Author: The Metrognome

Categories
Kharcha paani

The latest online scam: Get paid for Google reviews

You start with ‘easy’ tasks like ‘Google reviews’ but it gets murky pretty fast. Read on.

by Vrushali Lad | @msvrushalilad

If you’re like me – self-employed, always looking for a side hustle – chances are that you’re trawling the web for part-time work opportunities. In my spare time, I look for writing opportunities online, check LinkedIn for projects, ask around for work, take a break to sigh at my bank balance…then start the process all over again.

All of this is well and good, but do know that you’re being watched. And this is where this gets weird – you soon begin to get messages inviting you to join ‘Safe, 100% returns’ opportunities that require only a few hours of your time every day. All you have to do is ‘fill out surveys’ or ‘write online reviews’.

So far, so good. I got yet another WhatsApp message recently telling me to join a community of online reviewers and get paid Rs 50 per online review. Digging further, I learnt all I had to do was follow a link that the ‘company’ sent me, give a rating between 3 and 5, and a one- or two-line ‘Google review’ of the hotel or restaurant (please note: these hotels and restaurants do exist. You don’t have to have visited them, but your review is duly noted on Google. There are legit agencies hired to do precisely this to increase ratings for their clients – in this case, hotels and restaurants).

I was expected to join a Telegram group where a ‘receptionist’ would allot the Google review links. Once I completed three tasks, I had to notify her on the chat and get Rs 150 credited to my account in under five minutes.

Completely mystified but also because I’m nosy, I did the three tasks. Lo and behold, I was paid Rs 150 from somebody’s UPI ID. Not from a company account, but a private UPI ID belonging to an ’employee’ of the ‘digital company’.

This is so weird, I mused, and then came the first of the clinchers. So this reviewing business goes on all day. The more you complete, the more you earn – BUT…

  • After every three such ‘tasks’, comes a ‘shared economy’ task. What this means is, you pay the company a certain sum of money (Rs 2000 if you are a newcomer) and this can go up to Rs 1,50,000. Then a guide is assigned to each such person, and they tell you what to do. Once this task is complete, if you have invested Rs 2,000, you get Rs 2,800 back in UNDER 10 MINUTES.
  • Since the process is fully transparent – the ‘receptionist’ was at great pains to keep telling me this while I tried to probe this thing further – you can invest any sum and get a handsome commission in under 10 minutes of completing your task. On the Telegram group, I saw some others who invested Rs 50,000 and shared screenshots of getting Rs 65,000 back. That’s Rs 15,000 in commission. Suppose you do this same thing four times a day, you’re effectively using the same Rs 50,000 over and over to earn Rs 60,000 in one day. Oh, if you ‘invest’ Rs 1,00,000, you get Rs 50,000 as commission. You do the math, my head is spinning.
  • The ‘receptionist’ wouldn’t tell me further till I invested Rs 2000. I pondered about this for a full 10 minutes, then thought, ‘Let’s do this’. I was sent yet another UPI ID to pay the Rs 2,000, and await instructions. Next, a ‘guide’ messaged me on Telegram and gave me instructions on what to do.
  • I was logged in to a bitcoin platform. It was the first time I ever saw it; I still don’t know what bitcoins are and how they are currency in the first place. As instructed, I followed some steps, input my email ID, and logged out. The guide gave me a ‘billing token’. I presented this to the receptionist, and 15 minutes later, I received Rs 2,800 in my account. That’s Rs 800 in earnings. Job over.

What if I refused to do the so-called shared economy task? I was told that my payment for doing the restaurant Google reviews would be cut from Rs 50 to Rs 20. If you’re sufficiently desperate, you’ll do as they say. If you participate in the ‘shared economy’ task, your commission for posting Google reviews increases from Rs 50 to Rs 100 per review.

After this, I shut this thing down. Blocked all the Telegram numbers and didn’t return.

