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Abington Police issue warning after fraudulent fundraiser for family shot to death

From left to right: 9-year-old Kathryn Zaccardi, 11-year-old Alexis Zaccardi and 9-year-old Nathaniel Zaccardi.

ABINGTON, Mass. — Abington Police are warning people to use caution when making donations following the shooting deaths of a couple and their three children.

"In times of tragedies there are often deceitful individuals that take advantage of people trying to help others," police said in a statement. "The Abington Police Department asks that you please use caution and attempt to verify any sites you may be making a donation to."

The state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined 43-year-old Joseph Zaccardi shot his wife, 40-year-old Deirdre, and their three children, 11-year-old Alexis and 9-year-old twins Nathaniel and Kathryn, before taking his own life.

>>RELATED: DA: Abington father shot, killed wife and 3 children before killing himself

Boston 25 News has learned a GoGetFunding crowdfunding page titled ‘Deidre Zaccardi Family Funeral Fund' was not set up by family members of the victims. The webpage appears to no longer exist.

Relatives of the Zaccardi family are not asking for any monetary donations at this time.

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking people to make a donation to Keeping Pace with Multiple Miracles, a state-wide non-profit support network for families and families-to-be of multiple birth children.

A statement on the organization's website reads:

"Deirdre's family would like to extend their heartfelt appreciation for the outpouring of support and kindness from the Abington community and the many friends and  loved ones that have reached out to them during this difficult time.  They again request privacy and encourage all to join with other family and friends in a Celebration of Life on date (to be determined)."

GoGetFunding sent Boston 25 News the following statement:

"This campaign was repoted [sic] as fraudulent and we then deleted it and banned the user from our site.

It is very common across all crowdfunding platforms, not just ours for fake or copycat campaigns to be created by fraudsters. They will usually use campaigns that are highly emotive such as funerals and memorials or animal cruelty where donors may not be as guarded regarding donating as they may not even consider someone would be heartless enough to create such an account.

We have a number of measures in place to try to minimise [sic] such campaigns appearing on our site, but it is incredibly difficult to identify all fake campaigns. We are incredibly grateful for the immense support we get from our crowdfunding community and also the families and friends who are extremely vigilant and will notify us often within hours of a fake campaign appearing and in almost all cases before any donations have been made. I believe this was the case in relation to the campaign you are referring to.

If donations have been made (in most cases the first few donations are made by the fraudster themselves to try and make the campaign look genuine), we provide the guidance and support needed to ensure the donors are able to retrieve any donations that have been made via the various payment processors we use.

When donating to a crowdfunding campaign, donors should always ask this:

Were you referred to the project by a friend or family member? If not, was the link found via a reputable source such as a newspaper, TV programme [sic] or well established social media page.

If you were targeted directly from an unknown person, or found the campaign via an internet search, please consider contacting the customer support team for the crowdfunding platform hosting the campaign and they can review the campaign instantly and investigate."