Monday, October 11, 2010

When do you trust ?

I need your feedback on something.

Today in the afternoon I got a call from "Shyam Sundar ", he identified himself as Batch of 99 EnTC pass-out from my college AIT, and asked me if I was in Mumbai. When I told him, I was not, he said he was stuck in Mumbai, his wallet had been stolen in the local train and his phone was not charged. He had just 30-40 rupees which he was using to call me because he thought I was in Mumbai.

He said he tried Pravab first, saying he used to be in NITI, but looks like he is no longer in Mumbai. I did have a batchmate named Pranab at AIT.

He asked me if I had an online account, and my instinctive reaction was to say “No”.

He sounded so disappointed, said he was stuck in Mumbai and it was raining heavily. He said he needed just about Rs. 1400 for an overnight bus to Bangalore from Mumbai.  I told him I have a friend who does, and he might be able to help.

He told me that he'd call me back - he would ask some passerby outside an ATM and give me his account details and then he would pay me back as soon as he reached Bangalore. He called me after 30 minutes and said he still had not found anybody as it was raining heavily.

He called me again after an hour saying he still had not found anybody outside this ATM and was going to try another ATM.

After that he did not call me.

Do any of you know this particular person from AIT?

My dad was around when I got one of these calls and he said its a scam. Actually he said it like this - IT IS A SCAM, son.

From the call and the urgency it didn't seem like one, but I am not too sure.

However, it was too convenient for this person to be a 1999 pass out, where as I joined college in 1999. What I do know is if this person had called back again, I might just have transferred the money. Am I really naive ?