QUESTION:
There's so many victim fund set up for the Florida high school shooting in Parkland. Are any of them real?
ANSWER:
Yes-- set up by the Broward Education Foundation . If you would like to donate towards the victims of the school shooting and their families, please donate here.
SOURCES:
GoFundMe- Bobby Whithorne- Director of North America Communications
Broward County Sheriff Official Tweet
Broward Education Foundation Official Tweet
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi
Superintendent Broward County Public Schools Robert Runcie
PROCESS:
Anyone can set up a GoFundMe page.
More than 7,000 people have already donated to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting victims. More than 600 of them donated hundreds of dollars to unofficial GoFundMe accounts just 24 hours after the shooting.
To find out which page was legit, our researchers sought out the Broward County Sheriff's Department, the agency that has been handling the shooting from the start.
The department tweeted Thursday morning to direct all donations to a GoFundMe page orchestrated by the Broward Education Fund.
Using Charity Navigator and GuideStar, two databases that track and verify non-profits, we validated Broward Education Foundation, Inc. is a Fort Lauderdale-based non-profit that grants scholarships, awards and financial services to students.
Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runice and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi both warned people to watch out for fraudulent GoFundMe accounts during a CBS News update.
Bondi explained her office is working together with GoFundMe to pull fake relief pages for victims.
"I was on the phone until 2 a.m. with GoFundMe and again first thing this morning," she said. "It is safe to give to GoFundMe. They're pulling bad sites off constantly."
GoFundMe broke its silence and told people to back the fund set up by the Broward Education Fund.
"They are working closely with all parties, including the state and local officials in Florida, to ensure all of the money raised goes to victims and families," said GoFundMe spokesperson Bobby Whithorne.
As of 5 p.m. the real fund for victims had raised nearly $400,000.
On the crowd-sourcing platform, donors are protected by the GoFundMe guarantee, a refund policy. If any page looks suspicious, scroll to the bottom and hit the "report campaign" button.
Wonder what happens to people who create fake pages?
Whithorne said they could face prosecution.
"Fraud is illegal and we... always cooperate with law enforcement investigations," Whitehorne said.
