Leitrim animal welfare centre reports ‘serious case of identity theft’

A local animal welfare centre has contacted an Garda Síochána after an attempted "serious case of identity fraud" involving the use of the name of the late founder of the centre, Christine Coulson, who sadly passed away last year.

They have described the incident as "deeply distressing and criminal".

Leitrim Animal Welfare Centre received an email from Goodstack, which partners with companies such as Google to connect non profit organisations, stating that the company was working with Google to review an application for their program.

The email went on to state that Christine with email "leitrimanimal@gmail.com has claimed to work or volunteer for Leitrim Animal Welfare so they can access benefits that Google gives to good causes. We'd like your help confirming whether this is true."

The late Christine Coulson

In a post on their Facebook page, the centre said that they were "issuing this public notice to inform our supporters and community of a serious case of attempted identity fraud targeting Leitrim Animal Welfare (LAW) and of our late founder, Christine Coulson, who sadly passed away in 2024. An individual has falsely claimed to be Christine Coulson in an attempt to access non profit benefits through the platform Goodstack, on behalf of our charity. This was done using a fraudulent email address not associated with our organisation, and without any authorisation or connection to Leitrim Animal Welfare.

"This impersonation is both deeply distressing and criminal. The matter is now under investigation by an Garda Síochána, and we are working closely with the relevant platforms to stop the misuse of our name and Christine’s memory."

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