Following on from yesterday's post I found an email, sent to me and also to Enable's Chair (Alison Davis) on 8 December 2004. It describes how scams work in the state of Andhra Pradesh (A.P.), where DNSSD is based. The email is from none other than the expert scammer Gali Arulraj. Here is the relevant extract:, reproduced as it was written:
"I wish to share with you some information about NGOs in A.P.
There are 4000 NGOs in A.P. Most of them exist in paper. Nearly 20% work here and there genuinely. These are mostly church related organizations. These organizations also have different aims and areas of working. There is one organization in Ongole they are working for erradicating the child labour. But mostly it is some sort of employment for the NGOs.
In every projects they plan 70% would go for salaries and 30% would reach real beneficiaries. There are some NGOs who are always interested to get addresses (donors) and apply for some amount which is not realistic because they are not sure whether the agency would give the help needed and therefore they apply for small help because they think whatever comes is O.K.
[...]There may be some NGOs who will have 10 donors correspondence and ask all of them equal amount then they get what they need. To all of them they would give the same picture of the building. In this situation a donor can be happy that they asked for small amount for a big building.
[...]Many organizations give money and they would never visit and that type of projects would remain only in the paper. Since you come every year you know what is happening and the developments etc."
Arulraj also spoke on this topic of scamming to us several times. It was obviously a topic close to his heart.
