No donation request announcement was made on social media for the IDPs in Naungtayar sub-township, Panglaung township, Southern Shan State, according to a group leader who is helping the IDPs.

The reason for not announcing such donation request on social media is to avoid the donation money fraud.

“Currently, so many donation requests are posted on social media and some of them are online fraud trying to steal money from donors. That is why we do not post on social media to avoid such issue. If anyone would like to make donation, they can directly call us via phone call. The main reason we are doing like this is to avoid cheating and stealing on the internet,” the group leader who is helping the IDPs in Naungtayar told SHAN.

Some people make use of the political instability and crisis to their advantage and request donations by using fake social media accounts.

“Some people are using fake account and ask for donations to help this and that. I even donated five thousand Kyat. These days people are having a hard time, and some people use social media to cheat. So, we should not trust easily nowadays. So many online frauds these days using social media,” one Pang Long resident woman told SHAN.

If anyone would like to donate and help the IDPs in Naungtayar, they can make a phone call to the responsible person.

“We have never posted anything on social media to request donations since day one. Many have donated through direct phone calls to us. If we receive phone calls, we will explain what we need and what they can do to help us. We have never posted anything online,” the above group leader explained how to donate and avoid fraud online.

Currently, there are about 1,200 IDPs in Naungtayar, and they are in need of food and clothing for the long run.