Burlington mom warns parents after her kids’ photo used in Texas floods GoFundMe campaign

A mom in Burlington is warning parents to be careful with pictures posted online, after pictures of her kids were used in a GoFundMe for a fake family in Texas.

Julie Cole says an image of her children from 16 years ago was used in a fundraising page for a fake family, which said they were victims of the flooding in Texas.

GoFundMe said it has zero-tolerance for misuse of the platform, adding that the fundraiser received zero donations, and the account has been banned from using the platform for any future fundraisers.

Cole is a mother of six, and she found out about the GoFundMe page Tuesday, which was called “Donate to Help Annie Johnson After Texas Flood Loss organized by Annie Johnson”.

“About this woman who, you know, needed money, they were trying to raise $40,000 because she was a widow,” said Cole. “Her husband had died of COVID, and then she had these six children, and then the three daughters had passed as a result of the Texas floods – so she had funerals to pay for.”

Officials are still searching for more victims in Texas, where at least 120 people have died from flash floods and 161 others are still considered missing, but not one of them are in the picture of Cole’s kids.

“As disturbing as this is – that a picture was taken of my children without consent – it in no way even reflects or as close to what the parents are feeling in Texas,” said Cole.

Cole submitted a request right away for it to be taken down, and the crowdfunding platform told her they would review it.

Less than 24 hours later, the campaign page was gone.

“The picture that was used in the GoFundMe, it was a picture from 16 years ago when my last child – my sixth child – was born, and it looks like it got lifted from a blog post I wrote many years ago about having six kids,” said Cole.

Now Cole is keeping an eye out to make sure another GoFundMe page like this doesn’t pop up again.

She’s also warning parents to be careful about what they’re posting of their children.

“It’s very easy to just grab a screenshot, and for these pictures to be widespread and used by strangers,” said Cole.

WATCH MORE: Catastrophic flooding in Texas leaves 67 dead, including 21 children