A family of scammers have been on a “donation” collection spree allegedly to raise money for their 33-year-old cancer-stricken daughter warded in a hospital in Thirichy, India.
The girl, the family claims, was in India continuing her doctorate studies in computer applications when she fell sick and was diagnosed with cancer of the uterus.
They claimed their daughter needed RM400,000 for an operation to remove her uterus and for post surgery treatments, failing which she would die as the cancer was spreading quickly.
That scam, however, has apparently been going on since at least 2014 and the family has allegedly raised some hundreds of thousands of ringgit in funds, aided by social media influencers who were duped into helping them.
The 60-year-old “mother” of the alleged cancer patient and her 28-year-old “brother” have even approached VIPs, non-governmental organisations, politicians and newspapers for help.
The girl’s “story”, in fact, has even made the headlines in a few Tamil media organisations, appearing again about a month ago.
Most recently, the scammers tried to pull the same stunt by seeking help from a local TikTok content creator who has more than 260,000 followers, called V. Muralitharan from Pandan Jaya.
Several police reports have been made against the scammers by Muralitharan and also the public who donated.
Meanwhile Harshamitra Oncology Pte Ltd hospital's managing director Dr G. Govindraj, when contacted by the New Straits Times, said the hospital did not have any record of the patient, her alleged admission or a proposed operation to remove her uterus due to cancer.
“Based on the bill copies and letterhead used by the scammers, we can confirm that they are all fake documents.
“Those bills and reports have been forged and fabricated to mislead donors and gain sympathy from the public,” he said.
Dr Govindraj said such actions should not be condoned or taken lightly.
Meanwhile, Selangor police have begun investigating the alleged donation scam by a family from Sentul.
Selangor police chief Datuk Hussein Omar confirmed receiving social media influencer V. Muralitharan's police reports, adding that the case was being investigated under Section 420 for cheating.
Hussein did not discount the possibility of contacting their counterparts in India, where large amounts of cash from the previous donation collections had been regularly sent.
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