Family of murdered man in debt after £11,000 GoFundMe scam – Inside Croydon

A Croydon family, already devastated by the death of a loved one just days before Christmas last year, are now outraged after a GoFundMe scam saw a chancellor make off with more than £11,000 donated by the public in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy.

Michael Afonso was one of 11 victims of the 2023 Croydon murder.

He died after what police described as a “brutal attack” by a group of men on Mayfield Crescent, Thornton Heath, late on December 19. The suspects left in the gray Vauxhall Grand X Elite car that Afonso was driving. Paramedics went to the scene but were unable to save him.

Michael Afonso was 27 years old at the time of his death. He left a widow and a young son.

In the days after the murder, someone describing himself as a family friend set up a GoFundMe campaign, appealing to the public to donate some Christmas money to help pay for Afonso’s body to be flown to his native Portugal for his funeral. By the start of the New Year, more than £10,000 had been raised on the online fundraising site.

assassinated: Michael Afonso, killed just days before Christmas 2023

But now, according to a survey conducted by The daily mirrorall that money is gone, and Afonso’s heartbroken family says they barely knew the person behind the GoFundMe appeal.

On the GoFundMe page, which the dead man’s family says was set up without their prior knowledge or permission, Ricardo Ferreira claimed to be Afonso’s cousin. He called the fundraiser “Take Michael Afonso’s body back home to rest.”

The The mirror interviewed Afonso’s niece, Jessica, who said that when the family asked for the money, the organizer “walked away” and started making “apologies.”

In total, after processing fees, the amount available for withdrawal was £11,357.33. The money raised included a single donation of £6,500 from “a famous rapper”.

The GoFundMe fundraising account has been emptied by £11,017.98.

According to the paper, Ferreira never responded to requests for comment.

Earlier in the year, police quickly made three arrests in connection with Afonso’s murder. But now, police fraud specialists say they are not investigating alleged fraud by someone who profited from the man’s death.

The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau – or Action Fraud – operates out of the City of London Police and confirmed to the newspaper that they had received a report of crime but that it “has not been passed to a police force for investigation at this time”.

Police said: “With more than 850,000 reports coming into the NFIB each year, not all cases can be referred for further investigation. Reports are assessed against a number of criteria including the vulnerability of the victim.

“However, the reports most likely to present an opportunity for investigation by local police forces, those where a crime is in progress and those which present the greatest threat and harm to the victim or victims concerned, are those which have priority.”

The family calls the scam “fraud at its worst.”

Afonso’s niece Jessica told them The mirror: “My uncle was stabbed on December 19th, two days after the fundraiser was created by this person. None of us gave him permission, he already created the GoFundMe.

“We’ve known this person for a long time, so we didn’t think about it. A famous rapper put £6,500 into GoFundMe, then it went up to £10,000… When he got close to the time, his mum asked him to contact GoFundMe to withdraw the money. He kept apologizing.”

The family says they had to borrow money to pay for Michael Afonso’s funeral.

They claim Ferreira visited his family home on December 27, the same day £1,819.63 was withdrawn from the fundraiser. The family obtained a document from GoFundMe showing all withdrawals from the account after the fundraiser was launched, including a single withdrawal of £6,392.78 on January 3 this year.

Opportunity knocks: list of fundraiser withdrawals as provided by GoFundMe

GoFundMe has been cooperating with the family and clearly has some evidence that could prove critical in any police investigation.

In the murder case, Omari Peat, of Mitcham, Zac Baako, of no fixed address, and John Budal, of Pollards Hill, were charged with the murder of Michael Afonso and appeared in court. They remain in pretrial detention, awaiting trial.

The Metropolitan Police said: “The investigation into the killing of 27-year-old Michael Patrick Afonso Peixoto remains ongoing.”

Read more: Croydon in 2023: London’s most crime-ridden borough

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