Meeting strangers, even FMs: Exercise caution & use common sense - Else, you could be the next.

[madbullram]

Dear all,
I am writing this with some bitter taste. I have heard these incidents in US but now to hear that it happened to my best buddy makes me sit straight and think.

For obvious reasons, I am not naming him. Lets call him Mr.E (Enthu bugger that he is). He is majorly into gaming and you will see him a lot active in Techenclave and most of the forums and so on. At 25, this guy is full of energy and world at his feet. Goes out of his way to help anyone. His posts are always well thought out, informative, and does everything that he can. Infact, thats how i became a friend to him when I had gone to his house to check out a Graphic Card he had sourced from US even before it hit US market. We instantly hit off and became very close friends. You get his profile right, not going to go more into detail. He is like many in our forum and similar to Venkat CR when it comes to explanation and help.

Two tuesdays before, he gets a PM from a member saying he loves his rig and would love to meet him. So Mr.E, as always, promptly responds and send his number and asks him to call up. They chit chat on phone and the member introduces himself as a Team Lead in a reputed call center. So they decide to hook up on friday evening for a session on Audio and Gaming as both are into it. The member checks with Mr.E if he can get his girl friend along as she also loves this. Mr.E the gracious person he is says, yes buddy pls do. My GF also will be there so we can have family jam. So all set.

Friday:
The member calls Mr.E and arrives at his place sans his girl friend. Mr.E welcomes and they get talking of stuff. The member says his GF will join in an hour as she is completing some person work. The member gives them tropicana apple and KF beer. They get talking and Mr.E talks about his childhood and how his dad is US and no mother and enjoying life here. His GF, very nice girl, also gets into the conversation and talk about their planned marriage etc and serving chats to them.

They all have the Beer and apple juice and some snacks.

Saturday morning 7 am:
Mr.E wakes up to find all his belongings gone, money rigs everything. Still dizzy and his GF still unconscious, rushes to hospital. They have been sedated with a drug but nothing serious. They get treated in OP and are back home.

The harsh reality is everything gone, rigs, money, LCDs laptop etc etc.

The girl is in shock, she is still not out of it and is under psychiatric treatment. She is recovering well and both have moved to Chennai now as we are all here and its easy for them to get back to life. Mr.E has no smile on his face, is always silent now, we are doing our best to get him back to life.

I am little happy with this, why?
1. They stole just the money and stuff
2. The girl was not touched, u know what all could have happened in this MMS crazy world
3. Both are alive with no injuries nothing though the internal ones are something we all are fighting with them

Now, why I narrate this here:
1. We have many members here similar to Mr. E, who invite people home for audition
2. We have many members here who goes to someone's house to check their gear

We all have done that BUT pls pls pls ensure you use caution and common sense before you invite someone or visit someone.

• Do not invite/visit a newbie.
• Be sure that you know about the person
• Meet at a common place first
• Do use due diligence first
• If you invite someone home, ensure you have a crowd and not just you and your family.

Sorry about the long post, I will be heart wrenched to see something like this happen to my fellow HFVians.

Its good to help, pls ensure by helping you dont end up needing HELP!

Update:
1. The intension of this thread is to make everyone aware of such dangers so we are aware of it.
2. Do not ask me for who it is. He is not a HFV member
3. Thanks for your PMs, I don't need contacts in police/detective agencies.
4. Read this thread as an informative post
5. Instead of telling what needs to be done (call cops etc), it will be more useful if you can list your experience or tell what you think are ways we can avoid it.

 

[madbullram]

@all: As a favour, pls send this post link to anyone who you know should read it (HFV members and anyone else). You can also help by sending an email on this to yours friends so that our near and dear ones are aware of this.

I have posted in other forums I frequent like T-Bhp. Pls feel free to post this in any forum you think this would be informative. I have no problem

 

[Asit]

What a disturbing news, Ram. More than the loss of the materials, it is the belief of your friend and his GF that has been betrayed. It takes a long time to recover from this.

