A woman has been accused of faking her son’s alleged disappearance, then starting a GoFundMe to raise profits, according to a spokesperson with the crowd fundraising platform.
According to a recent Newsweek report, Janie Santana filed a missing person report after she said her son Rudy Farias has vanished after taking their dogs out for a walk in Houston.
He was 17 at the time report was filed in 2015, and he has since been found “bruised and battered” outside a church in June of this year.
As detectives launched an investigation, they found there were many inconsistencies behind the mother’s report, in addition to the relationship between her and her son.
GoFundMe confirmed that Santana created the GoFundMe page in March 2015, and was created by a woman named Julissa Bravo, who has uncertain ties to the family.
The campaign raised $2,025, which Santana collected.
“GoFundMe has zero tolerance for the misuse of our platform and cooperates with law enforcement investigations and those accused of wrongdoing,” the spokesperson said. “Our trust and safety team takes swift action against those who exploit the generosity of our community, including with the outright removal of a fundraiser, banning an account for violating our terms of service, and even pursuing potential legal recourse.”
GoFundMe further added during a press conference Thursday that at the prudence of its team, they perpetually banned Santana from the platform and all future beneficiary prospects.
It is unknown whether the company will pursue legal action for the money she pocketed.
The link to the campaign is now broken and cannot “be found.”
Santana has “also been accused of severe abuse by community activists like Quanell X, who relayed his concerns to detectives on Wednesday,” according to the report. “Farias made no mention of abuse, sexual or otherwise, during his interview with a staff sergeant.”
