Recently when the Times of India carried an article which proclaimed “Indians get most spam calls in the world”, Guys
World sat up and took notice. Spam calls aren’t the only threat Indians have borne through the past couple of decades. Who can forget the Nigerian email scandal that used to do the rounds until a few years promising millions of dollars as the inheritance in return for a few 100 dollars as processing fee!
Clichéd as it may sound guys; it’s a big ugly world out there. And if you aren’t careful then you will be taken for a ride and end up losing a lot more than just money and you wouldn’t like that very much, would you? We at Guys
World unearthed 5 common scams every Indian should be aware of.1. Ponzi Scam
Named after Charles Ponzi, this is one of the most common scams that the world and especially Indians have faced and yet every variation of the Ponzi scam never fails to net poor souls who want to increase their wealth quickly without hassles. The truth is the real hassle begins after they realize they have been scammed.
Modus Operandi: Ponzi scheme operators cheat unsuspecting folks by enticing them to find more new investors to double their investment in the short term. The older the investor greater will be the income is what is promised. Till this scheme folds from lack of fresh funds and the operator vanishes without a trace with everyone’s hard earned money.
2. The Job Scam For someone in India who has suffered long periods of unemployment a job offer from a fairly known company is god’s gift. They wouldn’t mind paying thousands of rupees for “securing their jobs”. They borrow money to pay for a good job and end up with the rough end of the stick. Government recruitment scams, career consultancy scams among many are variations of this age old trick of cheats.
Modus Operandi: They send you emails, messages or letters stating vacancy in various government and private establishments and ask you to make payments as registration fee or deposits and then disappear leaving you high and dry!
3. The Education Scam :This is yet another indicator of the ingenuity of Indians when it comes to scamming their own compatriots or institutions or even their government. Vyapam scam was just the tip of the iceberg.
Modus Operandi: There again are variations to committing this fraud and every stakeholder gets affected in the bargain. The scamsters either charge parents a heavy commission for securing admissions in prestigious institutions for their wards, or create fake certificates for students to submit in colleges of their choice, or forge fake details of non-existent students to cheat the government for funds or even create Institutes without any affiliations (Remember IIPM).
4. The Note Change Scam you have ever got down at Dadar station, one of the busiest railway stations in Mumbai then chances are you would almost be a target of these notorious taxi drivers and their scams till a while back.
Modus Operandi: The taxi drivers ask you if you have change for Rs. 1000/ Rs. 2000 and when you hand out Rs. 500 they switch notes and claim you paid them only Rs. 100 and ask for their money back. There have been numerous newspaper articles which have reported this scam and police action has also been initiated. But you can never be too careful lest these scamsters rise again with a new way of committing their fraud.
5. The Social Media “Like Farming” Scam Since we have to be abreast of our times let us end with one of the latest and most dangerous scams which can result in anti-social elements mining your data to steal your identities and those of your family members and then indulge in nefarious activities.
Modus Operandi: Ever opened FB to find a heart-wrenching post of an ill baby which asks you to donate by just giving a like or type “amen”. Most users though doubting the genuinely of the post still like or share the post and this is where the scamsters trick you. They either spam you directly or sell your contact details to others or replace the entire content with malware or phishing scams and steal from others. Like we said it’s a big bad scamming world out there!