Hyderabad: Cybercrime wing of city police increases vigil on fake NGOs

Hyderabad: The Cyber Crime department of City police has upped its ante against fake NGOs, that have started operating after the pandemic, following many complaints of cheating on pretext of helping the needy. Most importantly such NGOs have been operating in the South Zone area of the Hyderabad Police Commissionerate.

An officer from CCS, on condition of anonymity, said, "Several individuals and groups are requesting for funds on charity and fund-raising websites by claiming to be operating an NGO. Most of such NGOs are being run from the zone.

He added:"We have received multiple reports about such NGOs that claim to be helping the Corona patients and their families. They claim to be helping senior citizens, but most NGOs are only indulging in optics, rather than doing real work. Hence, for this reason, we have increased surveillance against such fake NGOs which are usurping money from gullible people, who are donating money assuming that it is reaching the needy. However, there are also, real NGOs which are really doing good work. They are doing it silently in their way."

"We are now planning to initiate an awareness programme so that citizens can be aware of fake NGOs before donating their hard-earned money. Apart from this, we have also requested citizens to cross verify complete details of the NGO before donating money for charity, said the officer. Said Md Ansari, a social activist: Not many people come forward to complain about such gross misuse of funds because once a person donates money, then he/she is least bothered about cross-verifying.

They hardly intend to know whether the money was really spent on genuine cause or not. He added, "during the pandemic many people came forward to help the needy, but many were fake NGOs. Many such NGOs came to light all of a sudden in parts of the Old City. The South Zone police should increase their vigil on such conmen who are cheating gullible people on the pretext of operating NGOs."