Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Shendi

First credit card fraud, now car fraud. Looks like my planets and stars are in really favorable positions and alignment.

I was recently a victim of a car fraud, executed with Swiss precision. A con job worthy of a movie. I was returning home last night and at a signal one guy pointed out that there were sparks coming from the car. I thought to myself, rather modestly, that with me inside the car sparks are bound to fly. Modesty aside, i took that guy as a nut case and drove a little further when another 'gentleman' pointed that there were sparks coming out of the bonnet.

Now modesty was totally aside. I parked the car to the side of the road to look into the bonnet and this gentleman who pointed it out also tagged along to see. I did not suspect anything and was feeling nice and warm inside the heart by the gesture of this good Samaritan. I parked the car, opened the bonnet and started the car. This gentleman the said that sparks were coming out so i got out to see it for myself. Lo and behold, there were sparks the size of bonfire coming out of the ignition plug. He said that I am lucky and had I driven at a speed above 40km/h the sparks would have ignited the petrol which was going into the engine and engine and car would have exploded. Just like Hindi movies, in high air. He then went in search of a mechanic and the mechanic said that I need to change the ignition plug. But he called it Alternator and said that it will cost me 6K. However, I learnt today that the thing is called ignition plug and costs around 1.2K.

The mechanic said that he just closed his garage but will do this favor to me by checking what is wrong. He checked, asked me to change the part, volunteered to get the part from his shop, gave me his owner's cell number to find out the prize and the owner said that since the garage is closed, he will send me the warranty card by courier next day.

How did I find out the scam? I decided to get the warranty card myself and when I went to that garage, found that no one by the mechanic or the owner's name worked there. The garage specialises in two wheeler servicing and not four wheeler and the owner of the garage, a nice lady, chuckled and said I was a victim of a elaborate scam. She called it Shendi, which in Mumbai means someone made a fool of you.
I have the cell number of the guy (probably a prepaid), do you think it's worth filing a complaint?
Consolation - atleast the car didn't blow.

2 comments:

Word Dancer said...

Holy Cow! It really is out of a movie. Now they did not plan the sparks did they?
Glad to know nothing blwe up!!!

Manoj said...

If they did plan the sparks, I would like to meet the scamster to find out how and then congratulate on this brilliant con. The sparks planting is definitely worth the money I lost.