I had a similar but much less dangerous thing happen to me when I was finishing up my grad school and was moving from one foreign continent to the other - I had an enormous quantity of books and notes that I didn't have the resources for at the time to move to my new place of work. A 'friend' who had a house volunteered to keep these 30 boxes of books etc in his basement and ship to me later at a date convenient to me. I'd pay him of course. In a few months time when I wanted the books shipped, the guy could not remember anything about my boxes. When I pressed hard, he said something about some flooding in the basement and he said perhaps all my boxes had been thrown out. Till this day, I cannot forget this. Till this day I have a hard time coming to terms with what happened. Since then I have bought many of the books back, but cannot replace the enormous volumes of notes, homeworks etc that I still need from time to time.

In this case, why can't something be done about it. I understand both your friend and the offender belong to some other forum. Can't the offender be traced using this other forum? This offender should be brought to justice, it's a criminal offence.

Regards.

 

[sound_advice]

Woow !! That is scary as all of us are gullible when it comes to our passions.
Would like to share another con going around in Chennai.

was on the lookout for a Karizma. Found one advertised in a leading newspaper.
So I called the guy - The deal he gave was unbelievable.
Fixed to meet him on Monday. He asks me to meet him On Kodambakkam High Road near AVM Studio outside a Hotel.
When quizzed about the venue not being his house. He gave some story about parents and how they might not want him to buy a Ninja 250 etc, etc.

On my way there I get stuck in traffic and ask a former colleague who is also a avid biker to go there check the bike and give him the sellers phone no.
He calls back in around ten minutes and asks me not to come as the bike is not available. I turn back home.

NOW THE CON My colleague call me a little later .The story goes like this . The cheats advertise a bike well below market price and is too immaculate to be true.
Once you test ride it they are " WILLING " to take a Rs. 1000 /- or 500 or anything you have as advance and ask you to come the next day to a financier's office to collect the bike papers.
The next day when you land there you will find a couple more Bakras all having given an advance.
I did not know where to put this beyond Team BHp but for some strange reason I am unable to post over there.
So thanks to Ram I could share it with you guys

 

[gryph0n]

Thanks MBR for this post.

I was thinking as to how one could avoid such scenarios. And the points that come to my mind are points that have been already mentioned above:

1.>Avoid personal touch with noobs
Most of such people would be looking to pull a fast move, and will likely not invest a lot of time in the subject matter of the forum (I should guess not more than 3 months at any rate)

2.>Make your first contact at a physical forum meet
Again, my reasoning is as above. Such people wouldn't want invest significant time in the forum. So meeting you at forum meet and then meeting you later at your residence would be a lot of time.

Of course, these are just guidelines. And thieves are know to observe/study their targets for a month or two before striking.

 

[max123_ind]

Dangerous times we live in..

I will rephrase Spiderman's world to today's context.. "With great gear comes greater risk"....

I never thought a city like Hyderabad could have snatchers who would snatch mobiles from your hands while you were walking on deserted roads in the night.. it happened to me like 2 years ago.

I usually walk home late from work thru some shortcuts/gulleys that are "slightly dark"... has houses around a park but not many people around at that time.. I was blissfully listening to my iPhone with those "trademark white Apple earphones".. Since I was listening to it and looking at some SMSs I didn't notice a bike slowly approaching me. Then the pillion rider on the bike grabbed the earphone with lot of force... immediately they sped off.
I was totally shocked, by the time I realized what was happening... the phone, along with the earphone was, for a minute in the air (bullet time in Matrix).. I then held the phone with both fists and didn't let go.

All of this was happening while the bike snatchers were going at full speed. And this was planned and executed "SO METICULOUSLY" that they immediately took a turn since that was almost end of the street and the lightining was poor too.. I could not see the nameplate of the bike either. The earphones are gone.. at least I have the phone. If it was something like Ipod shuffle it surely would have gone.

My nephew's incident was a year ago. He was checking his SMS and walking in a main road with so many people moving around.. his was a Nokia phone costing around 12,500.. they came ans snatched out of nowhere.. this too was less than 20 yeards from a police station. he went there to lodge a complaint.. the police told him it's hard to find stolen phones.. they gave him a ledger-style book where there were names and model numbers .. all those guys have lost their mobiles in same way. None of those cases solved.. but those were neatly organized.. you have to write your mobile model, your name and they said they "might" call you if they catch such a person... it's been a year.. still no call.

