Mobile Phone Scam Stories

[Arun 795]

Times News Network FEBRUARY 20, 2004

Here are some scary scam stories about bogous Reliance connections...

Reliance Infocomm has been hit by the bogus connection-based conference calling scam, and has already lost crores of rupees on international calls, mainly between Gulf countries and India.

Investigations by a 'Times' team revealed that names and addresses on at least four Reliance Infocomm connections were either false or forged.

More shockingly, at least two untraceable Reliance Infocomm subscribers have left their footprints on the bills of one untraceable BSNL defaulter, whose unpaid dues of STD/ISD calls crossed a whopping Rs 10 lakh in October 2003.

While names and addresses on at least two Reliance bills were found to be fictitious, in another case, Deepali Chavan, a Pune resident, got a bill for Rs 4,294.71 without having applied for a Reliance mobile.

"Within two days of getting this bill in November 2003, I filed a complaint with the Market Yard police chowky. I was told by the police that they have received other such complaints relating to Reliance Infocomm," Chavan told TNN.

"I lost my driving licence a year back and I think that was used by someone to get a connection in my name and address. I asked a Reliance Web World outlet to show me the documents that were used to secure the connection but they refused," she said.

The fact that subscription-based fraud in which false or forged documents were used to obtain Reliance connections raises questions over the firm's address verification system.

Reacting to Times News Network's expose on the scam, Reliance Infocomm's business head, Maharashtra and Goa , Dinesh Gulati said on Wednesday: "We have a very stringent verification system. Our address-verification agency visits customers' home and checks if he/she has actually applied for a handset. The handset and service is activated only after thorough credit verification."

On Thursday, a Times team tried to get in touch with Eliyas A. Shaikh, whose address on a pending Reliance bill (Rs 41,626.41, dated 24.1.04) was given as "416 Mangalwar Peth, Kale Wada, Pune, Maharashtra- 411016."

A visit to this address, however, drew a blank with neighbours stating that no one by that name lived there. According to investigations, a similar identity, but under a different address, was used in a BSNL connection where unpaid bills amounted to over Rs 10 lakh in October 2003.

In the case of another Reliance Infocomm connection, where unpaid dues amounted to Rs 57,349.83 as of January 20, 2004 , the name and address did not match with the Nana Peth location that was mentioned on the bill.

The fourth case was that of Sudhakar Dhamdhere, who received a Reliance bill for Rs 5,026.60 dated November 20, 2003 .

Dhamdhere, in a letter dated November 22, 2003 , to Reliance Infocomm, said that the bill under the name "Sudhakar S Dhamdheere" was a case of "misuse of address and name" and should be cancelled forthwith.

Dhamdhere not only urged Reliance to terminate the mobile connection but also filed a police case after checking the identity of the person involved.

And Reliance's reaction to such scams...

Dinesh Gulati, business head (Maharashtra and Goa), Reliance Infocomm, was, on Thursday evening, provided all the relevant details, including the names, telephone numbers and bills that The Times of India sought to highlight in its report.

Gulati said that the cases brought to the company’s notice by TNN were “complicated” and a detailed response would be given later.

However, he said that in two cases of pending bills amounting to Rs 41,626.61 and Rs 57,349.83, the parties were once debarred in October 2003 and unbarred when they gave cheques. They were again debarred in January 2004 when the cheques bounced.

Speaking about cases where those who never booked Reliance connections received bills, S. Sawant, a corporate communications executive, said that the company has no direct control when they have sub-subagents, who are not authorised agents, handling the end-customer.

All these cases could have come into the system in the May-June period when the company did not have its fraud management systems in place, added Gulati.

However, according to Sawant, Reliance Infocomm had problems till December 2003 as 1 lakh new customers were being added daily under the ‘Monsoon Hungama’ scheme, the details of which could not be entered into the system immediately, creating a huge backlog, which was cleared only by November-end.