A Texas daughter used the persona of caring neighbor to help her elderly father — who went viral as a delivery driver to help pay his wife’s cancer bills — collect more than $700,000 before the fundraiser was pulled over “factual misrepresentations.”
GoFundMe yanked the page set up to help raise money for Donald Johnson and his wife, Josephine, after a tip it received on Sept. 25 that raised questions about who was running the campaign, NewsNation reported on Monday.
GoFundMe’s Trust & Safety team discovered that the organizer, who had identified herself only as a neighbor named “Erin Howell,” was actually the couple’s daughter, Amy Johnson.
“Our Trust & Safety team identified factual misrepresentations, which directly violate our Terms of Service,” GoFundMe told the outlet.
Johnson’s daughter told the fundraising platform that she used the persona because she believed her parents’ story would connect better with potential donors if it came from someone outside the family, NewsNation reported.
Amy said she received the doorbell camera footage from a neighbor who wanted to remain anonymous.
She insisted that the video was real and insisted every other detail, including her father’s job, her mother’s cancer and their money troubles, was true.
She used her existing GoFundMe to help raise the funds; but changed the username.
However, GoFundMe said misrepresenting an organizer’s identity or relationship to the beneficiary violates its terms of service, regardless of intent.
“As a result, the fundraiser has been removed and all donors have been refunded. Ensuring GoFundMe is a safe and trusted place to give and receive help is our top priority,” the statement said.
“Taking action like this allows GoFundMe to protect donors’ generosity and our continued ability to support people who are fundraising to help others.”
The fundraiser launched on Sept. 2 and had collected the donations before GoFundMe deactivated the page and refunded all donors.
Home security footage appeared to show Johnson hauling lost luggage up to a customer’s door in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where the resident seemed caught off guard by the elderly delivery man.
Johnson began working as an independent contractor delivering lost luggage to owners’ homes three years ago, after his wife was diagnosed with an aggressive form of pancreatic cancer, according to the family.
The 81-year-old said he routinely pulled 14-hour days and drove hundreds of miles a day to support his wife — racking up more than 200,000 miles on a car that’s now riddled with mechanical problems.
After the GoFundMe page was removed, Amy launched a new fundraiser for her parents on GiveSendGo on Saturday, where she addressed the controversy.
“My mom has pancreatic cancer. The bills are high. My dad is 81 and still works delivering luggage so they can stay afloat,” Amy wrote.
She told potential donors that “the neighbor story is real. The doorcam video is real. The diagnosis is real. The job is real.”
“A lot of you already gave on GoFundMe. We are so grateful. That page was originally set up on my account because it was already established and we thought that would be the simplest way,” she explained.
“When the name on the page was updated, GoFundMe treated it as a discrepancy. We offered documentation. They refunded the donations anyway.”
However, GoFundMe said Amy acknowledged on a recorded call that she posed as a neighbor to set up the original page, NewsNation reported.
She acknowledged on GiveSendGo that the refunds were frustrating for donors and the family alike, insisting nothing about her mother’s treatment or her father’s age and work had changed, and that her parents still need help.
“We started over on a new page so your support can actually reach them this time. If you already gave, thank you. If you can, even a little, it goes to her care and to getting him off those stairs,” Amy wrote.
“We will post updates. Thank you for the kindness you already showed this family.”
The GiveSendGo fundraiser had raised more than $45,000 of its $100,000 goal as of Monday.
