A website claiming to be a foundation set up in memory of Diogo Jota has been taken down amid allegations that it has no affiliation with his family or Liverpool.

The footballer and his brother tragically lost their lives in a car crash in July, mere days after Jota tied the knot with his long-term partner Rute Cardoso.

The Diogo Jota Foundation had been soliciting donations via the website diogojotafoundation.org, established three days after his death, and purportedly raised £47,715 by August 21.



Liverpool informed the Telegraph that neither the club nor the family have any knowledge about the foundation or its website.

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As of the morning of August 22, the website seems to have been deactivated, with users being redirected to a domain hosting site instead.

The Charity Commission has also verified that the foundation has not lodged a registration application.

Despite featuring logos for Unicef, Allianz and the Portuguese Platform of Development NGOs, at least three out of the four have confirmed they are not in collaboration with the foundation.

Last month, Liverpool confirmed that their separate LFC Foundation is "committed to creating a grass-roots football programme in Diogo's name".

Misuse of branding is an ongoing issue in the digital world, and fraudsters will often try to add recognised brands to their fake websites to try and deceive the public."

The website encourages users to donate through an off-site platform that seems to only accept cryptocurrency, stating that it "accepts USDT, ETH and other crypto through NOWPayments securely."

However, NOWPayments CEO Kate Lifshits has said that they have not processed any payments to the foundation.

"We are aware that the NOWPayments payment system may have been used for fraudulent fundraising activities on behalf of a foundation that is not affiliated with the Diogo Jota family," Lifshits stated.

"I can confirm that no payments for this foundation have been processed through NOWPayments.