Fraudsters have been using photos of a 9-year-old battling brain cancer, and his family is begging them to stop.
Julian was diagnosed with medulloblastoma in 2019. He’s relapsed twice after enduring multiple surgeries, bouts of chemotherapy, and radiation treatment. The little boy has been given six months to a year to live, ABC13 reported.
“We are thoroughly and emotionally worn out,” his father, Lee Galloway, told the outlet.
Now, the family from Corpus Christi, Texas, says they have an additional stressor to combat: scammers.
The family created a Facebook page called Team Julian where they share updates and photos of the child’s journey. The page boasts more than 4,000 followers. But fraudsters are using photos of Julian for their own schemes, Galloway told The Independent.
The family first discovered the schemes last May, when scammers set up bogus TikTok accounts using two to three-year-old photos of Julian — with fake names — that directed users to a gaming site. Galloway speculated the fraudsters were trying to steal data. Investigators got involved, but they ultimately weren’t able to “really prove that it was a complete scam, and we didn't have proof that it was anybody had been victimized at that point,” he said.
But months later, other scams cropped up on the platform using the 9-year-old’s photos, this time asking for contributions for a sick child. The fake accounts provide a link, which sends users to a PayPal asking for euros, he said.
“In December is when really got a little bit more alarmed because they were [using] pictures that were taken... a week prior,” Galloway said. “That was a little more distressing because it was brand new stuff.”
The family said they didn’t see this coming. “It was never in our thoughts. It was just a way to tell people all the exact information. We were so brand new into the cancer journey,” Galloway told the outlet.
Julian’s father said he reports the fake accounts when he comes across them but said he has to jump through hoops on social media platforms to get them taken down.
“Sometimes there are things you want to report that don’t fit into any of the categories on their reporting page on any of the social media sites. When you don’t click the right thing and no one actually sees it, it’s just some AI that says we've reviewed this and it doesn’t violate any terms of use,” he told ABC13. “That’s frustrating.”
The real GoFundMe for Julian — which is linked on the Team Julian Facebook page — has garnered more than $38,000 in donations.
To ward off scammers from using Julian’s photos on TikTok, family members created an official TikTok page for Julian earlier this month.
The family members wrote on the Team Julian page: “Okay, here is the official Team Julian TikTok! Don’t be alarmed if you see this profile out there. This account was created by us primarily to be able to report the scammers on TikTok. After researching and the help of an old family friend who has an inside track at the company, we needed an account to say this is the real Julian. There will only be a couple posts there initially to help prove his identity, then we will work on where the account goes from there. Latest updates will still be here on Facebook.”
After getting advice from a family friend, Galloway filmed what he described as a “hostage video” capturing Julian holding up a handwritten sign with the date on it, his real name, his location, and his TikTok account’s name — @teamjulianofficial. That way, they “can prove easily to Tiktok that this is who is running this account,” he told The Independent.
While Galloway said he “appreciates” when others online alert him to the fake accounts, he said: “It's it's hurtful every time to open up that that inbox and get those messages.”
Fake fundraising victims can report their experiences on the Harris County Attorney’s Stay Scam Free page.
