Court takes short shrift with fraudulent donation seeking

A COURT HAS ORDERED AN online help seeker who raised money for his son's medical treatment to fully refund all the donations he received because he misrepresented his circumstances. China Daily writer Wang Yiqing comments:

In April, last year, the help seeker had asked for donations on online crowd-funding platform Shuidichou to pay for his seriously ill son's medical fees. The man claimed his family had run out of money and was more than 200,000 yuan ($28,585) in debt due to the cost of his son's medical treatment, and the boy still needed about 400,000 yuan for future treatment.

The man received 153,136 yuan in donations via the platform. But on being informed that he had falsified his economic situation, Shuidichou sent a letter from its lawyer requiring him to fully refund the donations. When he failed to do so, Shuidichou took him to court to recover the money.