MacKenzie Scott Gave Away Billions. The Scam Artists Followed.

She has no large foundation, headquarters or public website. That makes it easier to dispense money on her own terms — and for others to prey on the vulnerable in her name.

Danielle Churchill needed help. She was raising five children in Wollongong, on the Australian coast south of Sydney, and had to cover thousands of dollars in special therapy fees for her 10-year-old son, Lachlan, who has autism. She tried crowdfunding on the site GoFundMe, but raised just a tiny fraction of what she had hoped for. Late last year, she received the message that seemed to solve her financial problems. It was purportedly an email from the billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, a novelist best known as the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder, saying that she was giving away half her fortune and that Ms. Churchill had qualified for a grant. Ms. Churchill searched Google for Ms. Scott’s name and the word “scam.” Instead of warnings, she found numerous news articles describing how Ms. Scott’s representatives had emailed hundreds of nonprofit groups out of the blue with offers of monetary support.