Private Sydney: Koby Abberton discovers pitfalls of crowdsourcing

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Private Sydney: Koby Abberton discovers pitfalls of crowdsourcing

By Andrew Hornery

Crowdsourcing has gone from a buzzword to a well-entrenched practice in the digital age to raise money, mostly for worthwhile causes.

Add the power of celebrity and the sums of money being raised can run into the millions.

But when rich and famous people rattle the charity can for rather questionable causes, the blowback can be harsh, as former champion surfer and one-time Bra Boy Koby Abberton discovered this week when he launched a GoFundMe page to raise $20,000 to fix up the rented Balinese villa he and has family had been living in until it was damaged in a fire.

Koby Abberton has not elaborated on why he is spending other people's money to make amends for his actions.

Koby Abberton has not elaborated on why he is spending other people's money to make amends for his actions.Credit: Robert Pearce

He had already raised $11,000 when Abberton took to social media to defend his actions.

“I destroyed someone's house and next day after the fire the roof fell down, and I will fix what I ruined whether it's my villa or not. I don't run away,” he explained on Instagram, though he did not elaborate on why he was spending other people's money to make amends for his actions.

In 2015, former child actor and Young Talent Time star Debra Byrne copped a grilling after she launched a campaign on Facebook to raise money to pay for a trip to receive dental work she needed in Thailand.

Her post said: "Challenge friends ... need to return to Bangkok to have bridge work finalised."

Using the hashtag #paybackalegend, the post was soon removed when it started generating headlines.

Last year, one-time fashion guru and former party boy, Dan Single, who was reportedly at the helm of an empire worth $24 million at its peak, launched a crowdsourcing campaign to raise $250,000 he said he needed to cover his medical bills after falling off a Paris hotel balcony.

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Single angrily defended the campaign, though it was short-lived with the GoFundMe page eventually suspended.

In January, London-based millionaire advertising executive Richard Huntington started a crowd-funding campaign to pay for his dog to see British celebrity vet Noel Fitzpatrick, asking social media followers to raise £7500.

The extraordinary campaign followed after the dog, a welsh terrier named Edward Lear, had already appeared on Instagram wearing designer doggy clothing and enjoyed trips to five-star hotels. The dog, which apparently was suffering from severe arthritis, had 10,000 followers on its own Instagram account.

Huntington, the chairman of global ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi, is reportedly earning a six-figure salary, but his wife Annabel Bird begged on a GoFundMe page: "All I want is for my funny little dog to be able to run around again like the crazy terrier he is and climb mountains in the Lake District and Snowdonia like he used to and enjoy his life to the fullest."

But not even one of the richest men in showbiz Kanye West could defend the GoFundMe page set up in his honour by a fan who wanted to raise money to put towards $US53 million ($68 million) worth of debts the rapper was facing a couple of years back.

West rejected the money after more than $US7000 had been raised by fan Jeremy Piatt, who appeared to have only been half-joking when he wrote on the GoFundMe page: "We must open our hearts and wallets for Kanye today. Sure he is personally rich and can buy furs and houses for his family, but without our help, the true genius of Kanye West can't be realised."

Perhaps Abberton might want to reconsider.

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