Almost Conned
Ring. Ring. Ring. An unknown number.
Aah again some young kid interning with an NGO and asking for support for an urgent need, I thought, and was preparing to hear this and was trying to mentally make up what to say because I was busy. Most of these calls are from people who generally speak in English or Hindi or in some cases Marathi having figured out that the number they are calling has origins in Maharashtra, a state in India.
However, the call was, to my surprise the call was from a seemingly elder person for he spoke like an elderly man and claimed to be 78 years old and spoke in Telugu. I was taken off guard, no quick pre-determined response was part of my repository to address this situation!
Most of the callers who seek donations know the name, so that was not a surprise but the garu certainly was!
He started off with a “garu” post fixed to my name. I was floored and he went on saying
“You might not recognize me or my changed voice because of my inability to get proper treatment when I was down with Corona but just to remind you we met at a conference during your recent visit to Hyderabad some 4-5 years ago”.
I had not been to Hyderabad in a decade or so which I was certain however the elderly person speech made me think if I had by any chance forgotten any short visit. My memory was in a spin especially because he had got the organization that I work for, right.
But he quickly went on as if sensing that I had some doubt in what he was saying and said
“You might have forgotten me, by the way I am also getting old and getting very forgetful, so I can not blame you”. He emphasized “My voice has changed. During Corona I was very sick and the hospitals were demanding 10 lakhs rupees for admission but I did not want to spend that kind of money on hospitalization and hence stuck to home treatment to save money, but in retrospect it was a bad idea”. And added “this home treatment was damaging and made his voice different”. I had nothing to say but sympathize with him and said barely uttered that it was tough for everyone and it was a time where the strength of humanity was demonstrated etc.
Sensing that he had my complete attention or involvement in his difficult situation he further said that he was a pensioner and was scanning his old notes and that is how he spotted my number and said that he was making a very weird request and he was not very happy doing it.
I was totally in his flow.
Having had me in his flow he said “Can you please Google Pay me 5000 or 6000 rupees? I will return it as soon as I get my pension.” At this point of time, as a matter of fact, I was quite ready to send him 6000 rupees considering that he was in financial difficulty, pensioner etc though I was unable to relate to him in terms of having ever met him. However sensing urgency I asked him “Where do you live now?” so that I could ask one of my friends in Hyderabad to actually pass on the money to him personally and check on his welfare. He was prepared with an answer, he said that he was in a place called Kuppam which is at the border of Andhra undergoing Ayurveda treatment, which was convincing given that he was a 78 year old elderly pensioner.
Within a couple of minutes of the I received a SMS “google pay number G rangareddy 63*50003*8”. This immediate SMS was unexpected.
It rang a bell in me.
My mental picture of this elderly gentleman did not match his ability to send an SMS that too so very quickly. If he was digitally efficient then there is a possibility for him to generate the money he wanted, I thought. In a way this SMS was the savior else I would have transferred the requested amount almost immediately after the call.
Having sensed some doubt, I decided to wait until sometime before sending him the money (which I had decided!) and got back to my work.
Within 60 minutes he called again and this is when it struck me that this looked very unusual, the follow-up. How can someone, whom they have not met in years call and ask for money and more importantly consider it alright to call them back in as little as an hour? I let my better senses prevail and did not answer the call. Again I get a call in within two hours time. Which I do not pick up either but send him a SMS saying “Am at work. WA your photograph and your location”.
Something in me wanted to make sure I was indeed talking to a person who needed help. If he was unable to send his location or picture, I thought, he would let me know. But something made me believe that he was digitally savvy.
I have not heard from him since my ask. It has been a month now, no response. Sometime I feel that may be it was a genuine request because he was so convincing. But now I have convinced myself that it was a con of very high quality and I thank myself for not being impulsive and sending him the money as soon as he asked for it!
Believe me, I would have sent but for the SMS and the follow-up!
NB: If you want to talk to the caller replace "*" with zero in the blog. Not sure if his name is G Ranga Reddy though.
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