Fraud is a concern for any online platform, GoFundraise included. Below are answers to FAQs we've encountered over the years from our users regarding fraudulent activity on GoFundraise:
How do we currently handle fraudulent payments?
- GoFundraise reviews donations made through the platform and as part of this review we flag suspicious payments. In general, all suspicious payments are verified or marked as fraudulent before the remittance of the funds to the respective beneficiaries.
- Positively identified fraudulent transactions are then investigated by our internal teams.
- Chargebacks, which can occur if a fraudulent payment was not flagged as suspicious, are investigated with additional similar payments also investigated. This can lead to payments which have been remitted to the respective beneficiaries being flagged as fraudulent at a later stage.
- GoFundraise takes fraudulent payments seriously and all notifications of suspicious transactions are investigated.
- Any fees associated with refunds or chargebacks in fraudulent payments cases are absorbed by GoFundraise
What measures do we take to minimise fraudulent payments?
- GoFundraise has internal Anti-money laundering and Fraud policies and we continuously re-evaluate our existing posture.
- GoFundraise actively works with our acquirers to maintain the best balance of suspicious payment prevention and legitimate payment success.
- Credit Cards that have been flagged as stolen by banks/credit card companies, will automatically be recognised as such, and the payment will fail automatically.
Reasons why there are fraudulent payments in the first place
- GoFundraise generally has low levels of fraudulent activity compared to the industry average, but of the Fraud we do handle, it is generally focussed on “Card Testing” or “Tax Fraud” rather than physical products being purchased.
- The Fraud we do see through our platform is generally performed through advanced techniques designed to evade our existing fraud prevention strategies. These bad actors generally attempt to mimic legitimate payments which can make it difficult to flag the payments as fraudulent when viewed on a macro scale of our platform. We do appreciate the notification of suspicious transactions from our partners when they are viewed on a smaller scale.
- Human-based fraudulent payments can be difficult to detect because the payment might be entered into the system as a legitimate donation. GoFundraise is always looking at ways that could help reduce this type of fraud without hindering existing consumer usage patterns.
What to do if you suspect a donation is Fraudulent
- If you suspect that a donation that has come through is Fraudulent, please email through the details of that payment to support@gofundraise.com and we will investigate further.