There was a rumour recently in my locality, about a travel company that it was promising people a world tour at just Rs 50,000. It had begun from a man’s misinterpretation of a newspaper advertisement, which stated that the company was offering a discount of Rs 50,000. In no time, people were ready to book the tour for themselves.

They started contacting the company, in a rush, so that they didn’t miss the wonderful offer. On hearing the rumour, a conman thought of playing a trick. He claimed to be an employee of the company and started collecting money from people as advance. He even presented a fake Identity Card of himself, made fake bookings for the people and even gave them fake receipts for the payment they had made.

He took as many bookings as he could in a week and asked people to visit the company’s office in a week’s time to discuss further details. After a week, when people started showing up at the company’s office, they found out that the man never worked there and that the whole thing was a scam. More than 15 families fell victims to this scam and vowed never to believe in any such rumours again.