Scammers impersonating quadruple amputee gain millions of views

Pictured: A fake account is pretending to be Lily on TikTok.

Online scammers have been using a young islander’s traumatic medical ordeal to trick strangers into handing over money through a TikTok account that has gained millions of views.

The family of Lily McGarry, who lost all four limbs following aggressive infection, have urged islanders to report the fake accounts.

Some of the social media profiles have shared links to fraudulent fundraising pages pretending to raise money for the former JCG student.

One such account – ‘monica86100’ – has over 700,000 likes, and its videos have gained millions of views.

Lily’s family told Express that they were aware of several scam accounts pretending to be the 23-year-old on various social media platforms.

Lily’s mum, Joanne Gorrod said they had been reporting scam accounts on TikTok as well as Sellfy and Ko-fi.

She explained that her daughter deleted her real TikTok account months ago, but videos of Lily keep reappearing as soon as they are taken down.

Joanne urged islanders to report any fraudulent accounts they come across online.

Pictured: The fake TikTok account links to a fraudulent fundraising page under the name ‘Helen Hunter’.

In January, Lily was rushed to hospital with flu-like symptoms – which rapidly worsened into septic shock.

The Cardiff medical student was diagnosed with meningococcal septicaemia – a severe and aggressive infection.

Despite suffering two cardiac arrests, Lily fought for her life – but the infection caused severe blood flow issues, and she lost all four limbs as a result.

Last week, her family launched a fundraising page to go towards the purchase of prosthetics Lily will need to gain back her independence.

It has now raised over £300,000.

Any extra funds raised through the campaign will go to UK amputee charity Limb Power, which supports individuals and families affected by limb loss.