Be Careful, Don't Donate Money To Fake PM CARES Link

Bad actors are using fake links to trick people into donating to the PM CARES Fund, or the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assitance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund in the name of donations to the CO.VID-19 fight, according to a warning from Maharashtra Cyber police officials on Saturday.

The officials said that they have traced and disabled several fake PM CARES links. They also required people to make donations via the authentic link, pmcares@sbi, to the fight against the pandemic. It was stated by the officials that there have been 78 cases registered at the Maharashtra Cyber police during the India lockdown regarding online misinformation about the CO.VID-19 outbreak.

There have been 8 cases in Mumbai, 6 cases in Satar district, 6 cases in Pune Rural, 5 cases in Beed, 5 cases in Nashik Rural, 4 cases in Nagpur, 4 cases in Nashik City, 4 cases in Thane, and four cases in Kolhapur, according to an official.

In a case in Malegaon, Nashik, three people were arrested in an offense registered regarding a TikTok video made presenting a communal angle to the pandemic.

Meanwhile, in Mumbai, 2 people were arrested for making a communal post on Facebook. And in Dongri, there were several people gathering and violating the lockdown orders after fake news was spread on WhatsApp, the official said.

Bad actors have taken advantage of a crisis to give people misleading information to trick them, which not only hurts those people but also causes more challenges to authorities in coping with the situation. Hopefully, the police and government will come up with effective measures to solve this issue while we, as residents, should keep updated with reliable news sources to avoid being fooled.

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