DEAR ABBY: I have an acquaintance, "Tina," who I believe is fraudulently using her GoFundMe fundraising webpage. A close friend of hers set it up a few years ago to assist with medical bills related to a rare form of cancer that will never fully go away. When the page began, Tina was soliciting donations on Facebook and sending text messages to remind everyone to donate. Later on, when she and her husband went out of town for surgery, they posted about it as if it were a vacation.
Recently, she has had some legal bills for an unrelated matter, and a year after her last medical donation, she received a hefty donation that matched the amount of her legal bills. I suspect the person who donated the money was duped into believing Tina had another large medical bill, but she used that donation for her legal expenses.
On top of this, Tina has opened a new fundraising page with a sob story about her cancer returning and being hospitalized about a week before that request. Abby, I know full well Tina was healthy as an ox at the time, was not in the hospital and probably set this up to create a smokescreen to protect her malicious intentions. Now I keep wondering if I should report it, or if I'm better off minding my own business. -- NOT ADDING UP IN FLORIDA
DEAR NOT ADDING UP: If you sincerely think Tina has been abusing her GoFundMe page, report it. The process is not difficult. There is a notification button at the bottom of the page that can be pushed to alert its "Fraud Squad" that something shady might be going on.