AUSTIN (KXAN) – The Office of Attorney General Ken Paxton announced he was “taking action” Monday investigating an “unverified GoFundMe campaign” raising money for Independence Day flood relief. Meanwhile, the donation organizer told KXAN there was “absolutely” no scam and denied any wrongdoing.
Paxton’s office issued a warning letter to Tray Coppola, of Austin, as part of the OAG’s efforts to “shut down scammers seeking to take advantage of those impacted by Texas’s tragic floods,” according to a Monday news release.
“Mr. Coppola operated a GoFundMe campaign that did not appear as one of GoFundMe’s verified flood-related fundraisers and provided information regarding how the funds would be disbursed in a way that could be misleading to some contributors—leading to this investigation and the letter being sent,” a spokesperson for Paxton’s office told KXAN by email.
The warning letter asks Coppola to preserve documents and evidence, cease his campaign and return donations. Paxton’s office would use all legal remedies – civil penalties, restitution and court-ordered injunctions – to get compliance, the press release states.
All of this was news to Coppola, when KXAN reached him by phone Monday.
Coppola said he had received nothing at that point from Paxton’s office, nor any other agency, about his fundraising effort. He collected a grand total of $60 and had already voluntarily disbanded the fundraising page over the past weekend because of opposition he felt from parents at his daughter’s West Austin elementary school about the effort, he said.
There was no scam, no laws were broken, no effort was ever made to intentionally deceive people, and the “purpose behind the actions was truly to help,” Coppola said.
“There are murderers, there are rapists, there is sex trafficking all over Texas, and you are coming after a Black family who is trying to help everyone across the state of Texas who is affected,” Coppola said. “I am appalled” that Paxton would issue the press release “with no due process.”
Flooding prompts massive relief effort, and donations
Paxton’s office has generally urged the public to be wary of scams and frauds targeting people trying to help after floods over the Independence Day weekend that wreaked havoc on towns and riverside homes across the Hill Country and Central Texas. As of July 15, at least 131 people were confirmed killed and 101 more still missing in a half dozen counties.
Deaths, injuries and devastating property damage have been reported in Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green, Travis and Williamson counties. The worst hit was Kerr County, where flash floods tore in the early morning hours of July 4, sweeping away a cabin at Camp Mystic, an all-girls sleepaway camp, killing more than two-dozen young campers and counselors.
The tragedy sparked immense relief efforts and donations have poured in from throughout the state and country. Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country announced it raised $30 million in less than a week and distributed $5 million in emergency grants to nonprofits assisting the recovery.
Coppola said the scope of the damage and tragedy drove him to create the GoFundMe page. While he only raised $60, which was ultimately refunded, he set the fundraising goal at $2 million, a “big number,” he acknowledged.
“I came to that number, which, to be honest with you, is not even enough considering all the victims, all the survivors, all the ones affected, two million is not going to be enough, but it was going to be a start to reach as many people as possible throughout the state,” Coppola said.
He provided screenshots to KXAN showing his messages with GoFundMe requesting the page’s removal and donations refunded on July 13, a day before Paxton’s press release was posted.
Coppola strongly denied any fraud or intention to deceive people and noted his real information was on the GoFundMe page.
“The people that are doing scams, they aren’t posting their real name and real picture,” he said. “I had my real name, my real picture.”
KXAN checked Coppola’s background, which showed a brush with the law nearly a decade ago in Georgia. Coppola acknowledged he pleaded guilty in 2016 in a fraud case related to using a bad check. It was labeled as a first offense, and he served three years in the penitentiary, according to Douglas County records.
Since then, he has had no similar issues. Coppola told KXAN he took the Georgia case for a family member, accepting the repercussions for their actions, and never thought it would go that far. He served the time and resolved the case “completely.”
The Georgia case was old, Coppola added, and it has no bearing nor any correlation with Paxton’s allegations.
Before beginning the online campaign, Coppola said he travelled to Kerr County in the aftermath of the floods and was “able to assist a total of 10 families with monetary assistance directly.”
Group chat blowback
Before receiving any official notice or warning, Coppola said he pulled down the GoFundMe page over the weekend because of blowback he received in a group chat with parents at his daughter’s West Austin elementary school.
The parents were bothered by his approach of seeking donations for all flood-impacted people across the state that weren’t being covered or spoken about in the same way Camp Mystic had been, he said.
Coppola also shared screenshots of text messages appearing to show his effort to promote the GoFundMe page on a parent group chat, saying he was trying to raise money for “more than just Mystic affected. Most people with Mystic are covered, we covered ones that aren’t being covered or spoken that much about.”
In response, one person said Coppola’s approach — and the way he framed his effort to help people outside of Camp Mystic — were “completely inappropriate and insensitive.”
It isn’t clear exactly what put Coppola in Paxton’s crosshairs and subject to being singled out in the statewide elected official’s press release. KXAN asked his office what complaints prompted the warning letter and investigation, but they did not answer that question. KXAN has requested a record of the complaints that led to Paxton’s investigation – which remains pending.
Paxton’s office and consumer advocate organizations like the Better Business Bureau have been broadly warning the public about consumer scams and donation fraud. They’ve said the urge to help, for example by sending a donation, can cause people to overlook red flags that might otherwise alert them to questionable charities and fundraisers.
Consumer warning
Jason Meza, a senior director of communications with the Better Business Bureau, told KXAN about emerging scams like cloned websites, swapped bank account links, and criminals infiltrating comment sections in Meta stories to siphon off would-be donors.
“AI is allowing cyber criminals the advantage of now speeding up that process of creating profile bots that are chatting,” Meza said. “As soon as they go up or established the profiles and put them on these platforms, they’re quickly taken down, and they’re just moving onto another. They migrate so fast.”
BBB warns of emotional appeals, fundraisers using similar names to well-known charities, fundraisers that disclose little information, and requests for on-the-spot donations that pressure you to give immediately.
Scams can be reported to the BBB’s scam tracker. Consumers can also report them to the Office of Attorney General here.
The Office of Attorney General has tips and information on disaster scams here and below:
- Warning on flood-damaged cars.
- Recommendations on door-to-door contractors.
Additional tips and resources:
- Do not wire money or provide personal banking information like account, credit card or social security numbers.
- Research charities before donating. Two tools to check credentials are CharityWatch and Guidestar, which keeps IRS data on nonprofits.
- Don’t trust names or phone numbers, which can be faked.
- Watch out for text message solicitations for donations, also called “smishing.”
- Enter your name in the Texas Do Not Call Registry (by visiting https://www.texasnocall.com or by calling toll-free at 1-888-309-0600) and the National Do Not Call Registry, by visiting www.donotcall.gov or by calling toll-free at 1-888-382-1222 (TTY 1-866-290-4236).