AUSTIN (KXAN) – The Office of Attorney General Ken Paxton is investigating scammers who targeted the Center Point Volunteer Fire Department’s charitable campaign to raise money for their efforts and the fire station after devastating flood damage July 4.
In the early morning hours of Independence Day, as residents and vacationers slept, the Guadalupe River rose over 30 feet. Center Point is located in Kerr County, which had the largest death toll. As of July 17, there were 107 people confirmed killed there and 97 still missing.
The CPVFD’s team has assisted with search and rescue. The nonprofit department also started a charitable drive to help fund themselves, their recovery efforts and rebuild their own station that was damaged in the flood, according to Paxton’s office.
That’s when scammers struck, said CPVFD chief Charles Holt.
As soon as the CPVFD posted its Venmo account for the charity drive, about six other false accounts popped up to divert money. Venmo soon locked the accounts down, Holt said, but it’s not clear how much money was siphoned off.
Paxton’s office said it would use the “full weight” of its powers to go after scammers profiting off the flood.
“Unfortunately, things like that happen,” Holt told KXAN by phone. “With every good deed happening, there’s also some bad … but there’s a lot more good people than bad.”
That type of scam – online, rapid and difficult to spot – is the type of fraud Paxton’s office and consumer-protection advocates have warned about. With the enormous influx of charitable donations for July 4 flood victims, scammers are swooping in and stealing money in the online fundraising space by creating phony links and cloning websites, among other tricks.
“It is sick and disgusting that people would use the tragedy of the devastating floods to enrich themselves by deceiving well-meaning people trying to help,” Paxton in his news release.
Holt said his fundraiser is back up and operating, with the real GoFundMe being run in conjunction with the Cajun Navy. You can find it here. Holt also said people can send checks to CPVFD at P.O. Box 494, Center Point, Texas, 78010.
Scam warnings and protecting yourself
The Better Business Bureau warned that scammers are using increasingly sophisticated methods to extract money from would-be donors. Jason Meza, a senior director of communications with the Better Business Bureau, said they are seeing an emerging threat from cyber criminals using artificial intelligence. They are cloning websites and replacing, switching bank account links and hijacking comment sections in Meta stories. By harnessing AI, scammers can swiftly implement these tactics on the web.
“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 establish the profiles and put them on these platforms, they’re quickly taken down, and they’re just moving onto another. They migrate so fast.”
Meza recommended, at the very least, taking a pause before donating and triple-checking payment sites and links to ensure they are routing to the right place. If something doesn’t seem right, direct message the fundraiser or pick up the phone and call because scammers won’t take the time to answer detailed questions and provide more information beyond what is already posted on the website.
Watch out for appeals that are emotional, urgent or have similar names to well-known charities, experts warn.
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 keep 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).