Unless they are in a legitimate emergency situation, they are defrauding charity. Unfortunately, this doesn’t stop everyone, but if they are caught, they would lose all of the money they donated. If I were the one committing fraud, this would seem very risky to me.
Fraudulent claims usually have different characteristics than non-fraudulent claims. If someone claims the full amount they’re entitled to on a large sum of money, the fund should investigate that claim before giving the money.
A crowdfunding network is functionally very similar to what I alluded to in my last question:
In a crowdfunding network, the crowdfunders decide for themselves if they consider the situation to be an emergency. In my version, a centralized fund would be the judge. I think the main advantage of my version is that people immediately know which door to knock on if they’re in trouble.