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Senate panel hears bill to let victims sue fake crowdfunding organizers, reclaim portion of donations
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Summary
A Texas Senate committee heard testimony on House Bill 4281, which would let victims and the state pursue people who set up fraudulent crowdfunding campaigns and allow victims to recover 25% of fraudulently collected donations.
Senators on the Committee on State Affairs heard testimony on House Bill 4281, a measure sponsored in the Senate by Senator Hancock that would give victims and the state a civil path to pursue people who create fraudulent crowdfunding campaigns and allow a victim to recover 25% of donations gathered through fraud.
The bill’s sponsor, Senator Hancock, described the problem as one that "has become a popular and effective way to raise funds for various causes" but one that criminals sometimes exploit. He said the measure would “hold criminals accountable by allowing the individual or a state to pursue the fake campaign culprit.”
Melanie Dowell, who testified in support of the bill, told the committee her family was victimized after a head-on crash near Johnson City in November 2023 that left three members of her sister’s household dead and her sister critically injured. While her sister lay in the ICU, Dowell said, someone set up two GoFundMe pages using the family’s photographs and misspelling a survivor’s name. Dowell said the pages were not created by family or friends and that the timing — “within 3 days after the loss” — compounded the family’s grief. “It is truly unbelievable that someone could use another’s pain and suffering to falsely enrich themselves in this way,” she testified.
Chairman Hughes opened and closed public testimony without further speakers and the committee left the bill pending for further consideration.
No criminal provisions were added during the hearing; sponsors and witnesses discussed the measure as a civil remedy that could also create a deterrent effect. The bill would permit victims to seek a civil recovery of a set fraction of donations (25%), according to testimony, and allow the state to pursue the organizer of a fake campaign.
Public comment on the measure was limited to Dowell’s account at this hearing. The committee did not vote on the bill during the session and left it "pending," with a record that public testimony had closed.
The committee’s next step, if any is taken, will determine whether the bill moves to floor consideration, is amended, or is otherwise revised.
(Ending) The committee hearing record shows HB 4281 received a single public witness account at this session; the bill remains pending before the Committee on State Affairs.
