During the coronavirus pandemic, calls for donations to hospitals and charities are multiplying. Unfortunately, not all of them come from official structures, and scams are flourishing. How can we tell the difference? The Direction Générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Répression des Fraudes (DGCCRF) and the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR) have issued several warnings.
Participatory fundraising and financing platforms
Leetchi, HelloAsso, KissKissBankBank, Ulule, Le Pot commun and Gofundme, to name but a few of the most famous, enable Internet users to finance a project or raise a sum of money for a private event such as a birthday, for example.
These platforms apply various control rules and verify the origin of the kitty funds they place online. In their joint press release, theACPR and the DGCCRF call on these intermediaries to exercise the utmost vigilance and provide Internet users with information on "eligibility conditions, analysis and selection criteria for projects and project holders."
The ACPR and DGCCRF also remind fundraising and participatory finance platforms that their control rules must correspond to the obligations set out in the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, in particular the "obligations of identification, constant vigilance and declaration [...] from the moment the relationship is entered into until the funds collected are paid to the beneficiary."
Cautionary recommendations for potential donors
The Direction Générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Répression des Fraudes (DGCCRF) and the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR) are also warning Internet users who wish to respond to a call for donations.
They call on the latter to obtain as much information as possible about the issuer of the appeal, including the company's registration number, head office address, name, website and country of establishment. The company must be authorized to issue an appeal for donations, a fact that can be verified by consulting theORIAS website, the register of intermediaries in the banking, finance and insurance sector.
The ACPR and DGCCRF urge potential donors to give preference to well-known and recognized fundraising and participatory financing platforms on which they are already registered, and to be very wary of any request for a transfer to a bank account. Furthermore, as the press release reminds us, direct canvassing for project financing is generally a sign of fraud.