Dear P J Sir,
People who cheat will exist as long as people who get cheated exist! Right?
There are very many methods of cheating. In Sing. Chennai, the popular one is to bring a printed wedding invitation -
God only knows who's wedding - say that his daughter is to be married and ask for help. The minimum such guys get is
Rs. 50. The second method is to say that someone stole the purse and he needs money to go back to some place like
Coimbatore or Chidhambaram. The added info. will be that he can not go to many houses to collect money (to beg??).
In such cases a fake address will be given! The third method is by some female who say with tears that she lost her
husband and has no one to support.
But, this was top of all! One guy posing as the carpenter of Hindustan Motors, where Ram worked earlier, offered to do
the wood work to repair chairs and tables. Since we wanted to change some doors of cupboards, he promised to do the
work within a week. He took all the measurements and told Ram that the material will cost around Rs. 9,000/ and he will
get his labour charges later on, since we are known (!!!) to him. Without even suspecting, Ram gave the money to buy
the stuff though I told him that we can pay when the cart brings the stuff here. Then what? The guy went away with a
big grin (may be whistling all the way) never to return.
Experience in the U S of A:
When we were returning from Philly to Boston, we came out of a motel after dinner. A panic stricken lady came running
towards us and asked my son to help her with $ 40 to get her car engine fixed. She told that her mechanic was on his way
to help her and she lost her wallet!! Same story like here. She gave a visiting card too! She also told that if we can wait till
the mechanic comes over, we can pay him straight away! Who has the time? So, my son gave the money and got her card.
Since nothing came even after a week, he called up the number only to find out that it is NOT existing! Howzzzzzzzzat?