The suicide attack in Pulwama, which killed
40 brave soldiers of the soil has been a blow not only to families of the slain
but also to the entire nation. The attack not only killed 40 Indian Central
Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel but also several civilians were also
injured. As the nation rush to help the families of the slain soldiers some
anti-social elements are merely seeing this as an opportunity for making easy
money. This is yet another one of those instances where the reach, power and
influence of the social media can easily be misused to rob people of their
money in the name of welfare funds for the Pulwama martyrs. Several such
messages have been spotted on social media platforms such as Whatsapp,
Facebook, etc.
Fake
message
This message is being forwarded on Whatsapp
and claims that the Modi Government has started a new scheme ‘The Indian Army Battle Casualties and
Weapon Purchase’ to help the soldiers and their families. Not only this
message uses the reach of the Whats App but also tries to establish its
authenticity using the names of Mr. Modi and Akshay Kumar. Easy to believe as
Mr. Kumar has been spotted with Mr. Modi several times. The message also
contains the bank account number where donations can be made.
According to Whatsapp messenger’s new policy
a single message can only be forwarded 5 times by a single person. This is an
attempt from Whatsapp team to try and control the fake news on its platform.
So, it is safe to assume that this scam is being run by more than one people
which makes it hard to trace it back to the original perpetrator.
The message is partly true as such a scheme
does exist and its name is ‘Army Battle
Casualties Welfare Fund’ but it is not for the CRPF martyrs of Pulwama
attack. Maybe the scammers are trying to confuse the donors between the fake
and the original fund scheme.
Such a tactic was used a few years ago in a
fake BSNL recruitment case when the scammers created an identical website with
URL bsnll.co.in whereas the authentic website’s URL is bsnl.co.in. People lost
lakhs of rupees in this recruitment scam.
An initiative was taken by the government in
2016 after Siachen’s avalanche disaster in 2016 to help the families of the
soldiers who died in the snow. Also, Akshay Kumar had helped the government in
2017 in setting up bharatkeveer.gov.in but the site is not backed by Akshay Kumar.
The
Truth -- Make legitimate donations
For people who want to honor the sacrifice
of the soldiers died in Pulwama attack can surely make donations but through
Paytm App or website. Under the donation tab on Paytm website there is a
payment feature by the name -- 'CRPF
Wives Welfare Association' -- which can be used to make the legit
donations. On Paytm App people can use the link -- 'CRPF Bravehearts' -- to make their donations count. Both links are
operational until March 10, 2019. To make the donation users will require to
enter their name, PAN number and amount they wish to donate. Payment can be
made through debit cards,Paytm
wallet, credit card, UPI, net banking, etc.
You can also make the donations on ‘Bharat Ke Veer’ website. Earlier the
website had crashed due to large traffic but is up and running now.
Tags:
Pulwama Attack
Crpf Family
Kashmir Attack
Bharatkeveer
