One fine winter morning, in Chennai, I got a call from my
Dad saying he is on the way to Chennai. He didn’t explain properly why he is
coming. After couple of frantic calls to my family back home, I figured out the
reason. We have fallen to the familiar ploy again. The Chit Fund Scam. My
cousin has been running the chit business for nearly a decade. Few days before
he ran out of the town, he showed up at our door step asking for money to fund
his new-built house. He promised around 2% interest and said he will return the money in
2 months. A couple of days later, he escaped and the total amount he swindled
was close to 60 Lakhs.
Rewind the incident
and a couple of years later, I was mentioning this incident to my friends. I
was shocked to know that almost all of them through their family had put a chunk
of their savings in some chit fund which was run by their near and dear
neighbours or friends or relatives. All of them are quite confident that their
money is 100% safe. The irony is educated people with proper access to banking
system are falling for it.
Another famous scam
which was doing the rounds a couple of years ago was the Gold Quest Scam. A
whole lot of my friends got tricked into it. At first time, I was tempted to
join it, thanks to their brain washing. However, I got out of it but lot of my
friends got into it and lost their money. I was undergoing training with around
500 guys at that time and the gold quest guy got rich dividends. At least
50-100 people got enrolled for that multi-level marketing scheme in my batch.
Even though I made up my mind not to get into it, I attended a couple of their
sessions out of sheer curiosity.
You must get out of
this stupid middle class.
It’s time for you to
raise and reach your goal.
And a couple of inspirational quotes from Vivekananda and
Mark Twain.
And you are brainwashed to swipe your card for a lump sum and you
are gone.
I don’t know why such scams always chase me. After some
period, there was insurance-multi level marketing type scheme.
Some other day, a guy in my company whom I barely knew came
and talked to me about the new business he is working on. Same inspirational
quotes and when-you-will-settle-in-life kind of talk.
I asked him whether it is Amway and he hesitantly said yes.
I promised him I will meet him after 6 months and told him I am damn sure he
would have lost his money.This amway thing happened to me a couple of times from unknown guys in my previous company .
Their tagline goes like this:
You should change your spending pattern
MNC's are looting you. It's time for us to loot them.
if you change your consumption pattern, you can retire early in life.
After an hour of mokkai , they will last utter the word "Amway"
The one good thing that happened to me is i have become hit-fund/multi level marketing expert in this and i can identify these guys by the way they start their conversation:):)
Fast forward, a
couple of months later, I was visiting a flat which came up for resale. My
friend was interested in buying it and we asked the owner why he is selling the
flat. The answer we got was stunning.The story goes like this.
A famous school in South Chennai is planning to build 2000+
flats within their school campus. They have come up with a superb offer. The
offer states that you can buy a 60 Lakh flat which will be delivered in 4 years
at 30 lakh rupees today. You have to make 30 Lakh as one-time payment (50%
discount on the cost of the flat ). If you do not need the flat, you can invest
30 L which will be returned will 4 years as 60 L . The interest offered will be
around 24%. Since there is a school within campus, the owner we met is selling
his flat and buying a flat there. “Chances” are that this may end up in some
other scam in near future.
As far as I know, it is illegal to collect deposits from
people. All well-educated IT parents are flocking the school for bookings. SEBI
has cracked down Sahara, Saradha and a lot of other companies for doing this.
The thumb rule is if anyone in any form offers more than 13%
interest rate, I wont invest. Another thumb rule in most of the cases is the
scamsters have got a lot of reputation in some field and when they try
to enter into another unknown sector, they get trapped.
As thalaivar says
in the movie Arunachalam, ஏமாத்துறவன விட ஏமாறுகிறவன் தான் குற்றவாளி (The cheated is more guilty than the cheater).The
famous tagline of some tyre company can be changed like this , “The roads
are This country is filled with idiots” . Idiots ready to lose their money
again and again.And again. Examples: Chit funds, gold quest,Anbhav plantation,Emu scam,
Rice pulling.
