Fraudsters have created a fake Facebook page in the name of Ling Rinpoche to dupe followers to collect funds. The duplicate page was created on the social media to collect relief funds from spiritual guru’s followers in the name of various social initiatives. A case has been registered with the Indian police and the investigation is going on.
Yongzin Ling Rinpoche is one of the most revered spiritual gurus in the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. He is the reincarnation of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama‘s tutor. Cyber criminals have used his name and image to gain authenticity of their Facebook page. Followers joining the page have been requested of contributions in money for his initiatives to help the poor.
“By creating an identical Facebook page, fraudsters sent fake messages to Buddhist followers across the globe and ask them to join,” Bhisham Singh, DCP, Crime Branch (Cyber Cell), Delhi Police, said, “Once they joined, they asked the followers to pay money for various charitable works in the wake of COVID-19 spread. That’s how they tried to illegally raise money in the name of Rinpoche,”.
Since the fraudster have used the same name and images from the original page, many people have contributed too. It has only been brought into notice when the followers started communicating about their contributions for rinpoche’s initiatives for the poor. Upon understanding the issue, Ling Rinpoche’s official channels issued disclaimers warning about such fraudsters.
Tenzin Khentse, the secretary of the spiritual guru made the FIR and clarified that the official accounts of Rinpoche never sends such requests and the application in all accounts have been disabled. According Khentse, the first instance such fraud was reported in 2018 when donations were asked for various social activities. For instance, in December 2018, a fraudster asked for donations from one of the followers for the alleged construction of a monastery.