{"id":225983,"date":"2026-09-29T16:46:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T16:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/gofundme-for-texas-man-who-went-viral-hauling-bags-for-wifes-cancer-bills-is-removed-over-factual-issues-nbcnews-com\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T16:46:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T16:46:19","slug":"gofundme-for-texas-man-who-went-viral-hauling-bags-for-wifes-cancer-bills-is-removed-over-factual-issues-nbcnews-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/gofundme-for-texas-man-who-went-viral-hauling-bags-for-wifes-cancer-bills-is-removed-over-factual-issues-nbcnews-com\/","title":{"rendered":"GoFundMe for Texas man who went viral hauling bags for wife\u2019s cancer bills is removed over \u2018factual\u2019 issues – nbcnews.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

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GoFundMe pulled the plug Sunday on a campaign to raise money for an elderly Texas couple, saying it had \u201cidentified factual misrepresentations.\u201d
The account was created after the husband went viral for working a backbreaking job to cover his wife\u2019s mounting bills for cancer treatment.
The digital fundraising site did not immediately reveal what kind of misrepresentations were behind its decision to end the campaign set to benefit Donald and Josephine Johnson.
The GoFundMe gained national attention and raised nearly $290,000 before it was pulled down.
The campaign was started by a \u201cconcerned stranger\u201d identified as \u201cErin H,\u201d who said she spotted on her Ring camera the 81-year-old husband struggling to carry heavy luggage up a flight of stairs.
The organizer said she asked why he was working such a physically demanding job at his age, and Johnson said his wife was fighting cancer and this was the only job he could find to pay the overwhelming hospital bills.
But somewhere along the line, GoFundMe said it found \u201cmisrepresentations\u201d in the campaign.
The platform received a tip that the organizer of the campaign might not be who they said they were. GoFundMe investigators called the organizer, who admitted that she was in fact the Johnsons\u2019 daughter, that she had shot the viral video and that the concerned stranger was a made-up persona.
The organizer, however, said the other aspects of Donald and Josephine Johnson\u2019s story were true. She told GoFundMe\u2019s team that the story would be more compelling if it were told by a stranger and not a family member.
\u201cOur Trust & Safety team identified factual misrepresentations, which directly violates our Terms of Service,\u201d the platform said in a statement to NBC News on Sunday. \u201cAs a result, the fundraiser has been removed and all donors have been refunded.\u201d
The platform, which did not name the organizer of the fundraiser, said it has no choice but to take tough action in order to maintain trust with donors.
\u201cEnsuring GoFundMe is a safe and trusted place to give and receive help is our top priority. Taking action like this allows GoFundMe to protect donors\u2019 generosity and our continued ability to support people who are fundraising to help others,\u201d GoFundMe said.
\u201cGoFundMe\u2019s policies, along with those of our payment processors, require authenticity and transparency for donors, and are strictly enforced,\u201d it said. \u201cBecause that standard wasn\u2019t met here, donors were protected under our GoFundMe Giving Guarantee<\/a>, which guarantees a full refund in the rare case something isn\u2019t right.\u201d
The Johnsons\u2019 appeal for help has since been taken to an alternate fundraising site, GiveSendGo.
There, the couple\u2019s daughter, Amy Johnson, explained that her parents are fighting their mother\u2019s pancreatic cancer and that the luggage-hauling job is real.
\u201cMy dad is 81 and still works delivering luggage so they can stay afloat,\u201d according to the GiveSendGo listing<\/a>. \u201cThe neighbor story is real. The doorcam video is real. The diagnosis is real. The job is real.\u201d
A fundraising effort was already on for her dad via GoFundMe, but once the viral video emerged, the family decided to change the campaign\u2019s organizer\u2019s name to \u201cErin H,\u201d to reflect the video captured by this stranger who wanted to remain anonymous, Amy Johnson said.
But that name change amounted to an unintentional violation of GoFundMe terms, according to the daughter.
\u201cThat was it. We didn\u2019t know it was a problem,\u201d the daughter said in a TikTok video<\/a>. \u201cI have to come out because someone wanted to do something out of pure kindness but wanted to remain anonymous.\u201d
Amy Johnson did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Donald Johnson could not immediately be reached.
GiveSendGo calls itself a faith-based platform that hopes to \u201cshare God\u2019s love\u201d in the most efficient manner possible<\/a>. It has been used to raise funds for Kenosha, Wisconsin, shooter Kyle Rittenhouse and<\/a> a Minnesota woman caught using a <\/a>racist slur on camera and to support Canadian truckers who blocked highways in protest of Covid restrictions<\/a>.
Asked about the validity of the Johnson campaign, GiveSendGo said in a statement: \u201cWe do not allow fundraisers to deceive the public about who or what is being fundraised for. Every fundraiser on GiveSendGo is reviewed by our verification team before any funds are released.\u201d
Senior Breaking News Reporter
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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For YouSettings news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeGoFundMe pulled the plug Sunday on a campaign to raise money for an elderly Texas couple, saying it had \u201cidentified factual misrepresentations.\u201d The account was created after the husband went viral for working a backbreaking job to cover his wife\u2019s mounting bills for cancer treatment.The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":225984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}