In another tweet, Dr Mishra talks about fund-raising in the name of renal transplant by someone who already raised Rs22 lakh for kidney stone treatment. He says, "I don't know anything about cost related to kidney stone, but I heard renal transplant is done between Rs10 lakh-Rs15 lakh and here for only kidney stone Rs10 lakh demand was raised and amount raised was Rs22 lakh."

 

The cardiac surgeon also raised an alarm about massive amounts collected in the name of gall bladder removal surgery. He says, "Now liver transplant can be done in Rs25 lakh -Rs35 lakh, I think, but here money demand was Rs200,000 for something related to gall bladder and fund was raised for around Rs33 lakh. If it is gall bladder removal surgery then it can't be more than Rs2 lakh-Rs2.50 lakh."

Now Liver transplant can be done in 25-35 lac I think but here money demand was 200000 for something related to Gall bladder and fund raised around 33 lac , If it is Gall bladder removal surgery than it can't be more then 2-2.5 lac . pic.twitter.com/0eV6occk9T

— Dr Prashant Mishra (@drprashantmish6) August 20, 2022

Kidney stone treatment- 2232000 lac raised against 100000 lac requirement and two impact user donation same 116000 and two Anonymous donar same donation of 10 lac , Kya Chal raha hai ? ?? pic.twitter.com/lkP99SXCLs

— Dr Prashant Mishra (@drprashantmish6) August 20, 2022

The Hawk Eye (@thehawkeyex) posted a message on Twitter saying that Milaap responded to three suspected campaigns, which were found fraudulent.

Milap responded to alarm raised over suspected campaigns. All 3 were found fraudulent. Apparently they were duping @milaapdotorg itself for "matching amount" benefit.

While m glad Milaap quickly acted, they must have to acknowledge & fix flaw in verification methods.
1/ pic.twitter.com/Cz8mPmvc5e

— The Hawk Eye (@thehawkeyex) August 22, 2022

He further says, "Crowdfunding platforms are running without any internal or external audit. YouTube is filled up with staged videos. Platforms put taxation and laws onus on the fundraiser. Foreign funding is happening without any documentation (remember Rana Ayuub). Strict regulation is needed."

Earlier this week, Dr Alok Gupta shared a message of Dr Prachi Jain from Max Hospital in the national capital region (NCR), Delhi. The message reads, "Dear all. This is a warning message. This person has photoshopped my estimate letter given to a patient and started a FRAUD fundraiser at Ketto. Please beware of such frauds. Dr Prachi."

Dr Gupta also shared the photoshopped letter that was used to raise funds from Ketto. This message created a furore on social media and users started questioning the scrutiny or lack of scrutiny at the fund-raising platforms.

Dear all. This is a *warning message*. This person has photo-shoped my estimate letter given to a patient and started a *FRAUD fundraiser* at Ketto. Please beware of such frauds.
Dr Prachi.@ketto #fundraiser @arunbothra @RemaNagarajan @sunilkapoor8 @upima21
@DrManishMishra6 pic.twitter.com/cpD6zRu73p

— Dr Alok Gupta (@alorit) August 22, 2022

Responding to Dr Gupta's post, Ketto says, "We have taken note of the same and have therefore decided to take down the fundraiser and suspend the account. It upsets us to learn that people would take advantage of those who only have the intent to help others in need. We are grateful to everyone who contributed and would like to inform you all that we have already refunded the amount. No funds were withdrawn as the campaigner had not shared additional supporting information requested. Our legal team is taking necessary action."

Anyone who has donated money on one of these crowdfunding platforms is usually bombarded with incessant advertisements on email and social media. Dr Gupta exposes facts and numbers that the fund-raising campaigns have absolutely no scrutiny and, in some cases, hospitals are active participants.
 
Let us talk about the specific letter and how Ketto ought to have detected the fraud before accepting the campaign. Its first line says, "...Miss Tanya Singh, 24 years old female...". The third line in the same letter says, "The child has developed fungal pneumonia while on chemotherapy."

When Ms Singh is 24 years old, can she be referred to as a child by the doctor? It seems rather doubtful.

Since doctors' operation estimates are not confidential documents, they can easily be obtained by fraudsters and morphed to insert the name of fake patients, as in this case. Crowdfunding platforms, which seem to have enormous resources to publicise these campaigns, do not seem to have any checks or due diligence before accepting campaigns.  

This brings us to our main question: How does an ordinary person identify whether the fund-raising is for a genuine cause or not? The answer is simple. There are always innumerable people in need of funds. If you want to donate money, make sure that you do your own check, confirm the genuineness of the cause, or only donate when the person taking responsibility for fund-raising is someone you know and every step of the process is transparently shared. Otherwise, it is best to stay away.

Stay alert.