Cops investigating a fund set up for Grenfell Tower victims that could have conned people out of thousands
COPS are investigating a fund set up for Grenfell Tower victims which is feared to have conned people out of tens of thousands of pounds.
Generous punters searching online for appeals to help those involved in the horror came across a website called grenfell-tower-fire-fund.co.uk.
The professional-looking site appeared genuine so hundreds are thought to have donated via PayPal.
But they were horrified to then receive emails from the Met's online fraud unit revealing they were investigating an alleged scam.
The police message read: "You may have unwittingly been defrauded into contributing to a fund which did not exist and instead your payment has been received into a PayPal account which has not passed your generous donations onto the legitimate Grenfell Fire victims and families." It is feared there may be victims all over the world.
One woman who donated £200 said: "It is an absolute disgrace that anyone would take advantage of such a tragedy and the highly charged emotive feelings of people who want to help.
“We searched online for Grenfell Tower disaster donations and there were several sites. We picked one at random but it came up on the first page of results on Google which made us think it was genuine.
"We gave £200 and forgot about it.
“It wasn’t until weeks later that we got an email from the police which came completely out of the blue. We had no idea there was anything wrong.
“We wondered if that was a scam as well, so phoned the police to make sure their email was genuine.
"We feel a bit foolish now it has all come to light but it was the day after the fire and a shocking event.
"We usually give money through official disaster funds but we wanted to get money to the victims quickly."
Up to 80 people died when fire ripped through the 24-storey block of flats in North Kensington, London, on June 14.
The public donated £20m in the aftermath of the blaze to genuine charities of which £12m has so far been distributed.
The Charity Commission is attempting to crack down on fraudsters who use tragedies such as the fire to scam the public.
Fundraising sites including JustGiving and GOFUNDME are meeting with the Commission to agree new guidelines.
A Charity Commission spokesman said: "Unfortunately, in instances like these there will always be some who seek to abuse the generosity and good-will of the British public.
"Our advice is to keep giving but to do so to registered charities, directly or through the established online appeals, to be sure that your donations are protected and will go to those who need them most.
"We would encourage members of the public to contact the police and Action Fraud if they have any concerns that an appeal might be fraudulent.
You can find out if your charity is a registered charity by going to gov.uk/checkcharity.”
The Met said a 52-year-old man had been arrested and bailed in relation to the grenfell-tower-fire-fund.co.uk. appeal.
A spokesman said: "Officers from Falcon - the Met's fraud investigation unit - launched an investigation into a fraudulent website that had been set up to receive donations following the Grenfell Tower fire."
