Social media scam targets kidney donations
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Key takeaways:
- A scam circulating on Facebook entices people seeking a kidney donation to provide personal information and payment.
- The scam uses a link to a website falsely claiming to be part of the National Kidney Foundation.
The kidney care community is warning the public of a scam recently circulating on Facebook that promises a kidney donation in exchange for personal information and money, according to a post on the National Kidney Foundation’s website.
The operation, which falsely poses as part of NKF’s “The Big Ask: The Big Give” program, targets members of kidney community social media groups. A scammer posing as a group member posts comments well into a comment thread with a bogus link to a webpage that looks like a legitimate site, Lori Hartwell, founder and president of the Renal Support Network (RSN), who alerted NKF to the scam, told Healio.
“It seems to be pretty sophisticated,” Hartwell said. “You’d click on the link that looked like it was on the NKF website.”
At the fraudulent website, people were asked to provide personal information and then received a message saying, “By registering with the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) to find a potential living kidney donor for your kidney transplantation, you’ve embarked on a journey of hope and healing,” according to one screenshot Hartwell sent to Healio.
Scammers would then contact the person by email saying a kidney was available and asking for insurance information and fees for lab tests.
When Hartwell and RSN volunteer Karol Franks, posing as a victim, made an excuse for not providing the information, “they literally sent the message, ‘You just lost your kidney because you didn't do this,’” Hartwell said.
The NKF alerted its volunteers to the scam by email and social media, Paul McGee, vice president of communications and marketing at NKF told Healio.
“We’re aware of two websites that were posing as the NKF, and as of early September, both sites had been taken down. We have reached out to the authorities,” McGee said. “NKF systems and data were not involved. We weren’t hacked and no NKF data or records have been compromised by this.”
It is understandable people seeking a kidney donor might want to pursue every apparent option, Hartwell said. She offered several suggestions for protecting personal information:
- Make social media accounts private, and limit personal information shared online.
- Be on the lookout for suspicious social media and email messages and links.
- Use strong passwords.
- Be aware of current scams.
- Be skeptical of offers that sound too good to be legitimate.
- When replying, seek an email address or phone number at a legitimate website; do not click a link to reply.
Reference:
National Kidney Foundation. Scams involving kidney donation. Available at: https://www.nkfi.org/post/scams-involving-kidney-donation#:~:text=A%20scam%20is%20currently%20spreading,accounts%20posing%20as%20a%20member. Published Sept. 16, 2024. Accessed Oct. 1, 2024.
For more information:
Lori Hartwell can be reached at www.rsnhope.org/contact-us/.
Paul McGee can be reached at paul.mcgee@kidney.org.
Hartwell and McGee report no relevant financial disclosures.
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