Paderborn (dpa / lnw) – According to the police, after the tornado in Paderborn, suspected fraudsters are trying to take advantage of people’s willingness to help and illegally collect donations on behalf of the city of Paderborn. The administration drew attention to this on its website on Monday. “The city of Paderborn is expressly not behind calls for donations that are currently circulating on social networks, such as Facebook. Unknown people are trying to take advantage of the current situation and get money quickly.”
The Paderborn police confirmed to the German Press Agency that they had filed a criminal complaint against the unknown fundraiser. “We have started investigations,” said a spokesman. As before, he referred the city to the wrong call for donations: the alleged scammers use the Internet platform GoFundMe.com for this purpose. Under the title “Tornado in Paderborn NRW” it reads: “Hello, we are hurricane in Germany and we are collecting donations for the affected people on behalf of the city of Paderborn (…).”
The platform is popular for collecting donations. But there were repeated attempts to place false calls there. In the afternoon, the police then announced in writing that they had started investigations “due to suspicion of fraud”.
The city expressly emphasized that this campaign, which was intended to collect 10,000 euros, did not come from it. “The city of Paderborn expressly emphasizes that it has not called for fundraising either online or in analogue form,” the city’s website continues. The appeal: “Please be careful when dealing with appeals for donations in connection with Friday’s tornado.”
The police advise again and again urgently to use only official places for donations. “There are many criminals, scammers, fakes and charlatans on the Internet,” added the police spokesman.
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