Common Scams happpening in India, list the ones you may know

raksrules

raksrules

Elite
Like any other country, there are scammers in this country and one has to be alert. There are also things which are not scam in itself but may not really be what they claim to be. So in this thread please enlist any scams you may have come to know about or have experienced yourself.

1. First one I have encountered is the country club or others like them. These people approach you in supermarkets or outside their gates and give you a small card to fill your details. They say you will get a call if you are selected in lucky draw. The catch here is, everyone gets a call, there is no lucky draw. They want your information and will call you for a presentation of a timeshare and solicit you to buy the lifetime or whatever offer. They also offer a gift but you can get the gift only when you visit their presentation. I have no idea what the gift is.
So if you want to troll them I suggest you go their presentation, listen to the BS they give, take the gift and move on.

2. Tikona scam - This is something many have experienced. I haven't but seen people writing about this. If you are a Tikona subscriber and plan to or have already cancelled the connection then beware that even after the disconnection tikona may not actually disconnect you from their end. Then one fine day you will receive a call from a random guy / lady telling he is calling from Delhi etc court and you need to pay the bill. If you receive such a call, just don't entertain them, you can also say "Jo karna hai karlo". Insist them to send court order to whatever your address is (don't give address) and then you will see what to do.

3. Get rich scheme / Amway / Other MLM
Beware of this a lot. Mostly because you will be approached by your friend or colleague or relative. They will want you to join under them in some MLM. Stay far far away from this well known scam.

4. Family on road, begging for help, have bags and kids. This is I guess prevalent in almost all cities, especially metros. You will see a family consisting of Husband, Wife, couple of kids and they will have bags and such. They will tell that they need to go their native and don't have money and such. This is very very common. Never believe these crooks. Do not give money or show any sympathy. If you are still wanting to help, offer food rather than money.

Some other names of such scam companies in India are Gold Quest, Questnet
 
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I used to get many Delhi high court calls and they used to tell me that they have a case against me for not paying my tata bill (I never had a tata phone) and I used to ask them to send the summons to my home address to which they used to ask my address to which I used to tell them that they should already have it since they have my phone number. thats where the call used to end abruptly.
 
1. Fake calls pretending to be from Online Shopping websites - I got a call from someone saying he represented Homeshop18 . He asked me whether i had purchased items in last 2 months. I had and hence said yes. He said i had won a lucky voucher of 90k and i need to take up a Reliance mutual fund/life insurance account or something where money will be credited. I chuckled and cut the call
 
For the past few months or so, I've been getting calls from NGOs asking me to donate to the best of my ability for causes ranging from cancer-stricken children to rehabilitation of trafficked girls. The call is usually followed by a text detailing payment methods and website info. I haven't ventured to check out those websites but it goes without saying that I am skeptical of them.
 
The great petrol bunk thieves.

MO : When somebody asks for fuel of say Rs 1000, the guy filling the tank would stop at Rs 300 and asks the customer for confirmation. During the same time other guys would come up to the customer and keep the customer busy with other talks.
Then the guy filling would stop at Rs 700. If asked they would say he had made it zero before continuing from 300.

I heard a lots of people falling for the same trick.
 
Got a call from Delhi number once. The person on other end told me he is calling from my credit card company. Mind you he never mentioned my bank name or the credit card company name. He tells me that since my record of the payments and all is good, I am being offered vouchers and offers worth some X amount. He also told me the call center name from which he was calling (the call center exists, I checked on internet, don't remember name). He asked that I need to pay X amount of money for the offers. Lol
I told him if you are giving me free vouchers and offers then why the money. He he me some stupid reason. I just did some timepass on the call and irritated him and he finally hung up.
 
Good thread.

4. Family on road, begging for help, have bags and kids. This is I guess prevalent in almost all cities, especially metros. You will see a family consisting of Husband, Wife, couple of kids and they will have bags and such. They will tell that they need to go their native and don't have money and such. This is very very common. Never believe these crooks. Do not give money or show any sympathy. If you are still wanting to help, offer food rather than money.
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This is almost a daily sighter in my area. I actually have come across the same family twice. I asked the head of the family, what happened last month also I saw you, still you could not find anyone? The person rushed away in hurry without any answer. Yesterday too came across a person who lost everything. Asked me, if I know English. I shook my head in denial. Then asked Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi - if I knew any of these languages. I said "Hindi thoda thoda". Then he told, he has lost all his belongings. Need some financial assistance. I said in Hindi "let's go to police then". He replied "no need, some money would do".
 
^have had similar encounters in hyderabad and mumbai too. In Hyderabad's Apollo hospital, you will always find this one lady in white saree in the parking lot asking for money as her husband/daughter/son is being treated and she doesn't have any money for medicines. Any help would go a long way.
In mumbai too, there is this old lady near Juhu Circle signal who sits there in the evening and will go to cars stopped at the signals and ask for help for her daughter who is in Jaslok/Hinduja hospital and she is the only member of her family and she needs funds. She keeps a file with her also with some medical records and speaks fluent english. A while back Mumbai Mirror even carried an article on her.
These people play on our base emotions to trick us.
 
