A wise man once said, "Love and fraud can happen with anyone." Don't worry, I'm the one who said it. Well, I don't know about love, but I have some intense stories of fraud from our guests Prerna, Verda, and Prince. We've seen the lives of scammers portrayed on shows like Netflix's Jamtara, but here is the other side of the story – what do victims of fraud have to say?
"My brother was an engineer. He started a restaurant during the lockdown. And his entire savings, Rs 80,000, went away in a jiffy. Even today, he does not have the confidence to come here and talk about it."Prerna Yadav, an journalist at IndiaTV
I talked to a few victims of scam and asked about their trust in human virtues. Watch this episode of News and Views to know what lessons they learned and what lessons you can learn from their experience.
'My Mind Didn't Work the Same Way'
Verda Subzwari, a desk writer at The Quint, says that she was trying to surprise her mother when she ended up sending money to a scammer thrice, in a total transaction of Rs 20,000.
"To be honest, I didn't have any doubt that it was a scam till the first transaction, but then I transferred money to him thrice... The situation was so messed up that my mind just didn't work the same way."Verda Subzwari, Desk Writer at The Quint
Meanwhile, Prerna Yadav, a journalist at IndiaTV, talks about how a scammer impersonated his mamaji and duped her brother of Rs 80,000.
What started off as a fun, humorous chat about people ruminating over their stupidity quickly turned into an intense discussion about red flags, trust, and fear.
A screengrab from the Netflix series 'Jamtara'
(Photo: Netflix)
We were also joined by Prince Mukherjee, Assistant Editor at Youth Ki Awaaz Hindi. He received around Rs 10,000 in his bank account one day, and since then, people have been calling him up and abusing him, accusing him of not paying back a loan he never took.
He talks about how these fraudulent loan apps work, and how he still has the money in his account, which he can never spend.
"Aapko darna bilkul bhi nahi hai. Bohot saare log darr se paise bhej dete hai... Ek suggestion hai, online loan lene se bilkul bachna chahiye. Jabtak bohot zaroorat na ho, loan na lein. Aur agar lein bhi toh iska dhyaan rakhein ke unko contacts ka access na dien."Prince Mukherjee, Assistant Editor at Youth Ki Awaaz Hindi
Watch this video podcast till the end to know their stories of digital fraud. Or you can listen to the audio version here:
News and Views is The Quint’s podcast series where we introduce you to some of the greatest minds across different fields through in-depth interviews. You can listen to more episodes of News and Views and other podcasts here, or on your preferred podcast app.
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