Smit Machchhar saved 172 people. Who will save you from scam fundraisers?

Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar, currently recovering in Abu Dhabi, has gained hero status both at home and internationally. And rightfully so; his immense bravery saved everyone aboard the fated flydubai flight on September 30.In its aftermath, at least two Israeli fundraisers have been set up to assist Machchhar and his family as he recovers. At the time of writing this story, the GoFundMe campaign started by Jewish Breaking News had raised close to $160,000!But besides real efforts to support the Indian pilot, there are also several scam fundraisers trying to ride the coattails of Captain Machchhar’s current popularity. India Today Fact Check investigated several posts advertising fundraisers for Smit Machchhar and traced them back to a Facebook page claiming to be a Mexican NGO called “Humano Carsa”. We noticed multiple discrepancies in this page and its content that point to the whole thing being a scam.As of 6 pm on September 8, Meta’s Ad Library showed that “Humano Carsa” had 10 active ads soliciting donations for Captain Machchhar. These ads used emotionally charged lines like, “A hero’s recovery starts here”, and “He saved 174 lives. Now he needs us”. THE SIGNSIf you click the “Donate Now” button on the ads, you’re redirected to a website called NobleShift. The website claims, “100 per cent of your support goes directly toward Captain Smit's critical ICU care, advanced medical rehabilitation, and supporting his family during this heartbreaking time.”When you try to donate, you’re given two payment options: credit cards or cryptocurrency wallets. And there’s a catch. If you try to pay using credit cards, you are told, “Card service is temporarily down. Please use crypto to donate.”This is red flag number one. Scammers often prefer cryptocurrency transfers to bank transactions. That’s because crypto transfers are instant, harder to track, and guarantee basically zero protection to users.But that’s not all. The website has a list of recent donors — names, the amount of money donated, and how long ago. This gives the impression that the website has high traffic and lots of donors.However, the list is static. We checked it several times over 24 hours. Jas’s $10 donation remained 12 minutes old at all times. Similarly, Vincent Alderley’s generous $800 donation remained four hours old throughout.Add to that, the Facebook page that advertised this scam donation has posted at least three AI-generated images seemingly featuring African children with sad backstories.When you add all of these up, it becomes clear that “Humano Carsa” is not really interested in helping Smit Machchhar. In fact, it’s much more interested in ripping you off. But if you, impressed by the pilot’s bravery, want to help him out financially, be sure to vet a fundraiser before you click the donate button.- Ends