Fundraising online should be placed under scrutiny

A child suffering from leukemia receives treatment in Henan Provincial People's Hospital in Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan province in this July 8, 2015 file photo. [Photo/IC]

A WOMAN IN SUZHOU in East China's Jiangsu province reportedly exaggerated the breast cancer of her mother while raising money for the medical treatment via an online crowd-funding platform. Beijing Youth Daily commented on Saturday:

That the woman has withdrawn her previous fundraising request and lowered the target amount from 300,000 yuan ($44,000) to 50,000 yuan, after it was reported she had exaggerated her mother's illness, highlights the need to plug the supervisory loopholes in online crowd funding.

According to her explanation, she set the 300,000 yuan fund-raising target before her mother's most recent diagnosis, which proved to be less serious than she expected. But those who donated money, have the right to worry they were mislead.

The online crowd funding of medical treatments normally involves an application from the patient or their relatives, a description of the illness certified by a hospital, and the amount being sought. The fundraising platform usually asserts in a disclaimer that it is not responsible for the accuracy of information.

That has enabled some fraudsters to collect donations.

To put an end to this, crowd-funding platforms should verify that every application is genuine.

The new Charity Law stipulates that online fundraising can only be conducted by platforms authorized by civil affairs authorities, but that does not apply to crowd funding. In other words, raising money for personal matters, if proved to be fraudulent or deliberately withholding the truth, should be dealt with as a civil dispute or even a criminal case.