Think before pledging your money to crowdfunding websites

Mumbai Social media is rife with crowdfunding campaigns courting donors to open their hearts and purse strings for the less fortunate. Lately, a slew of users has been raising red flags on select crowdfunding campaigns for medical treatments.

Recently, Dr Prashant Mishra, a cardiologist from Mumbai, exposed suspicious campaigns on various platforms, after receiving a message on his twitter DM from a person asking for donation to a crowdfunding enterprise.

When he visited the website, he learnt that the funds were being raised for a foot-related surgery at a top Mumbai hospital. After scanning the medical documents uploaded on the website, he was taken aback by the fact that the patient was already discharged in July 2022 while crowdfunding started in August 2022. When he tweeted about this, other twitter users started sharing know-how about similar suspicious campaigns.

In the next few days, Dr Mishra shared similar campaigns expressing his concerns further. He shared screenshots on his twitter handle about a campaign that had managed to garner ₹33 lakh for a ₹20 lakh campaign. This was for gall bladder surgery which usually costs around ₹75,000 in a government hospital and ₹2 to 2.5 lakh in a private hospital.

The crowdfunding platform Milaap and Ketto deleted certain campaigns highlighted by Dr Mishra.

After they were called out by the doctor, Milaap put out a press release stating, “On August 20, 2022, three fundraisers were reported and brought to our notice by users on social media, that they have been raising funds at an order and magnitude higher than the usual costs. We have taken serious cognizance of such fundraisers and initiated a thorough internal investigation on the reported fundraisers.”

Milaap further stated that similar campaigns have been stopped and that they are in consultation with their legal counsel to prevent such incidents in future.

Dr Mishra shared a campaign on twitter where two anonymous donations of ₹10 lakh each were received, which was matched by Milaap with a small percentage. He said, “It is very likely that people are trying to convert black money to white or making money by getting a percentage of the matching donation.”

Milaap pulled down the campaign and refunded the money to the original donors.

Another campaign on twitter is by Ketto, which is raising ₹10 lakh for a BMV (Balloon Mitral Valve) surgery, a 30-minute procedure. The doctor explained, BMV surgeries are done for free in civic and government hospitals. If patients are unable to furnish relevant documents the cost at a civic hospital is ₹1 lakh and approximately ₹2.5 lakh in a good private hospital. “The platform is raising ₹10 lakh for the surgery, stating ₹5 lakh as the cost of surgery,” he said.

He was equally taken aback to find that the fundraiser received an anonymous donation of ₹6 lakh. “People in India think twice before even donating ₹50,000 or a lakh,” he said.

Soon after this was red-flagged, the hospital estimation cost was deleted from the fundraiser and the campaign no longer mentions the surgery, although it continues to collect money on this campaign.

A spokesperson for Ketto said, “Campaigners are obligated to submit their legal identity proofs and other supporting documents, which is reviewed by a Ketto executive. All campaigners are also required to enter into an agreement to raise funds. This agreement keeps them abreast of the ethical and legal standards to be met.”

The spokesperson added, “In case we come across a fundraiser that isn’t transparent or created with malicious intent, we take swift action and update the donors about the same. Contributions are refunded and the users’ accounts suspended.”

“This is hard-earned money of people. Patients will continue to suffer if the funds do not reach them; resources must not be wasted like this,” he added, calling for regulations on crowdfunding platforms.

“People from the medical fraternity such as insurance companies may be brought on board so that such frauds may be prevented,” he added.

Advocate Trivankumar Karnani, lawyer at Bombay high court who works for citizens’ welfare said, “If crowdfunding websites are releasing the money to such dubious campaigns, then it amounts to deficiency of services and unfair trade practices under the consumer protection act. Citizens and donors should report such fraudulent campaigns to the crowdfunding websites as well as local police.”

Karnani called for framing of stringent laws and regulations by the government.

“If documents submitted to the crowdfunding website appears to be fraudulent, it must be reported to the local investigation agencies by the website, which can be further investigated,” he concluded.

(Ketto responded to our query after the newspaper was published. We added their version on our online edition the next day.)