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

Those people selling some german power saving device. It does not save power. Its just a device with two high power capacitors in it and two three led lights. Person selling these also claim that you can find out if someone's stealing power from your meter.

Relationship managers from most banks.
They only want your money. Most of them try to sell you useless ULIP or insurance policies connected to some other organization. If anyone of them asks you to meet them and bring your checkbook to the bank, avoid them. They are just marketing trainees and are on contract for short term.

Chit funds. You will get money once. After that no more. Only the person running the fund benefits financially.

Those women carrying around month old kids and asking money for some naming ritual. Most of the time those kids are stolen or taken on rent. Only reason the kids are always sleeping is cause they've been drugged senseless.
 
6pack said:
Those people selling some german power saving device. It does not save power. Its just a device with two high power capacitors in it and two three led lights. Person selling these also claim that you can find out if someone's stealing power from your meter.
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My dad bought one of these from a vendor who came to society.:angry:
I have told him now to run through me anything he wants to buy and never entertain anyone who comes at home to sell. Also any investment or insurance thing comes, never entertain them.
 
MLM schemes like RMP are one of the biggest scams which are going unnoticed, I am sure you would have atleast one friend who is an RMP member & would always tell you the AWESOME RMP story.

He would try to take you to one these RMP seminars where bunch of other morons would be already getting scammed or got scammed but want to recover money via you.

I also doubt that these seminars do some kind of hypnosis or something similar to enchant people, watch some videos & you will get to know how morons celebrate themselves for getting scammed.
 
Another one I fell for (well, not me but my wife), and this one epic. :p
It was inside Kolkata Airport (old terminal) - on the govt approved pre-paid taxi counter.

MO: The prepaid counter there takes the whole fare (unlike ins some places where they charge a fee and have to pay the fare to the driver). And the fares were multiple of 5 (but not of 10), like 165, 195, 215 so so.
There were two guys in the counter, one for typing the slip (destination address/fare/name etc), other one who takes the money. Somehow the 1st guy types those slip really fast and they pile up in front of the other guy who then starts hurrying.
And people in the airport are 'rich' :p and they offer 500, 1K notes for a Rs 165 or Rs 185 bill. The guy asks for another 5 rupees change. In case the customer gives him the 5 rupees, he would return only the change totaling to say Rs 200 - means he would return Rs 40 or Rs 20 alongwith the taxi slip and hurry for the next person in the queue. He wouldn't return the balance 300.
And I wondered how people use to walk away with the slip and few 10 rupees notes.
My wife lost 300 once and since then I was concious about it, and I saw many people walks away like that.
But if the customer asks for the balance 300, the counter pays him right away apologizing about the mistake(?).

I had reminded at least 4/5 guys to ask for the balance who were in front of me in the queue.
 
Mr.J said:
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. ;)
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I got a call from some agency for a job. They said they directly set up a F2F with high level players in companies, and wanted 4-5K as a refundable deposit. If in a month no job is in hand, they send the money back. I think it is a scam. I ignored the follow up email.
 
Heard of this scam in south India. Metals attracting rice. Usually its some spoon or lantern. They claim it has some special healing properties and scam people into paying lots of money.
 
Whats the deal with those 3rd gender (transgender) folks on traffic signal/trains ?!!
I still couldn't get why do people pay them. To avoid the scene they would create?

Most of them looks healthy, seems fit for any kinds of job. But still they roam around begging or rather demanding moneys.
 
mathrisk said:
Whats the deal with those 3rd gender (transgender) folks on traffic signal/trains ?!!
I still couldn't get why do people pay them. To avoid the scene they would create?

Most of them looks healthy, seems fit for any kinds of job. But still they roam around begging or rather demanding moneys.
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It is best just to ignore them. In Mumbai I have seen that on signals, they bother people in auto rikshaw and cars but not the ones on bike.
 
