If the scene was familiar to sports fans, it was also touching, as such moments invariably are. In July of last year, a young boy with cancer got to fulfill a dream by attending a practice session with the Syracuse football team, his beloved local squad.

However, police are claiming it was all part of a scam in which the boy’s parents lied about him having the illness. According to reports Monday, the parents, Martin and Jolene LaFrance of Port Byron, N.Y., were charged Friday with first-degree scheme to defraud — a felony — and endangering the welfare of a child.

Acting on a tip (per syracuse.com), deputies from the Cayuga County Sheriff’s Office “conclusively” determined after a four-month probe that the boy never had Hodgkin’s lymphoma, as the LaFrances claimed, but that his parents used the fabrication to swindle thousands of dollars from donors. The couple was linked to a since-deleted GoFundMe page, an archived record of which appeared to show they received a total of over $3,300.

“I am truly humbled and at a los[s] for words, thank you all from the bottom of my heart, your generosity and compassion are simply amazing and overwhelming,” Martin LaFrance reportedly said in a comment on the page.

The boy’s uncle, Justin Roe, may have also been party to the scheme, or he was among those duped by the LaFrances. In July, after the then-nine-year-old visited the Orange’s practice, Roe said his nephew “has not been getting better.”

According to syracuse.com, Roe added at the time that the boy was in Stage 3 of his lymphoma, had undergone radiation and chemotherapy, as well as surgery to remove lymph nodes, and had recently been discovered to have a tumor in his abdomen. In addition to chatting with Orange Coach Dino Babers and playing catch with some players, the boy received words of encouragement from Syracuse’s director of player development, Roy Wittke, a two-time cancer survivor.

Roe said that the boy commented of his meeting with Wittke, “If he’s beaten it two times and is still around a football program, I can do it too.”

“The LaFrance Family has violated GoFundMe’s terms of service, and all donors will receive a refund. Additionally, they have been banned from our platform,” GoFundMe said in a statement (via WSYR-TV). “It’s important to remember that our platform is backed by the GoFundMe Guarantee, which means that in the rare case that GoFundMe, law enforcement or a user finds campaigns are misused, donors are fully protected and will get their money back. Additionally, we are working with law enforcement on their investigation.”

GoFundMe noted that “misuse is extremely rare on our platform,” claiming that fraudulent appeals “make up less than one tenth of one percent” of the campaigns. “With that said, there are unfortunate and rare instances where people create campaigns with the intention to take advantage of others’ generosity,” the company stated.

In July, Roe said the attention paid to his nephew at the Orange’s practice “blew my expectations away.” He added, “Just taking the time, every coach in the middle of doing drills, to come over and chat with him.”

At the end of Syracuse’s session that day, linebacker Zaire Franklin, one of the team’s captains, brought the boy in to help break the send-off huddle. “Family!” everyone chanted, before cheering.

The LaFrances, both 35, are set to appear in court next week. The investigation is reportedly ongoing.

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