What’s going on, really? My accountant explained thus: What happens is, you win your commission a few times, and are emboldened to invest larger and larger sums. You started with Rs 2,000. Next, you’ll put in Rs 5,000. Soon, you’re throwing in Rs 50,000 or more. But here’s how you’re setting yourself up for a world of trouble:

  • These commissions are landing in your bank account. Good luck explaining why and how multiple deposits are being made to you from different sources daily.
  • When you are one of the ‘regulars’, you are no longer simply being registered on the portal. Soon, you’re being asked for more information. Your savings account number. Your PAN/Aadhar details. If the investment is sufficiently large, the scammer tells you that Government of India regulations make it mandatory to enter GSTN or other important financial details like PAN.
  • You see where this is going? Your data is being mined while you are busy ‘earning’ through this entirely dubious channel. After a few days of this, you are no longer allowed to invest sums lower than Rs 75,000. And while you tell yourself ‘So what, at least my money is coming back to me and I’m earning a profit’, next comes the big one: there comes a day when the entire operation suddenly and silently closes down. Your money has vanished, and so has the ‘digital company’. The Telegram group suddenly doesn’t exist, you have been blocked so you cannot correspond with the receptionist or anyone else, you cannot log in to the bitcoin platform (because you were not logging on yourself, your ‘guide’ was doing that for you) and it seems like the whole thing existed entirely in your imagination.
  • You cannot do anything about it, and you’re probably too ashamed to report it. You’re the dumb one who fell for it. Talk about gaslighting.

What lessons do we learn from this?

  • There is no financial entity paying interest as high as this. The maximum that NBFCs and mutual funds can do for you is 10%. Any person or institution offering 30%, 40% or higher ‘earnings’ is simply up to tricks. Stay away.
  • No legit company pays via individual UPI IDs. It’s always through a company bank account.
  • The only thing to do when you receive such messages on your phone or email, is to block and report them. Nobody pays total strangers on the Internet large sums of money, unless they’re looking to extract a huge chunk in return.

Has this happened to you? I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments below.

(Picture credit: https://mediatrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Image-Scams-header-1200×680-1.jpg)

Categories
Do

How not to rape

The women never needed to be told what to do. It’s the men.

by A Woman in Despair

One more horrifying rape (this time from Kolkata) of a young doctor. Inside her workplace. While she was on duty. She was set upon by multiple men, raped, killed, mutilated. Her parents were told she had committed suicide. That made it even worse – that the administration decided to cover up the matter.

As expected, the usual creeps came out of the woodwork. ‘Why was she alone after dark? What was she wearing? Could this really have happened, seems impossible.’ Another hospital in Assam issued an ‘advisory’ for its women staff – with the usual tips on how to behave, conduct themselves, correct attire, not invite any trouble from any man in the vicinity.

Where is the handbook for men? It seems women are always told what to do to keep themselves safe, but who will teach the men not to inflict this level of pain and harassment for absolutely no reason? Since such a handbook/list doesn’t exist, I thought I should create one:

The definitive list on ‘How not to rape’