I got down at dadar early morning 5:30 AM. Wanted to go to wadala to catch a harbour line train. Wadala is close to dadar and hardly takes 10 minutes, and 30 Rs worth taxi ride. All taxis were not ready to go to wadala. This one taxi wala agreed and said to follow me to his taxi. It was around 50 mtrs away from station. meanwhile a second guy joined him. We three entered the taxi. The other guy then asks the taxi wala for some money. The taxi wala turns to me and says sab paisa dedo isko. I said i only have 500 Rs notes. He said give me i will give you change. I give the note and the taxi wala says sir, this is just 100 rs. note. I was shocked and dazed. I myself became unsure what i had given. Next moment he asked me where i want to go, I said wadala and we had agreed on it also. He says sir, i am not going and calls another taxi and makes me sit in it. Now i realize he must have changed the note.
One of my other friend experienced the same thing. although this time it was day, and he was sure that he had given a 1000 rs note and he searched the taxi, when he saw that the 1000 rs note was below the persons thigh. My friend and his friend got down without paying for a ride of 70 Kms!!
 
vaibhavyagnik said:
I got down at dadar early morning 5:30 AM. Wanted to go to wadala to catch a harbour line train. Wadala is close to dadar and hardly takes 10 minutes, and 30 Rs worth taxi ride. All taxis were not ready to go to wadala. This one taxi wala agreed and said to follow me to his taxi. It was around 50 mtrs away from station. meanwhile a second guy joined him. We three entered the taxi. The other guy then asks the taxi wala for some money. The taxi wala turns to me and says sab paisa dedo isko. I said i only have 500 Rs notes. He said give me i will give you change. I give the note and the taxi wala says sir, this is just 100 rs. note. I was shocked and dazed. I myself became unsure what i had given. Next moment he asked me where i want to go, I said wadala and we had agreed on it also. He says sir, i am not going and calls another taxi and makes me sit in it. Now i realize he must have changed the note.
One of my other friend experienced the same thing. although this time it was day, and he was sure that he had given a 1000 rs note and he searched the taxi, when he saw that the 1000 rs note was below the persons thigh. My friend and his friend got down without paying for a ride of 70 Kms!!
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I too had similar experience in Kolkata.
The taxi meter showed some 70 rupees or so after some journey. I had 50 rupees note in my front pocket. I gave him that and looked for wallet for rest 20. In the meantime, the taxi driver swapped (sensing that my concentration isn't with him) the 50 rupee note with a 10 rupee note. And told I gave 10 rupees only.
 
^^ there's a shitload of indian scams mentioned on IndiaMike; and the tip to tackle this note-exchange scam is to say aloud the amount you are handing over, so that the other guy knows you are aware of what you had in your hand.

so, if you owed him Rs 70 then you should've shouted: here's 50 and let me search for another 20.

Edit:
OT: same trick works for avoiding any possibilities of getting robbed/mugged while travelling in a taxi/auto: As soon as you get on a taxi/auto, call up someone known (or pretend) and shout out aloud that you've boarded taxi number so and so; and mention that you'd reach in this many minutes. When the driver hears you, he'd know that another person knows about your whereabouts and can call police if needed. Taxi/auto drivers would also avoid taking longer routes.
 
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a) Credit Card upgrade offers.
These scammers have been calling up often. They usually give your name, and Bank of you credit card correctly. Sometimes even the last 4 digits of your card. Then for "verification purposes", they ask for your CVV number. That's the point where I got suspicious.

NEVER REVEAL ANY CVV, START/END DATE, PIN TO ANY ONE.

b) QNET. 'nuff said. Good for smooth-talkers to make money, bad for gullible people.
One'd think that smart people would stay away, but I see well-educated ones falling for this.
Someone said AMWAY is OK. I beg to differ. The products they offer are over-priced, and on the side they try a ponzi scheme. If any authorities question them, they always fall back on the "selling shampoos direct-to-customer" model.

c) LIC. LIC. LIC.
To me, its a scam. To sell MFs, one has to give an MF exam and have a certificate. For financial advise, there are certified planners.
But for insurance, oh ho ho, every tom-d-harry can sell it. People who can't explain the bonus calculations. Who don't tell you about the expense fees (i had a policy that was charging 1.5% of the total units per quarter).
Did you know that sometimes the agent makes about 40% of the first premium amount as a commission?
With the internet, theres no excuse to be dumb and lose money by being ill-informed.


