JEDDAH, Dec 10 (Arab News): In the aftermath of the Jeddah school fire back in November, which left four people dead and dozen others injured, social networking websites Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube played a significant role in exposing the case to the world.

The sites were also used to suggest collecting donations to aid the victims and their families.

During the fire the Twitter hashtag #JeddahSchoolFire was used by several users of the micro blogging website to collect money for the victims, resulting in an estimated SR70,000 collected.

This comes despite Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance prohibiting the collection of donations using cell phone text messages or the Internet without official permission.

“The ministry’s decision is the right thing to do. We here tend to receive donations requests through our cell phones, sometimes for the disabled, or donations for kidney dialysis treatments for those suffering from kidney problems,” said 26-year-old Rakan, a Jeddah resident.

“The problem is if we respond to these requests, we won’t know if the money was received by those who were asking for it or not.”

Searching the phrase “donation” in Arabic on social networking websites brings up results for several pages on Facebook and tweets on Twitter from people asking for donations.

Collecting donations online is not new. More than few years ago, there were the popular Nigerian money offer scams, where people used to receive a fraud email asking them for their bank account numbers in exchange for receiving huge money transfers.

One legal expert based in Jeddah told Arab News: “Those who wish to donate their money toward good causes are advised to visit certified and bona fide donation offices across the Kingdom as opposed to sending their money to an unknown party who could be a con artist.”

He added: “Saudi Internet users need to look thoroughly into the person or organization behind the donation requests even if they look legitimate to avoid being scammed.”

Several Saudis felt there should be approved organizations able to collect donations from people using social networking sites to improve the benefits for the needy.