Donors flag online fraud targeting patients in need of blood in Keralam’s Kozhikode

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Emergency appeals for blood donations circulated through social media groups are allegedly being exploited by fraudsters to extort money from patients and their relatives, prompting a group of prominent blood donors in Kozhikode district of Keralam to seek police intervention.

The unidentified fraudsters reportedly contact people responding to urgent requirements for blood, offer to donate and then seek advance online payments towards travel expenses and other costs. They allegedly disappear after receiving the money without turning up to donate blood.

A group of regular blood donors attached to a voluntary organisation from Mukkam reveal that the fraudsters are also misusing the contact numbers of voluntary organisations as reference to gain the confidence of those seeking blood.

“In a recent instance, the ‘Ente Mukkam’ Volunteer Force had arranged a rare blood group free of cost for a patient at a cancer care centre, with the help of a donor from Manjeri. Subsequently, unidentified persons, posing as students of the National Institute of Technology (NIT) contacted the patient and sought money to meet further requirements,” says a volunteer attached to the Mukkom-based organisation.

He says a number used to contact the needy patients has already been traced by them to proceed with further legal actions.

However, many victims are yet to come forward to disclose their experiences or the amounts they had lost. The donors have urged the police to investigate the incidents and identify those responsible on the basis of the digital evidence they secured.

Police sources say it is the first time that they come across such incidents in Kozhikode district. A probe will be initiated if the victims are submitting written complaints with details of the digital transactions, they add.

The incidents have raised concerns among several local voluntary blood donation networks in the upland areas, where social media groups are frequently used to coordinate emergency requirements. Many of them also suspect the suspicious involvement of local fraudsters in these incidents.

In the wake of the recent cheating cases, the donors and voluntary workers associated with prominent voluntary groups have also urged the public to verify the identification of prospective donors through recognised organisations and refrain from making advance payments to unknown persons on the pretext of blood donation.