Hello, You have won

Phone rings……

Someone picks up the phone.

Someone: Hello. Who’s speaking?

The Caller: Hello. May I speak to Mr. Abhiram Satpathy?

Abhiram (Someone): Yes. I am speaking.

Caller: Congratulations sir, you have won a car worth Rs. 5 Lakhs.

Abhiram (being conscious about the frauds happening these days): Oh okay, but, how did I win? I don’t remember being any part of contests or something.

Caller: Sir, you have been selected randomly from the customer database of the shopping network ‘WeShop’. Our company do this at regular intervals every year. Also, if you don’t want to take the car then we can end the money (Rs. 5 Lakhs) instead of it (car).

Abhiram: Thank you very much, when I shop from your network, I always get notifications for the same through e-mail, automated SMS and app but this time I only got the SMS.

Caller: I understand your concern sir but we provide notifications regarding these types of contests through SMS only. So, what do you want to take the car or money?

Abhiram: I need some time to decide. If I want to get the money then through which medium I am going to get it?

Caller: Sir, the money will be deposited to your bank account and you have to send your bank account number to this number ‘832xxxxxxx’. Before doing the same, you have to deposit Rs. 4000 for registration. You have to decide within 2 hours, if you fail to do the same then the award would be given to any other random customer.

Abhiram: Okay. I will call you within 2 hours.

After this conversation Abhiram had got the feeling that the call is a fraud one but the only hindrance in his thinking was the SMS, but he also got rid of it when he noticed that the characters in the SMS sender id are slightly different from the sender id he used to receive while buying other products from the same network before. Now, he was 100% sure that caller is a fraud and decided not to call him further.

After 1 hour and 17 minutes, the phone, the same number flashes on the screen. Abhiram picks up the phone.

Abhiram: Hello.

Caller: So, what have you decided?

Abhiram: I have decided not to go for neither the car nor the money.

Caller: But why do you want to miss this golden opportunity? Don’t you have Rs.4000?

Abhiram: Excuse me. I do have that much money. I don’t want it because I know that you are not going to give it.

Caller: Don’t you trust me? I think you have not checked the SMS. Please check the message then you will believe me.

Abhiram: For your information, I have checked the message but that’s not enough for the trust. It’s not the same sender id from which I get the message notifications from your network, oh sorry, is it your network? You also want a registration amount of Rs. 4000 for a contest, of which I had no idea about. These things say it all.

Caller: I don’t know how to make you believe me. If you don’t want the prize then it’s your loss.

Abhiram: Okay, listen, buddy, it’s your loss, a loss of Rs. 4000 and trust of many people, I guess. I don’t think you might be getting much money through these ways, because, people have got very much conscious about these stuff.

What do you tell your near and ones about your profession? do you tell them that you make money by cheating other people? If there would have been anyone else in place of me then he would have filled your ears with many curse words.

Do good, you will get good. I can give your number and this call recording to the police but I will not do the same because I know that there is/are some reason/s you are helpless about. There are other good ways to solve your problems. I request you to improve and move towards good ways before someone complains about you to the Police.  

The Caller hangs up the phone. He says to his partner in crime, “I think he’s right. This is not the right way to do something. It’s wrong to snatch someone’s hard earned money. We will also feel terrible if someone takes our money by cheating us in ways about which we don’t know anything. We are not able to tell people openly about what we do for a living. We can’t give our income reports to people as most of our income is from illegal sources. I think we have to stop before something very bad happens to us. We have to find other good ways to make our living and return money to the people whom we have cheated so far.”