“Save the Palestinian Girl” fundraiser on Twitter with no identifying details, uses old photo

A fundraiser purporting to help save the life of a young Palestinian girl circulated in replies to popular tweets on Twitter in February 2023. However, we noticed several red flags that suggested this might not be what it claimed.

Such a tweet According to an account named Amoon Qasim (@Am9Gaza), “Urgent help is here to save a Palestinian girl.”

That tweet linked to another tweet that said, “This Palestinian mother is asking benefactors to save her daughter who is suffering from shortness of breath and blocked arteries. The child is in urgent need of $6,000 now. Please donate using the direct link.”

The user copied and pasted the same replies under numerous tweets.

The @Am9Gaza account was created last month and previously appeared to be known by a different name. New accounts and changed handles can be red flags that indicate fraud.

The tweet included a link to a fundraiser book page on social.fund entitled “Save the Palestinian Girl”.

We have dealt with the origins of the photo on this page.

The fundraising page contained no identifying information about the child’s name or exact whereabouts, other than “A woman living in the occupied Palestinian territories.” It only showed the putative name of an organizer and beneficiary: “Al rahma Gaza”.

The same image from the fundraising page was posted to Facebook back in 2018. Similar to the 2023 tweets, the post did not include any specific identifying details for the girl.

We also noticed that the image on the fundraising page matches a photo from an article published in 2017. This was the biggest red flag we found as old images used without permission often show up in online scams.

According to the 2017 news article by innfrad.com, the young girl in the picture was called Farida and the photo was taken in Cairo, Egypt. She was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). This was very different from the tweet that claimed the Palestinian girl who had to be rescued was suffering from “shortness of breath and blockages in the arteries.”

On January 5, 2023, the @IlmFeed Twitter account tweeted: “Scam alert! Do not donate to this fundraiser. This account replied to our tweets with a donation link, but it’s a scam. One of the photos used is of a Syrian girl who was helped by Turkiye. When we challenged them via DM, they blocked us.”

The @IlmFeed user’s bio revealed his mission to tweet “positive stories about Muslims, inspirational articles, videos, podcasts and more.”

“Always donate through registered charities or people you know personally,” added @IlmFeed.

We have reached out to an email address associated with the fundraiser but have not yet received a response.