. Donations are routed through the company's payment processors.
Australians lost a record amount of more than $2 billion to scams in 2021, despite government, law enforcement, and the private sector disrupting more scam activity than ever before, the ACCC's latest Targeting Scams report reveals.
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