AFTER the Union Home Ministry issued an advisory regarding some elements trying to indulge in radicalisation in the event of the war in Iran, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) has now sounded an alert against a charity scam. Many groups have cropped up who are collecting donations in the name of the war in Iran. These elements are collecting funds on the pretext of welfare of the people of Iran who have been affected due to the war, an official said. Similar activity was discovered when the war broke out between Israel and Palestine last year. Such charities come up during such periods and once they collect the funds, they vanish, another official said.

 

These persons running these fake charities make an emotional push. They show photographs of the war, most of them which are digitally altered to collect funds. There are a good number of people who donate money and even give out gold after becoming emotional, an Intelligence Bureau official said. What the agencies have learnt is that the extent of this scam is the highest in Jammu and Kashmir. There are people who have gone door-to-door seeking donations to support the people affected by the Iran war.

 

They spin stories and hype up the situation so that they can cheat people by taking advantage of their emotional vulnerabilities, officials have found. In Kashmir, the authorities have learnt that it is the same network which used to collect funds for the separatist groups that existed prior to the abrogation of Article 370. The donations that these groups have managed to collect citing the war in Iran is staggering. It runs into crores of Rupees. In Jammu and Kashmir alone, the scam is worth around Rs 16 crore.