Fact Check: Netas push dubious website on social media urging donations for PM CARES

The government recently set up the "Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund" (PM CARES Fund) to deal with pandemics such as Covid-19.

Now, a message from verified Twitter handles and Facebook pages of several BJP leaders, mostly from Maharashtra, has gone viral, asking people to donate to PM CARES Fund through a website called India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the website "pmcaresfund.online" to be dubious. The actual website to contribute money to PM CARES Fund is "https://www.pmcares.gov.in/en/".

Prominent BJP leaders such as "Shaina NC", Lok Sabha MP "Unmesh Patil" and Maharashtra youth wing president "Yogesh Tilekar" urged people to donate to PM CARES Fund through the fake website "pmcaresfund.online".

"Pravinkumar Biradar" of the social media team of Maharastra Youth Congress has raised the issue politically and claimed that this is a financial "scam" by Maharashtra BJP leaders.

We spoke to BJP leader Shaina NC about her tweet which she later deleted. She told India Today that she was not aware of the dubious website when she initially posted the tweet.

The website "pmcaresfund.online" is not a secured one. For any government website, the URL ends with "gov.in" and not "online". The cached version of the website shows a homepage that is totally different from the actual website "https://www.pmcares.gov.in/en/".

The homepage of the dubious website shows PM Modi’s picture with his face covered and with a hashtag saying "I am warrior against corona". There are also two lines written in Marathi. The website straightaway asks people to contribute to "Pmcaresfund" through GPay and Paytm. We do not know exactly which accounts are linked to this website.