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 ?

6 comments:

  1. I don't know sweetie...I would have transferred the money too, and by the second time he called. Rishi Bhatnagar confirms on your facebook page that there was no such guy in his class. But still a tiny voice in my head says - What if he's forgotten? Suppose I lost my wallet on a rainy night in Mumbai? But the first instinct is to family or really close friends ....why would you want to call college juniors who may not remember you? No, on second thoughts, Papa is right. His phone was not charged; the first thing to do should have been to charge his phone and call up people he knew...
    What yar Jitu, you've messed up with my head first thing in the morning.

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  2. Hey Jivi,
    Falling in such situations is very dicy where u might think of helping that person out for you may just want to walk away. But If I was in that situation then I'd probably take an auto and go to my place any pay him after reaching home where I stay(Can borrow money from ppl I'm living with). That's my first instinct if I fall in such situations. If I can't do that then I'd be calling my closed ones friends or family whom I know and can lend me money. Who can actually come to me.
    But if that person hasn't got anyone closer to him/her then he'd stay at that place till the rain stops and take a cheaper mode of transportation to his place.
    Transferring money is like falling into a scam, where and when u don't know the person actually.
    Anyway, I wouldn't ever fall into such situation ever in my life. So keep your friends and family closer.

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  4. I would say that was close! But on second thoughts, wouldn't the world be a sad little place without trust?

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  5. jivtesh, I can confirm that it was a scam. I got similar call from the same guy with same name. Fortunately I had to rush for a meeting so could not do much for him. But I got suspicious and asked Anupam Ratha sir (CS 99) who was online and he just asked me to do a google. And I found several pages dated 5-6 years back about similar calls made to people from different colleges. He is the same guy or a group of people who collects information about alumni from their yahoo or google groups and and then callup people for small amount of money.

    here are some links as proof:
    http://kimelody.blogspot.com/2008/10/beware-shyam-sundar-soundararajan.html

    http://www.wpaa.org/cgi-bin/anCMS/news.cgi?action=showItem&iId=131&sText=&sType=

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