^^ lot of my friends got jobs after paying money :) those are paid consultants and not scamsters. some need small amount of money to run your resume thru their network. though, one needs to know the difference between real and fake consultants.
 
Yes, but I was talking about middlemen. Not legitimate consultants.

Same for guys offering house in govt. quota. There is no way to check if the guy is reliable and legitimate or will just run off after collecting money. And high chance of that home being part of lawsuit. ;)
 
I was just applying for jobs in a popular job search site within minutes after applying I got call from the exalt consulting a lady with sweet voice and nice convincing skills who asked for my credit card number for an immediate payment of 5000rs, I didn't accept and just went through mouth shut reviews it's just wtf.again she called me next day when I asked about reviews she said reviews are written against them by a foreign company to ruin them.

And also these popular job portals keep on itching us with the premium services and I don't actually think it's of any use.
 
^^ what did you put in your online resume? ;-)

i never got a call asking for money/CC even though my resume is floating around on several sites for the last 7 years!
 
I would second to what has been said about AMWAY . Its genuine and does not work on retailer model but instead direct business model where the consumer is the seller itself.
 
mathrisk said:
The great petrol bunk thieves.

MO : When somebody asks for fuel of say Rs 1000, the guy filling the tank would stop at Rs 300 and asks the customer for confirmation. During the same time other guys would come up to the customer and keep the customer busy with other talks.
Then the guy filling would stop at Rs 700. If asked they would say he had made it zero before continuing from 300.

I heard a lots of people falling for the same trick.
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Another type of fraud is when the guy in front of you fills Rs.100 petrol and you come next in a car. the guy tries to keep you distracted by asking wether you are paying by card or cash and if the card works etc... the other guy starts filling the petrol without resetting the fuel. I got pissed off and was about to slap one guy but then he reset and started over again.[DOUBLEPOST=1402620165][/DOUBLEPOST]I am not sure with the proof but I have a feeling that fraudsters started getting into linkedin to fish the personal/professional details.
 
The Petrol scam is very very common. Here in Pune too it is very high. When going to petrol pump, just keep your concentration on the guy filling the fuel and the meter. Do not get distracted by anyone, especially another attendant. And yes as @booo mentioned, the other guy will ask whether you want to pay by card/cash and distract you. If you are on a bike, keep your hand over the petrol tank hole and once you are fully concentrating on the petrol filling guy and meter, let him fill it.
If you have a Shell petrol around you, I strongly recommend going there. I presume they have better quality fuel and they don't cheat. Although sometimes they can be pushy about buying engine oil from them and such.

Btw this thread may not help anyone outside TE since it is in GT section and google etc won't be able to find it. Any chance it can be moved to a section which search engines crawl ? Not sure which though.
 
Two scams that I saw happening right in front of my eyes -

1. Pulled in my car into the petrol station and told the guy to fill Rs 1000 worth of regular petrol. By the time I looked around the smart guy had filled Rs 600 worth of Speed/Premium petrol. Needless to say I lambasted the 3 pump attendants and drove off without paying anything. That time I got the upper hand because I was furious and forceful but on telling my family later that day I learned that my sister faced the same scam at the same station a few days previous. She unfortunately paid for Rs 700 worth of Premium petrol.

2. Repeated calls by people representing 'Indian Health Organization'. This is super massive scam and the false promise of 'free' healthcare must have duped hundreds if not thousands of people. These callers try and sell some sort of 'Indian Health Organization' benefits card which will give the buyer supposedly free healthcare over and on top of their existing insurance, including free medicines and free laboratory tests. Thing is, being a doctor in a busy hospital in Delhi I have never seen any such facility being offered by any reputable hospital, diagnostic lab, or chemist/dispensary. In fact which hospital will provide free healthcare or which chemist will give out free medicines for the paltry sum of Rs 5500 that it takes to be a beneficiary of 'Indian Health Organization'? I tell all these callers in the sharpest words possible that what they are doing is a scam and most will not even deny it or defend themselves, they simply cut the call in search of their next victim.
 
gauravH said:
^^ lot of my friends got jobs after paying money :) those are paid consultants and not scamsters. some need small amount of money to run your resume thru their network. though, one needs to know the difference between real and fake consultants.
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I forgot yesterday, but I'd like to add that if a company is asking for 'deposit' then stay away. You are gonna have problems about timely salary and increment in future. Two examples I know are Kingfisher Airlines and Primefocus studios.
 
This is an epic scam which many fall prey to.
Whenever you have a tire puncture you usually end up shelling 700 bucks and end up finding 5-6 holes in the tire.
here's how they do it.
You have 1 puncture.this should cost somewhere around 100-120 bucks.When u go to puncture repairer there are always two attendants doing the puncture work.During the repair work,one of the attendants distracts you(or blocks your view) while the other one keeps a small sharp screw driver thingy(concealed in his hand which is barely visible) and punctures it.
after removing your 1 puncture,he says lets roll the tyre in soap water for any other puncture.You end up finding 5-6 holes in the tyre and end up shelling 500-600 bucks..
Always keep a watch on the tyre repairer and ask him to check the tyre for punctures through soap water before asking him to repair.Just a slight lapse and u lose 500 bucks easily.
 
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