Shit...
There seems to be going a new Donations-for-Gaza scam going on. Quite elaborated (thanks to the person who reported this!)
Maybe you were followed by one of these accounts:
@ibrahimqannan@kolektiva.social
@nadra_tibi@mastodon.world
@ola@manganiello.social
@ola_abu_moamer@mas.to
(there are probably more)
These accounts appear to be impersonating well-known journalists in Gaza by copying posts from their real accounts like these:
https://www.facebook.com/ibrahim.qannan.1/
https://www.instagram.com/nadra_tibi/
https://www.instagram.com/ola_abu_moamer/
These Mastodon accounts rapidly started following hundreds of users without interacting in any other way, or writing standard messages (see 3rd screenshot).
For the one on kolektiva, we did a reverse IP address look up for the user, and they are based in Calgary, Canada.
They've put a highly suspect fundraising link in their bio we could not find linked by the actual journalists Ibrahim Qannan or Nadra Tibi on any of their real accounts. This fundraising campaign appears to be a yet another scam to capitalize on people's desire to help Gazans.
All of them have this fundraising campaign on chuffed that looks sus as fuck:
https://chuffed.org/project/137341-emergency-relief-for-gaza-families-food-clothing-hygiene-aid
-> they achieved already 40 000 $ (!)
Is there anybody with better investigative journalist skills that wants to verify these suspicions?
Because the fundraising platform chuffed.org should be informed, too.
The same people might be behind this other scam-campaign, who knows...
@markwyner@mas.to
(it leads to a different chuffed.org fundraiser campaign)
The scammers might have learned that asking too aggressively for donations makes people suspicious, and that such a soft approach gives greater return in the end.
---------------------------------
We are all desperate and want to support the people in Gaza who are currently suffering a genocide by a right-wing governed Israel, supported by our own governments.
Whether you want to give money to Gaza or you can't: please use and share this list of MutualAid groups in Gaza, published and verified by ItsGoingDown:
@igd_news@kolektiva.social
#MastodonScam #Scam #Moderation #Fediblock @palestine@a.gup.pe
@igd_news@kolektiva.social @markwyner@mas.to @fabio@manganiello.social @trumpet@mas.to @SigurdVie@mastodon.world