By Zahid H Javali
Scamsters are getting brainier by the day and using names of well-established firms like IndiGo to defraud citizens. You can’t argue with the cheats as they have answers to every question you throw at them. The only way to smell a rat is when someone asks you for money before delivering the product or service. Stay away from such people and don’t even engage with them on WhatsApp or on phone. They know every trick in the book to convince you that they are genuine and you have everything to gain.
Chethan BS, a 21-year-old resident of Vijaya Bank Layout, learned this lesson the hard way. He was promised a job with Indigo Airlines’ cargo division with a monthly CTC of Rs 27,500. He posted a job advertisement on Quikr, and one Priya called to say that she’s working for IndiGo Airlines and it was a job interview. “She asked me to make small payments by sending me 5-6 different PDFs with the Indigo letterhead,” Chethan informed Residents Watch. If one was an appointment letter, another was a joining letter, and the third, an offer letter, among others.
Everytime, he would question them, Priya would give him a convincing answer saying that the refundable money was towards security, processing, courier, maintenance, passport fees, medical, I Card, wireless phone, and cab. To convince him further, all these were mentioned as charges that will refundable by the company in the documentation sent to Chethan. “She said that I would get all this money two months after joining the company,” he says. “Whenever I raised my doubts, she would say ‘but you will be at the firm to confirm it with the HR’.” However, when she asked him to pay an additional Rs 25,600 on the 8th occasion, Chethan lost his temper with her. Sensing that he might catapult, she promised him that this would be the ‘final process’ and the job will be his after that. However, once he made the last payment, the WhatsApp number was deactivated, and there were no calls or messages from them. “I trusted IndiGo and gave the money,” he says. “The people known to me also said the IndiGo letters appeared to be genuine. This convinced me to keep paying them.”
The cops in HSR Layout gave him the runaround too. Everytime, he would write a complaint, they would say that the letter needs to be rewritten. “I wrote the letter four times, and waited for eight days before the police registered my FIR,” says Chethan. “Now, I have to attend the court once the case comes up for hearing.” Chethan has furnished the Google Pay phone numbers and the bank accounts which received his money transfers. He has also given a transcript of all the WhatsApp chats he had with the scamster in addition to all the fake PDFs she had sent with the Indigo logo. The city police have registered his case under two sections of the IT Act and under the Indian Penal Code for cheating and fraudulent activity.
