HN Reader

If BBC journalists can donate $5 and see the counter move, how are these campaigns not triggering internal red flags?

"The campaigns with the biggest apparent international reach were under the name of an organisation called Chance Letikva (Chance for Hope, in English) - registered in Israel and the US."

Chance Letikva is registered with the US IRS as a charity. They've filed a Form 990. Location is Brooklyn, NY. [1] Address is listed. It's a small house. It's also incorporated as CHANCE LETIKVA, INC. in New York State. Address matches. Names of officers not given. There's one name in the IRS filing, listed as the president.

Web site "https://chanceletikva.org" has been "suspended". Domain is still registered, via Namecheap.

Some on the ground digging and subpoenas should reveal who's behind this.

[1] https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/852...

The root cause of the problem is that parents and children need to raise funds for cancer treatment in the first place.

This is part of the reason that people do not donate.

Great investigative journalism. And so, so sad that these hopeful parents were scammed. Terrible that someone could do this to a child. The conclusion doesn’t give me hope though. The alleged scam organizations didn’t respond to questions and … that’s it? No one is going to jail?

I love the photo the guy sent, of himself sitting in a first-class airplane seat.

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/b676/live/3589b...

Surely they'll be using AI to make these videos in the not too distant future.

I have reported these ads to YouTube multiple times, because I tracked down their scam websites, but YouTube didn't delete them anyway.

Common pattern they had was:

- similar or same domains

- same messaging on their website

YouTube could have taken action, but it choose not to

This is nothing new, greedy bast*rds taking advantage of desperate people.

In this book an old NGO worker explain very well how it work the business: https://books.google.dk/books/about/Blanco_bueno_busca_negro...

Great journalism. I hope the authorities bring this person to justice and arrest them for fraud.

I saw this ad a few months ago on YouTube and flagged it as a scam when I couldn’t find much information about the company. Never donate money through random sites. If you use platforms like https://www.gofundme.com/, at least you have the option to file a complaint if you find something suspicious.

"They were always looking for beautiful children with white skin." But most of the children in the video appear to be non-white. So they're not even good at anti-affirmative-action?

I am not religious. But if there is hell…

I recall seeing these ads, I thought the whole thing was fake to be honest - which it really felt it was due to the obvious staging and scripting.

Really makes me think that the justice system should have a wide margin for discretionary sentencing. I get that in some sense fraud is fraud, but there is one thing preying on people's greed, and another preying on compassion, charity and vulnerable children in desperate need. Scams based on greed (or other vices) are in some sense limited crimes, since their success punishes what is low, but scams based on what is best in us are much wider in their social impact, since they also disincentivize what is most noble.

Fraud in cancer research is sadly prevalent.

France cancer fraud trial begins (1999) [0] (the head of the charity was found guilty, imprisoned, and fined)

[0] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/352075.stm

I remember there was a flood of similar campaigns on Facebook a couple years ago. Multiple pages, some posts sponsored, some gaming the algorithm, very similar messaging. All about children suffering from cancer. All leading to scammy-looking domain names, some using IDNs. I had been wondering where the catch was, then got tired and just started reporting and blocking them until they stopped.

> One year later, Khalil died.

These monsters.

Of all the people that you can scam, why go for children with cancer. I guess you think they are an easy target because they are desperate? Pure sociopath mentality. Crab mindset.

This has to be one of the most vile scams I've ever seen. Hopefully with awareness will come justice.

A simple way to solve this would be to have some kind of gov certification process.

Which could also include a QR code going to a gov website with details why this org was given the certification.

This isn't perfect but would certainly lower such incidents.

The world seems to be full of virtuous sounding organisations who are actually evil.

It's worth noting that if the suspect is in Israel, and he nerds to be tried in the US it might be an uphill battle trying to get him extradited.

https://jacobin.com/2023/02/israel-law-of-return-extradition...

To be clear: the children are not scammed. They're (unwitting) paid photo props. The people giving are scammed out of millions.

Another charity scam turns to a jew hate fest on HN. Oh, it's also a BBC report, no surprise at all.

""...Well- What does he deserve? To be shot? To be shot for the satisfaction of our moral feelings? Speak, Alyosha!"

"To be shot" murmured Alyosha, lifting his eyes to Ivan with a pale, twisted smile."

"Bravo!" Cried Ivan delighted.

It is disgusting that those with health issues are scammed. I do think these instances require extra time on sentences. As someone who was a regular at a cancer hospital in my life, there is nothing harder than seeing a child and a parent who are clearly going through so much at a hospital at 8am. You realise all that they have gone through the whole time, and how much their life has changed, possibly permanently. It is hard for an adult, of course it is, but children have done nothing for this to happen.

I mean Musk almost singlehandedly has killed hundreds of thousands of kids worldwide in 2025 alone by destroying USAID medicine and basic nutrition distribution, while it literally rots in warehouses now

If we are going to have cancer stories and gun violence stories daily in the news, shouldn't the kids dying be a daily coverage?

Credit to BBC who every few weeks does show the kids dying in the hospital but US news does not mention it anymore since the summer

Still dying. More in 2026. Even more in 2027. Even more in 2028.

Even if USAID is restored in 2029 it will take awhile to rebuild and all those dead kids aren't coming back ever.

Oh and they didn't just quietly die. They suffered for weeks, months and died

Musk did that. But yeah keep using X and buying his cars