  1. Keep your penis inside your pants at all times. You will know when it is time to whip it out, and that happens only if the woman tells you she wants it.
  2. Women are not objects to take advantage of because you: were bored/wanting to prove your masculinity/cannot tell the difference between consent and force/are not society’s appointed moral guardian who deems it fit to ‘punish’ a woman for something she did to offend you or your moral values/cannot think of anything else but lewd or harassing behaviour to ‘put a woman in her place’.
  3. A woman could be out in a burqa, or a tank top and hot pants, or even completely naked. Avert your eyes and keep walking. She is not yours to partake of. No woman is. She is dressed in a way that seems okay to her, just as you are.
  4. Stay at home if your penis cannot remain in the relaxed position on seeing a woman. You have no right to flash your thing around to make a woman uncomfortable or try and subdue her with it.
  5. A woman at a pub is there for the same reason as you – to have a few drinks and a good time alone or with friends. Her intent is not for you to think about. You ignore other men drinking and laughing with friends – ignore her, too.
  6. It is not for you to wonder why a woman is out alone on the streets or inside her workplace or anywhere else at night. Why are you out, leering at girls?
  7. If the only thing you think about when you see a woman is her body and how she would feel if you were inside her, consider having more thoughts on your head on other subjects? You clearly need the education and diversion.
  8. Only a complete and utter coward descends on a woman with a gang of friends. It’s the oldest rule in the book: equal numbers, or no fight. If you and your friends share a gangrape mentality, please find the nearest train tracks and go lie on them.
  9. If your response to seeing a woman being catcalled/groped/molested/raped is to walk away quickly or worse, stand around and film it or in short, do nothing to stop it, then too you need to find the aforementioned train tracks. You are guilty of abetment, even if you cannot be immediately caught and made accountable.
  10. Don’t get married if you think women should: never defend themselves/want to have a career/not be interested in sex/not have a say in how they dress or run their lives. Just because you are married to her does not give you the right to rape her – and you will rape her, because there will be times when she will be so put off by the kind of pig you are, that she will refuse sex and you will find it in you to punish her for it.

(Picture courtesy https://www.ippf.org/node/5431)

Categories
Places

Want to travel soon? Take a travel loan

Want to travel soon? Get this loan to help you

The travel restrictions that were imposed worldwide during COVID-19 are now a thing of the past. Buys work schedules aside, nothing really stops you from travelling and satisfying the wanderer in your soul. Nothing, that is, apart from some shortage of ready cash! But if your travel plans are hampered by a lack of finances, we suggest you get a travel loan to get started on your next dream holiday.

Travel is important, but expensive…

There is no disputing the fact that travel broadens one’s horizons. Visiting new places, experiencing new cultures and food, interacting with local residents and learning their ways of life, all enrich your understanding of the world. You may go on a solo trip or with your family, but travel always benefits the person who goes seeking new experiences. And it works like a drug – once you’ve caught the travel bug, you want to travel again and again!

But as wonderful as it is, it is also expensive. Flight or train tickets, hotel bookings, sightseeing tours, eating out and shopping, all cost a lot of money. It does not do to plan a trip while being strapped for cash – you end up not enjoying the sojourn as much as you would like because you are constantly thinking about how much money you are spending. On the other hand, having extra cash on hand helps you get more novel experiences without thinking twice about the money. However, you cannot exert additional pressure on your income to fund travel trips.

Here’s the solution: take a travel loan

If you have never borrowed money to travel or buy expensive things, you might be hesitant about doing so. However, you might be interested to know that a lot of people regularly borrow travel loans, a.k.a. personal loans, to fund their various travel jaunts. The personal loan pays for tickets, bookings, visas and inter-city tours, based on the amount you can borrow from the lending institution.

Here’s why you should consider getting an instant personal loan to pay for your next trip:

  • It is processed quickly, especially if you apply using a reputed loan app. The money is disbursed in a few hours, so you can plan the trip the way you like
  • The best loan apps in India offer up to Rs 5 lakh loan based on your loan eligibility. This is a sizeable amount that can fund the foreign trip of your dreams
  • You need not pay from your savings or disturb your income to fund the trip. The personal loan pays for it all
  • The lending app does not ask why you need the money or for details on how you wish to spend it. You can use the money the way you want. It is sanctioned in a lump sum amount in your account, so you can start shopping for the trip, applying for a visa, buying flight tickets, making hotel bookings, etc.
  • Since the personal loan has a shorter tenure than other loans, you can repay it in full in a few months and be debt free much faster
  • If you are going abroad, the Consulate will like to see your financial statements when you apply for the visa. Having the large infusion of cash in your account is a positive sign and the visa has a higher chance of being approved

How to get the instant personal loan for travel

Start by downloading the best loan app and set it up as directed. Creating your profile on the app registers you as a potential customer and the app can also check your credit score and other particulars. When you apply for the loan, the app asks you to submit documents (these are listed on the app) so that the application may move forward.

