A livestream of the final Pack the Park game at Rugby Park, in Invercargill, was marred by cyber scammers over the weekend.
The charity fundraiser began as a bucket list event for the late Blair Vining — a cancer treatment campaigner who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of bowel cancer in 2018.
Southland Charity Hospital founder Melissa Vining said the event was targeted by scammers that posted fake links to the livestream.
The links redirected people to a page that asked them to enter their credit card information then charged them money.
She believed the mother of TV fishing personality, Matt Watson, was among those affected by the scams.
Mrs Vining said the presence of the scams was "exceptionally sad" when so many people had supported the event for the right reasons.
"It's a sad part of today's society.
"There's a lot of positive things on social media . . . but also it does provide an opportunity for scammers to target vulnerable people.
"We would never send you a friend request or ask for your credit card details."
Mrs Vining said the fake links were "rife on Facebook" but many people had caught on and were redirecting people to the legitimate link.
After being made aware of the scams yesterday, her team had spent the whole morning reporting and blocking the fake accounts and issued warnings to the public.
However, scam links were still visible on the Southland Charity Hospital’s Facebook post about the event, yesterday evening.
Netsafe was approached for comment.
— Tim Scott, PIJF cadet reporter
