mate.. it's not likely to be a scam but they are certainly milking it for what it's worth.
A few years back, there was a house fire and sadly a load of children from the same family passed away.
It was big news at the time, people raised £1000s in support of the family. It hit me quite hard as the house was on same the street as the school I went to. People I knew, knew the family and a class mate of mine rushed into the fire to try and get the kids out.
It turned out that the fire was started by the dad, and that he thought he could milk it by playing the hero but the fire just went crazy..
some of the people who knew the family was suss straight away, it may have been 20/20 hindsight but a lot of them claim that it didn't feel right at the time.
This was before solical media, now people are ruthless and call out anything they think it's suss straight away.