d) Bank RMs. You have to be clear on what you want, hear out all the options available.
Thumb Rule if you are visiting an RM, leave your check-book at home. ;-)

e) Read an example of Banking related scams:
http://www.subramoney.com/2014/06/one-more-method-of-banking-fraud/

f) ANY scheme that involves you PUTTING UP MONEY upfront. If you ARE desperate, do a thorough research on the destination on that cash.
Its your/your parents' HARD-EARNED money. DON'T waste it on scams of all things.
 
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Vince said:
Someone said AMWAY is OK. I beg to differ. The products they offer are over-priced, and on the side they try a ponzi scheme. If any authorities question them, they always fall back on the "selling shampoos direct-to-customer" model.
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Yup! I cant even figure how Amway has been around for so long. Its nothing but a big scam. All those emeralds and diamonds are just bullshitting you. All of them earn money by organizing seminars - for which they charge exhorbitant entry fees - and selling motivitational cd's and books.

One of my relatives is hell bent in making us join Amway and becoming an Ambot like him. To date he has spent more than 50000/- (conservative figure) on Amway and Amway related stuff and has got hardly 2000/- as returns. And to top it all, with all the running around he does for Amway he hardly spends time with his wife and kids.



mathrisk said:
Whats the deal with those 3rd gender (transgender) folks on traffic signal/trains ?!!
I still couldn't get why do people pay them. To avoid the scene they would create?

Most of them looks healthy, seems fit for any kinds of job. But still they roam around begging or rather demanding moneys.
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Thats nothing. Whenever their is a baby born or some one opens a new shop or buys a new flat and these people get a hint of it, they come in hordes and create a ruckus and start demanding money through their arses. Nothing less than 5000/- would do. They are nothing but nuisance.
 
mrmash said:
Thats nothing. Whenever their is a baby born or some one opens a new shop or buys a new flat and these people get a hint of it, they come in hordes and create a ruckus and start demanding money through their arses. Nothing less than 5000/- would do. They are nothing but nuisance.
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They don't just know. People like the house help or building watchmen alert them. They have a cut in this. Combine this with the fear people have that if they don't pay they will curse us and we will be fcked for life.
 
Chaos said:
All these are scam artists any number starting with 92xxxx from Delhi area

Life care trust, relief india trust some cancer crap all are scammers.
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The worse thing is that many of these seem to be registered NGOs that were supposed to help the needy. I donated small sums (1000 Rs) to Relief India trust couple of times and even got the tax certificates from them. But the bottom line is that they are just collecting money using false pretences. The cases they mention are not genuine. After I donated, they started calling me again and again. I stopped taking their calls after that and told them not to call. Whenever they use a new number, I simply block it. All my donations go to a local orphanage instead.

In any case, The biggest large scale scam operation that I have encountered personally is Apollo Hospitals. They claim to offer medical services with excellent doctors which I found to completely untrue. They might be called half decent if they had claimed to be a hotel, but calling it a hospital is a sham. All they do is dupe people to milk money out of them and play with their lives.

Pyramid marketing scams is one more example. I don't understand people even fall for it when its so clear that it won't work. But still we have had couple of people on these very forums who vehemently argued that Speak Asia is a genuine deal.
 
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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I have personally experienced this, but knew very well what was going on. Asked to fill for 2000, attendant fills for 300. I again said that I wanted petrol worth 2000 and next he stopped at 1700. I simply mentioned that the meter was not reset and he promptly filled the rest up. This has happened twice at the same petrol pump and only when I am filling for larger amounts. I try and avoid that one now.

Another way to make sure if you are distracted is to ask for the receipts which the machine prints. In my case there would have been two receipts of 300 and 1700 and the time difference between them would be very less. The time should be less as the earlier 300 receipt can also be from the previous vehicle's refill.
 
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