This campaign raised $57K to repatriate a 'loving mother' killed in Lapu-Lapu festival tragedy. It was fake

Aloysius Wong · CBC News

· Posted: May 01, 2025 7:42 PM EDT | Last Updated: 17 minutes ago

Less than 48 hours aft the deadly Lapu-Lapu Day Festival calamity connected Saturday evening, a GoFundMe fundraiser for a pistillate named "Reyna Dela Peña" began circulating.

The run described Dela Peña as a "loving parent and a large person who worked tirelessly to enactment her 2 sons connected her own" and claimed she had died portion walking toward a nutrient motortruck astatine the Filipino thoroughfare festival successful Vancouver past weekend, wherever an SUV driven into the assemblage killed 11 radical and injured dozens more.

The organizer of the fundraiser claimed to beryllium a "dear friend" of Dela Peña and asked for fiscal contributions to instrumentality her assemblage to household successful the Philippines and enactment her surviving sons.

The wealth poured in, earning $57,680 successful donations from much than 1,700 radical by Tuesday morning.

However, that aforesaid morning, the fundraiser was paused, with a connection from GoFundMe saying that the organizer had been contacted and "donations volition resume erstwhile the contented is resolved." The pursuing day, the run was gone.

In a connection to CBC News connected Wednesday, a GoFundMe spokesperson confirmed the run had been removed from its platform, and that the institution had banned the organizer from immoderate aboriginal fundraising, but it did not respond to questions astir why, exactly, the fundraiser was removed.

"At nary constituent did the organizer person entree to the funds," the institution said, adding that each donations to that run were refunded.

"GoFundMe has zero tolerance for the misuse of our level and takes swift enactment against those who question to instrumentality vantage of the generosity of our community."

The institution urged radical who privation to donate to victims of the calamity to sojourn its centralized hub of fundraisers verified by its "Trust and Safety team."

On Thursday afternoon, a Vancouver Police Department (VPD) spokesperson said 4 of the victims who survived the onslaught were successful captious information and 2 others were in superior condition. 

Kai-Ji Adam Lo, 30, has since been charged with 8 counts of second-degree execution successful narration to the crash. In a connection Sunday, the VPD said further charges are anticipated.

Campaign's communicative 'didn't adhd up'

Raquel Narraway was compiling a database of fundraisers for victims of the calamity erstwhile she felt thing successful the GoFundMe for Reyna Dela Peña "didn't adhd up."

"I don't blasted radical who donated close away, due to the fact that the communicative was truly heart-wrenching, right?" said Narraway, a realtor based successful Chilliwack, B.C., who said she wanted to usage her societal media level to gully attraction to the fundraising efforts.

But erstwhile she couldn't find immoderate accusation astir Dela Peña oregon the run organizers, Narraway became skeptical, sharing her concerns connected societal media successful the hope that someone would travel guardant with accusation that could lend credibility to the campaign.

"I inactive wanted to springiness them the payment of the doubt," she said.

When nary 1 among Narraway's 21,000 Facebook followers recognized Dela Peña, her suspicions grew, and she reported the run to GoFundMe and police.

She says that radical who instrumentality vantage of calamity to scam others make her angry. "But astatine the aforesaid time, we cognize that determination are evil radical retired there."

Soon, a Filipino pistillate surviving successful Nevada commented connected Narraway's Facebook station to accidental her photos were used successful the fundraiser without her knowledge, and noted that she had besides reported the campaign.

CBC News has not been capable to independently verify the Nevada woman's story, but the nationalist images connected her illustration look to amusement the aforesaid pistillate seen successful photos utilized successful the GoFundMe.

After CBC News told Narraway that GoFundMe would beryllium refunding the donations made to the campaign, she was relieved to perceive that the fraudsters hadn't been capable to retreat the funds.

"It's fundamentally stealing from people, right? So I couldn't carnivore the thought of that."

Police impulse caution erstwhile donating

Speaking astatine a quality league Wednesday afternoon, Const. Tania Visintin said that portion the VPD hasn't received immoderate reports of fraudulent fundraising accounts, "that doesn't mean these accounts don't exist."

"We are conscionable asking radical to beryllium aware, beryllium mindful that fraud could happen," she said.

"If anybody feels that they're looking astatine a leafage and this leafage could beryllium fraudulent, we inquire that they scope retired to the GoFundMe organizers straight … and they tin corroborate if the relationship is morganatic oregon not."

WATCH | Police caution radical to 'be aware, beryllium mindful':

She noted constabulary cannot corroborate the legitimacy of definite GoFundMe pages themselves owed to unfortunate privateness concerns — the aforesaid reasoning the VPD gave Narraway erstwhile she called to study her suspicions astir the page.

GoFundMe says it has the "most robust donor extortion processes of immoderate level of our kind" and that it volition "always enactment with instrumentality enforcement erstwhile our level is misused."