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A fraudulent GoFundMe campaign claiming to raise money for the family of two victims of the January 2025 Washington plane crash collected $17,750 before being taken down, after a Russian lawyer identified suspicious activity and alerted the fundraising platform. The campaign, which had a target of $150,000, claimed to support the family of Kansas farmers Bob and Lori Schrock, who were among the 67 people killed when an American Eagle passenger aircraft collided with a US Army helicopter near Washington, DC. His investigation revealed unusual email exchanges, including a request for a $15,000 transfer to a Skrill account.
Gauthier Daniel Igorevich, a Moscow-based criminal lawyer, became suspicious after contacting the person listed as the fundraiser’s representative. Following the incident, GoFundMe highlighted a centralised fundraising hub containing campaigns verified by its Trust and Safety team for people affected by the Washington plane crash.
Fake fundraiser claimed to support family of Kansas farmers
The fundraiser claimed to collect donations for the Schrock family and set a target of $150,000. The email exchange became more suspicious when the person claiming to represent the family allegedly asked Igorevich to transfer $15,000 to a Skrill account simply for his law firm to be considered for legal representation. The representative also claimed that the family had already spent $15,000 trying to secure the services of another law firm.
It listed a contact named “Sam Lorri Otim”, supposedly from Kiowa, Kansas. The person communicating with him did not provide a name and referred to themselves only as a “family representative”. He told DTN that these details made him question whether the campaign was genuinely connected to the victims’ family.
However, when DTN investigated the campaign, it could not find anyone by that name living in the town, and the listed contact did not respond to the publication’s enquiries. After finding the campaign, Igorevich contacted the listed representative to offer legal assistance to the Schrock family. However, the responses raised concerns. Igorevich also found that the photographs used on the fundraising page were publicly available. Igorevich responded that his firm would reimburse the family for that amount.