  • You can self-attest the documents and keep them ready for pick-up from your home. The app checks the documents, verifies your credit worthiness and loan eligibility, and notifies you of how much loan amount you can get. The best loan apps in India sanction personal loans without salary slips and bank statements, which helps immensely during an emergency
  • Once the loan application is approved, the money is disbursed to your account. You can withdraw it and start planning your trip.
  • Repay the loan in simple EMIs as per the tenure.

(Featured image courtesy https://nextvacay.com/why-traveling-is-important)

Categories
Diaries

Diary of a whore

Chapter 2, First Meetings

He and I met at a conference for bakers. Funnily enough, both of us were with our partners. He with his wife, a stunning brunette who must have been willowy at some point in her life but had now lost some of her youthful firmness. A beautiful woman, nevertheless. I noticed her across the room even before I saw him, partly because she stood stiffly in her high-heeled pumps in a dress of dreamy teal chiffon topped with a large statement necklace in blue. Turning to see who she was with, I saw him with his eyes locked in mine.

It sent a frisson through me, his frank and open stare, with his wife just next to him and looking in my direction as well – she’d probably turned to see what he was looking at. Smoothly, noticing her gaze from the corner of his eye, he turned his face to look at the fearsome-looking exhibit next to them: a large pink and yellow creation shaped to look like a princess castle. I noticed that he looked slightly appalled, as did my boyfriend, Amar.

“What the absolute f**k is that,” Amar murmured, pointing at the cake-castle. “You want to go and laugh at it?” he grinned, and taking my hand, led me to it. I checked to see where he was – he had moved to another exhibit down the table, and they were both intently listening to a woman baker explaining her tray of blue cookies and macarons.

I don’t remember much of the conference, nor the exhibition hall and its contents, but I do remember looking around the room several times to see where he was. I caught him looking at me a couple of times. The last time he did, he turned away with the slightest smile on his lips. On any other man, that smile would have said, ‘Gotcha!’

On him, it simply said, ‘I’d like to know you…’

We met each other a month later, again, by accident. This time, both of us were alone. And we made the time to go to a café. Nothing was said about our earlier meeting – it was understood why we were sitting across from each other having lattes at mid day. The question was, What were we going to do about this little thing that existed between us?

I could have, should have, done nothing. But I did.

Categories
Diaries

Diary of a whore

Chapter 1

Let me state right away that this is not a happy story, about happy people. It’s about not knowing anything about the future. About not having a future. About cliches and what happens when you let your heart do the talking, even when you know your story is not going to have a happy ending.

He was a married man and still I had an affair with him. I knew he would never leave his wife, and still I had a beautiful little baby with him. It didn’t help that she grew up with all his mannerisms, some of his looks, all of his charm. Like a small, curly-haired flashback to happier times.

I knew he would leave. And he did, and I still felt acute sadness. Mostly because I didn’t know what to tell my daughter. Why Abba was not at home any more. How he could just come one evening while we were out at the park and take all his clothes, his shoes, his papers, and never come back, even for a last look or chat with his daughter.

Because despite everything, I don’t want her to grow up with the slow burning hate in her heart, the kind that sours everything in life, the kind that feels like a dull burning in your chest all the time. The hate and the fury that I feel for him. I don’t want it to sully her.

So I make up stories to divert her. But she is going to catch on soon. Every time she asks for Abba, I tell her a story. A child that bright will make the connection, and possibly begin to dread it.

“Abba said he would buy me a cycle,” she begins, a trace of a whine in her voice. She knows I don’t like this particular conversation, mostly because he and I argued long and hard over it. She’s too little for a cycle, I kept saying, and he kept telling me I was too paranoid for words. Now I don’t want to relive that conversation, that feeling even more.

A story, then.

