ALERT: New Sub-Urban Racket - Don't get cheated
I have come across a new racket that seems to be going on in Chennai. Have heard of two instances in two days, enough to assume that there are more of the same happening.
The modus operandi goes thus:
1. A young sales person approaches a sub-urban household and introduces himself as representing a retail shop selling electrical and electronic goods in the other end of the city. He/ She says that they are setting up a new show room in the neighbourhood and as an introductory offer would like to give the housewife an unbelievable offer of domestic appliances at throw away prices. This is done by issuing a token to the housewife with a specific number in it. They take the name of the housewife and provide her with a printed sheet with a phone number hand written in it. The address of the shop in the other end of the city is also given with its name. The housewife is asked to call the mobile number written by that evening to get to know whether she is one of the lucky winners who will get a mixie or micro-wave in a heavily discounted price.
2. The ignorant housewife calls the phone number in the evening and is promptly told that she has won an award after ascertaining her name and address. She is asked to keep an amount handy to receive the highly discounted 'gift', a well known international brand is mentioned.
3. The next morning a van pulls up outside the house with a couple saying that they have come to deliver the 'gift', they collect the money and deliver the goods. The housewife is assured that if she wants to exchange this for some other goods at a later date, she can approach the said showroom that is newly coming up in the neighbourhood! She is also told that there is a further possibility for her to win a free gift if she can call the mobile number again that evening.
4. On opening the new 'branded' mixie or other domestic appliances, the housewife finds that she has been landed with a cheap unbranded variety that does not seem to have anything with the brand on the outside box or the one she has been promised. On further enquiry it is revealed that there is no new shop in the neighbourhood nor is there the original shop in the other end of the city!!!
Two instances have come to my notice in the last two days. Someone with the same story marketing wares in Tiruvanmaiyur saying their original shop is in Royapuram and they are newly setting up a branch in Tiruvanmaiyur and another group doing the same in Madhavaram saying their original shop is in Mylapore and the new branch is coming up Perambur. In both cases it has been found that there is no branch in Tiruvanmaiyur or Perambur. The address given has been found to be false and belonging to someone else. The telephone number does not seem to work as it is temporary mobile number and perhaps no longer valid after it has been well 'used'.
Please forward this alert to your friends across the city to ensure that this racket does not spread and people do not get victimized by such tricksters, our people are suckers for anything being offered at a low cost and seem to forever keep falling for the cheapest trick in the trade.
The modus operandi goes thus:
1. A young sales person approaches a sub-urban household and introduces himself as representing a retail shop selling electrical and electronic goods in the other end of the city. He/ She says that they are setting up a new show room in the neighbourhood and as an introductory offer would like to give the housewife an unbelievable offer of domestic appliances at throw away prices. This is done by issuing a token to the housewife with a specific number in it. They take the name of the housewife and provide her with a printed sheet with a phone number hand written in it. The address of the shop in the other end of the city is also given with its name. The housewife is asked to call the mobile number written by that evening to get to know whether she is one of the lucky winners who will get a mixie or micro-wave in a heavily discounted price.
2. The ignorant housewife calls the phone number in the evening and is promptly told that she has won an award after ascertaining her name and address. She is asked to keep an amount handy to receive the highly discounted 'gift', a well known international brand is mentioned.
3. The next morning a van pulls up outside the house with a couple saying that they have come to deliver the 'gift', they collect the money and deliver the goods. The housewife is assured that if she wants to exchange this for some other goods at a later date, she can approach the said showroom that is newly coming up in the neighbourhood! She is also told that there is a further possibility for her to win a free gift if she can call the mobile number again that evening.
4. On opening the new 'branded' mixie or other domestic appliances, the housewife finds that she has been landed with a cheap unbranded variety that does not seem to have anything with the brand on the outside box or the one she has been promised. On further enquiry it is revealed that there is no new shop in the neighbourhood nor is there the original shop in the other end of the city!!!
Two instances have come to my notice in the last two days. Someone with the same story marketing wares in Tiruvanmaiyur saying their original shop is in Royapuram and they are newly setting up a branch in Tiruvanmaiyur and another group doing the same in Madhavaram saying their original shop is in Mylapore and the new branch is coming up Perambur. In both cases it has been found that there is no branch in Tiruvanmaiyur or Perambur. The address given has been found to be false and belonging to someone else. The telephone number does not seem to work as it is temporary mobile number and perhaps no longer valid after it has been well 'used'.
Please forward this alert to your friends across the city to ensure that this racket does not spread and people do not get victimized by such tricksters, our people are suckers for anything being offered at a low cost and seem to forever keep falling for the cheapest trick in the trade.
Comments