I don't know how
many of us are already a victim of this fraud and is not even aware of it. I
found a repeated cheating attempt in Petrol bunks today and thought I should
let others know of this.
Today I went to a
petrol bunk and filled petrol for Rs.250. I gave him a Rs. 1000 and then a
Rs.50 note. So he owes me Rs.800. He took the change from his bag and counted
3 Rs.100 currency notes and a single
Rs.500 currency note in front of me by moving the currency from one hand to
another, folded the currency notes and gave it to me. I unfolded them and found
that there are only 2 Rs.100 currency notes(instead of 3) and a single Rs.500 currency note.
Once I counted them, he immediately took another Rs.100 note and gave it to me
and moved on to the next person immediately.
He has attempted a
simple miscounting of the currencies which is not observed by most of us. Most
of us have the tendency to just get the cash and put it in our wallet without
counting, if it is counted by the other person in front of us. It is easy for anyone
to count the same currency note twice by moving the hands rapidly creating a
fake impression that the currency is transferred from one hand to another(even
if it is not).
I faced a similar
situation in another petrol bunk few months back when I asked for change for a
Rs.500 note. He counted with Rs.100 notes by moving the currency note from one
hand to another 5 times and finally when I counted it had just 4 notes. When he
saw me checking the amount, he took another Rs.100 and gave it to me.
There are more
chances of oversight when we are in a hurry. If a person is safely able to play
this game to 10 persons in a single day, he can get Rs.1000 per day which adds
up to Rs.30,000 per month. Although both
the experiences I had on this attempt
happened in petrol bunks, this is
potentially happening in many different places where money is floating around
on crowded areas. It is better for us to be more alert to avoid such
incidences.
If you want to try
this, take 3 Rs.100 currency notes in your left hand. Using your right hand, take the
first note from the left hand. Quickly, move your right hand once again towards
the left hand but instead of actually taking the next note, just move your right
hand away with the previous single Rs.100 currency. Nobody can easily observe
that you haven't taken the second currency. You can perfect this miscounting in
less than 2 minutes training. I'm
writing this to create an awareness of such cheat attempts, not to encourage
you to do the same trick ;-)
I decided to
complain to the person in-charge if it ever happens again in any public
services. If we all start to raise voice on such incidences, such fraud
attempts will start to reduce.
Please be aware of
this and be careful whenever you deal with money. There are numerous faces for
greediness and you never know how many faces the strangers you are dealing with
has. So, "be smart and be alert".
