Udupi: Like once mentioned in these columns, there will be any number of riders as long as there are horses ready to take them around on their backs.
It is a baffling issue. In spite of regular media reports and cautions, such instances continue to take place and the people of the ‘intelligent’ undivided district of Dakshina Kannada continue to be targets of conmen.
In yet another instance of prizes offered online or over telephone, an employee of HFDC Mutual Funds from here has lost Rs 3.50 lakh after responding to offers of a prize.
Last year, Sunil Kumar received a call purportedly from Sands Shopping, claiming to be an online mail order firm. The caller assured of him of a chance to win the bumper prize of a lucky winner if products from the firm were bought.
As required, Kumar got Rs 17,000 transferred from his account to buy a TV set. Stage by stage, he received demands to remit more and more money, which finally aggregated to a whopping Rs 1,01,977.
In spite of the payments, nothing was received in mail. When he demanded a refund, one Kapadia is said to have told him that a minimum of Rs 50,000 had to be maintained in the bank account, which he complied with. That amount promptly got transferred to the conmen’s account.
Later a firm called IBTDS placed a claim Rs 24,850 and also took a cheque for Rs 19,561, which amounts too got transferred from his account.
Kumar has now filed a complaint at the town police station reporting a total loss of RS 3.50 lakh.
A finance expert expressed shock on hearing this story. How educated persons could fall into such traps was beyond his comprehension, he said.
Commenting in general on all such cases, he said, at the root of all these scams was the basic human instinct of easy money.
Willing horses taken for a ride!