‘He always began every morning with his mobile phone in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. No, wait. He always began every morning sitting on the pot, mobile phone in one hand and cup of coffee in the other –‘

“Wait. Is this one more story about Abba? Because really, you need new stories.”

“That’s rude. No, it’s not about Abba. It’s about this person I knew –“

“Which person? How do you know him?”

“I knew him many years ago. I don’t know him that well…”

“And yet you know how he began his mornings.” She sighs and is about to roll her eyes, when a new thought occurs to her. “Wait. You still haven’t told me when Abba is coming home.”

She stares, waiting for an answer. Not to be deflected for long. All I want to do is hold her close and tell her the truth. But no. A story will have to do. I can’t tell her anything just yet.

I look at her honey locks, her smooth skin, her almond-shaped eyes. You are truly your Abba’s child, I want to say, but I think I might begin to cry. Instead, I strain to hear sounds from outside – I don’t turn my head around to peer at the door, as if to magically see through the wooden shutters into the inky blackness beyond. I cannot alarm her, make her think something is more wrong than it is. She is already so perceptive and I don’t want more questions about her Abba. So I square my shoulders and say, “A story, then.”

It helps to pass the time till I know how to pick up the pieces of our lives.

Categories
Learn

Use RERA to your advantage when buying a Mumbai home

The RERA is a veritable boon in the hands of flat buyers in Mumbai. We explain how it helps bring greater transparency in the flat-buying process.

The real estate sector in India has been seeing some curious trends in recent years. On the one hand, there is a constant refrain from buyers that realty is too expensive to invest in at the moment. On the other hand, the luxury housing sector continues to show stable growth! Amidst talks of a slowdown in Indian realty year upon year, came the ambitious RERA (Real Estate Regulation and development Act) that was promulgated all over the country in 2017.

The RERA was created to bring in greater transparency in the house purchase process for buyers. Using RERA helps buyers become privy to all the important information they must necessarily know – flat and real estate developer credentials, project timelines, construction progress, reasons for delay, etc. The RERA is aimed at helping buyers make well-informed decisions about buying Mumbai properties and investing in the right projects.

Are you a first time homebuyer looking to invest in an under-construction property? Here’s a lowdown on how RERA can help you pick the right flat for sale in Mumbai:

* RERA assures you that everything is laid out in black and white. The primary thrust of the RERA is complete transparency, which means that buyers must be privy to all the information they seek whenever they seek it. The Act has been worded to include every facet of the process, from initial construction to final handover of the completed Mumbai property. It also specifies the legal and construction standards that developers must uphold per project, starting with taking a RERA project number that must be clearly mentioned across advertisements, brochures, project plans, etc. This number helps buyers keep online and offline track of the project’s progress. Prior to starting the construction, the developer must give written specifications, include copies of municipal approval, land title and reservation, project timelines, etc. and adhere to the same or furnish written reasons for delays.

* New constructions are more professionally handled from now on. Since RERA specifies stiff legal penalties for inordinate and unexplained delays, developers are now more cautious about using their available funds and giving completion timelines. Smaller players in realty were earlier quite glib about several parameters, which led to delays, stoppages and huge losses for buyers. But the RERA weeds out the unscrupulous developers from the professional ones. Since real estate developers must specify problems and delays in writing, there is no scope for buyers to be left high and dry with stalled projects, or builders abruptly stopping their rent payments (in case of redevelopment projects), etc. Thus, developers are now more accountable for their projects, leading to faster completion.

* Projects are now securing funding much faster. Buyers are now confident about investing in 1 BHK flats in Mumbai, or luxury 2 BHK flats in Mumbai, since every new project must be licensed and approved by RERA. In turn, an approved project automatically increases its own chances of getting home loan funding. This is good news for those buyers who wish to secure home loans for buying flats for sale in Mumbai. Meanwhile, real estate developers are also able to secure funding to start and finish the construction when there is RERA certification for the project.

(Featured image courtesy https://blog.ipleaders.in/stalled-projects-rera/)

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