Serial charity scam funnels funds to single account; genuine pleas lose donations [details]

Anyone who's wondered about the authenticity of crowdfunding campaigns on platforms like Ketto, has valid reasons to do so. Almost everyone browsing the net has come across pop-up advertisements in the form of urgent medical appeals by the families of those terminally ill, especially children. In yet another incident eroding their credibility, it turns out that not just some of the appeals are fake, but many of them could be routing the money to just one account holder.

In an incident brought to light by fact-checker Mohammed Zubair, he exposes a Twitter account by the name of GoneGirlAnnie. The user, a woman, has been tweeting about helping stray dogs, the poor and the needy. Further, she claims to be the co-founder of HelpingHooks.

Digging beyond what appears to be absolutely genuine, Zubair writes, "Found something interesting. When you try to donate via Gpay by using the given UPI ID, it shows the banking name as 'Sandeep Mandal'."

He adds, "While searching for 'Sandeep Mandal' on Twitter, I found an old tweet who'd shared account details and QTd an account with the name smitamandal089. Here you can see the bank name as Sandeep Mandal with the same mobile number."

The whole thing points to not an isolated suspicious incident but rather a serial pattern of scamming. Adds Zubair, "And the sad part is the fundraiser link shared by this fraud account by the name smitamandal089 is a copy paste of a fundraiser by SomVanshis for his mother as she was suffering from kidney failure. Raj Kumar's fund raiser was closed but a fraudulent fundraiser was allowed." "Sandeep Mandal, this way, raised Rs 6.27 lakh. According to Raj Kumar, 80% of the funds were withdrawn."

That's not entirely it. Zubair further informs that all the pictures claiming to be of GoneGirlAnnie are actually picked up from an Instagram account belonging to Ritika Sheoran. 

International Business Times has reached out to Ritika to understand if she's aware of her pictures being used on this fake account. 

Fraud in the times of COVID

During the first lockdown and during the second wave of COVID-19 in India, when people were either struggling to survive or scrambling for the availability of healthcare services, the account Sandeep Mandal was busy cashing in on the opportunity.

Zubair writes, "In 2021, during Covid times, there was one similar fake account by the name Prachi Sharma @PrachiGuddy claiming to be a journalist. It was run by Sandeep Mandal. Same phone number. This was tweeted by @PKT3306 in 2021 too."

He goes on to list a few more fake accounts by the same person used for crowdfunding. "Also the same guy @sandeepmanan01 used COVID test report for crowdfunding by claiming he was tested positive. Check the name in the report (Sandeep Mandal). Wait. The report says "Not detected"."

With the same account number, Sandeep Mandal also uses Sandeep Manan as his name at times. Does that mean it's a joint account? Is there more than one person facilitating the scam?

The guy Sandeep Mandal has one more fake account, misusing another victim's photo and prescription and floating his own fake campaign.

The bigger, uglier picture

Unfortunately, many fell for the scam and donated money. This also means that several genuine appeals for charity went unheeded, battling suspicion and credibility. It is not just news, information, and developments that are a victim of the digital age. Many users came forward to point out similar shady stories, while all of them fumed over how such accounts should be immediately suspended with strict action taken against the people behind such bank accounts.

"They should all be behind bars," wrote an angry user.