The Los Angeles Times reports today that two online donation pages intended to support Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson have unexpectedly shut down.
One of those pages appears to be completely legitimate. But the other one? hmmmmmm ...
Both pages were hosted by GoFundMe, which calls itself the "world's #1 fundraising site."
The legit page, called "Support Officer Wilson", raised $197,620 and was set up by "Shield of Hope", a St. Louis police charity. Shield of Hope has been certified by GoFundMe as a valid donation recipient.
But the other page? Not so much.
* Not certified by GoFundMe as a valid donation recipient.
* Not linked to a valid Facebook page, as GoFundMe's own rules require.
* Email account for the recipient turns out to be a pseudonym.
* Two weeks ago, the recipient, one "StandUp", claimed on the donation page that he would be working with Shield of Hope to become a valid recipient. Shield of Hope sez: nuh uh, never happened.
So far, GoFundMe has provided no explanation for the shutdowns of the two pages, but is standing by the legitimacy of both.
The possibly-scam page has raised $235,750.