Crowd-funding advertisements could be the next terror fund raiser

New Delhi, Oct 24: Crowd-funding advertisements pose a major security risk and could be the path to terror funding in the days to come.

Crowd-funding advertisements placed in thematic websites and in private messages could fund terror activities online says a report by the Financial Action Task Force.

This revelation came to light from a Russian agencies which had suggested that a group had registered several numbers, credit cards and also e-wallets on sites.

These persons had claimed that they were collecting money for the Syrian refugees and this according to the Russian agency was a ploy to actually collect funds for terror groups.

The FATF report which is titled Emerging Terrorist Financing Risks that the problem in such cases is that the person sending the money is not aware of the purpose.

He feels that he is donating for a nobel cause. Most of these groups which collect funds online target emotive issues and end up collecting money which in reality never gets used for the real purpose.

Such fund raising programmes which in reality are terror fund raisers are often planned and coordinated on social media sites.

Such fund raisers have been a huge success and although the money being contributed is very low, they still earn a lot as the number of people donating is very high.

In addition to social media sites, they are also using services such as viber or whatsapp to reach out to audiences.

In the recent past there have also been a host of calls that people get on their numbers claiming that they are charitable trusts.

Once a person agrees to part with the money, these persons lead them to a payment gateway and very often the money ends up sponsoring some terrorist group.

Most terror groups such as the ISIS or the al-Qaeda have set up this second rung network which only deals with such schemes through which they hoodwink people and end up making a lot of money.

OneIndia News