How to Verify Communications from The Omidyar Group (TOG)
Effective Date: October 2026
Rapid advances in AI now allow almost anyone to create surprisingly realistic fake voices, images, and videos. This makes it easier for bad actors to spread disinformation and misinformation, commit fraud, discredit individuals, and impersonate TOG leadership, staff, and board members.
We are publishing this page so the public knows what to expect from us, what to be skeptical of, and how to verify suspicious communications.
What The Omidyar Group Aims to Avoid
To help you recognize legitimate communications from us, here are some things we avoid:
- Making any formal announcement through an unofficial channel. That includes a grant, partnership, or funding decision. We also do not accept unsolicited business plans, proposals, or personal requests.
- Asking a partner to wire funds, return funds, or change banking information based on a phone call, voicemail, video message, or direct message.
- Pressuring anyone to act urgently on an unverified communication. Legitimate TOG business can wait the thirty seconds it takes to verify.
- Demanding personally identifying information—Social Security numbers, banking credentials, login codes, board member home addresses—from anyone, for any reason, by phone or via email.
- We do not contact individuals, organizations, or media outlets to request money. Any official communication will come from a named individual with a direct email from a verified @omidyargroup.com address or through an update on The Omidyar Group website.
- Issuing public statements, endorsements, or positions from TOG leadership that aren’t also posted on The Omidyar Group website.
Where Our Official Communications Live
Verifying communications from The Omidyar Group is simple, as authentic communications from our founders appear in only a few places. If something attributed to Pierre Omidyar, Pam Omidyar, or The Omidyar Group does not originate from one of these channels, assume it is not from us.
OUR WEBSITE: [www.omidyargroup.com] This is the only official website operated by The Omidyar Group itself. The organizations that make up The Omidyar Group are distinct entities and may operate their own websites and communications channels. Omidyar.com is the website of Omidyar Network, a separate organization within The Omidyar Group. Communications from The Omidyar Group will not direct you to another domain as the official website of The Omidyar Group, even if that domain has a similar name.
DIRECT EMAIL FROM A [@OMIDYARGROUP.COM] ADDRESS: We communicate exclusively from email addresses ending in @omidyargroup.com. If you receive an email that appears to be from TOG staff but originates from any other domain (gmail/outlook/yahoo/etc), it is not from us—even if the display name looks correct.
DIRECT PHONE OR IN-PERSON CONTACT THROUGH AN ESTABLISHED RELATIONSHIP: If you are a current partner, your point of contact is the staff member who reached out to you initially, at the phone number and email address they provided you when the relationship began. We will not introduce new staff members or new contact channels through unsolicited messages.
What We Do Not Have
To help you avoid impersonation more easily:
- The Omidyar Group does not publish social media content on any platform. Any account claiming to represent The Omidyar Group is not us.
- The Omidyar Group, Pam Omidyar and Pierre Omidyar do not speak on behalf of or represent the views of eBay or PayPal.
- We rarely issue press releases or distribute through wire services. We make all announcements on our website.
- We do not maintain a public grants database, offer real-time grant announcements, “exclusive” funding news, or live partnership reveals.
- We do not solicit donations, applications, or partnerships through cold outreach.
Please note: organizations within The Omidyar Group operate their own digital channels and platforms independently of us. Any communications from individual organizations will come directly from them and should be confirmed with them directly.
What to Do if You’re Unsure
If you receive something that claims to be from us—a video, an audio message, a call, an email, a DM, a press inquiry response, pause and ask:
- Is the communication channel new, unexpected, or different from what’s been pre-established with you?
- Does the message involve money, sensitive information, or a public statement attributed to TOG leadership?
- Does the content reference a grant, partnership, or decision you cannot find in our public records?
- Did the contact come through social media, a messaging app, a personal email address, or any channel we’ve noted above that we do not use?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, verify the communications using a channel you initiate, not one provided in the suspect communication:
- PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS: Call your TOG point of contact directly at the phone number you already have for them. If you can’t reach them, email us at [info@omidyargroup.org].
- JOURNALISTS: Email [press@omidyargroup.org]. We will confirm if the response came from us.
- DONORS AND THE PUBLIC: Email [info@omidyargroup.org].
Please report any communications or posts you suspect are deepfakes or AI-generated.
What We Commit to Doing
If a deepfake or impersonation involving The Omidyar Group or our leadership surfaces publicly, we will:
- Aim to assess the incident within one business day of becoming aware of it and determine the appropriate response. When warranted, we will acknowledge or address the incident through our website and/or verified channels.
- Identify on our website what the authentic version of any disputed content is or confirm that no authentic version exists.
- Notify affected partners or individuals directly, on the channels we’ve already established with them.
- Coordinate with relevant law enforcement and platform trust-and-safety teams where appropriate.
Because our website is the official channel we use to issue public statements, it is also the place we will respond to impersonation incidents. If we have not acknowledged it on our website, we have not issued one—regardless of what might circulate elsewhere.
Authentic content from The Omidyar Group is, by design, content you can independently verify against the public record.