A colleague got her mobile snatched just as she was walking out of office.. they pulled with so much force she fell down, poor thing.

Lessons to be learnt are :
(1)Always hold your phone to your left ear when you are walking on the left of the road and vice versa so that it's not easy for mobile snatchers.
(2)Use main roads when walking home at night, even if it takes a little more time. Avoid shortcuts.
(3)Last but not least avoid the white earphones.. you're asking for trouble.

This is a long post, I know. But i wanted to share my experiences so that if it benefits even one person it's worth it.

Have fun and be careful.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

The newspapers daily remind me that the "modern world" is coming to India.

In London, you do not ever use your phone as you get out of the tube (train) station, or keep it in such a way (string around the neck, etc) that it is obvious. If you must use it on the street, you take care what street it is. You never leave any bag or coat visible in your parked car and you always remove the front panel from your ICE HU. Failure to do so means a car full of broken glass, lost property and all the hassle that goes with being a victim of theft --- and it is even more depressing when what they broke in for was an empty bag.

It is dangerous to judge the world by newspaper reports, but, in so far as they are any sort of measure of safety on the streets, for instance, it is not getting better. You can say that newspapers have never been in the business of publishing good news, but surely, five to ten years ago, there were not daily reports of chain snatchings and theft from the houses of the elderly?

This particular crime is particularly distressing on this particular forum --- where discussing the sometimes-very-expensive equipment that we own is part of what we are here for.

 

[changappa]

Trust me guys, I am still not able to digest the totally lifeless face he has now. He keep s telling me "How can I be so naive and put my GF in such a dangerous position!". The girl is actually taking it better now.

Hopefully, time will heal him. Do pray for his recovery if you can. Though I am a hindu, I lit a candle in Besant Nagar Church while driving back.

oh
Very sad to know good people come across such incidents. Give him some moral support. Things do happen some times but life goes on. I wish and prey for his well being.

I put in some experience I recollected. 1991 or 92 One of my friend very flamboyant very easy going guy traveling from Bangalore to Patna got sedated in train, just before few hrs to Patna he fell unconcious in the loo. all passengers got down, the train was taken to yard for cleaning then some railway employ saw this guy and rushed him to hospital forget about his belongings he was in ICU for well 5 days And it took quite some time for him to recover from that incident. All he recollected was he ate some prasad and tea offered by some co passenger.

 

[argentum246]

Post is an eye opener. Due diligence has to be done when you make friend or invite someone. As far as sharing your gear with someone we need to keep few things in mind:
1. Mods should lock the "show your gear thread" and should allow by invitation / based on number of posts in this forum.
2. Do read person's post in hifivision before you invite, for a background check.
3. Once 2 is done, talk over phone and ensure you have atleast few other friends from forum before u sign up for meet. Never invite a stranger into your house for one to one meet. The gtg should always be in group and you need to be approved by the admin via some id (just my thought).
4. Also get some sort of ID exchanged should you have some doubts or reference to support the identity.
5. Also if he know any other forum member who can vouch for him.
6. Never share your profession , Social media ID, gear you posses or planning to buy here as there are lots of dealers / scammers living and watching everyone in this forum itself under disguise.
7. Delete your post (I am not sure how to do it) if you think you got the info you are looking for or you had a unique issue that no one knew the answer past few years.
8. Frame your questions in forum in such a way that you can get precise answer without revealing unnecessary personal facts, (eg I live in abc area and in this apt xyz with very costly stuff and I am not able to get good sound despite spending few lakhs, or I am going for vacation and shall miss my pqr stuff that i recetly brought.) etc
9. Rescan your profile for any such loose threads.
10. Dont reveal any facts in any posts that may help a scammer to trace you, like ur address location to FM post.
11. Check ur signature .. how much it reveals or acts as honey for scammers.

There can be many more or some might not be relevant. Also note that one incident should not make us get back in our cocoon. We have to get up and be more vigilant as the world is also filled with equally good people who are ready to help in this cruel world.

 

[square_wave]

Apart from the personal safety issue which is very obvious, I wanted to add another thing to watch out for. There are a number of DIY people in the community. The ones who respect your choices in gear and will respect your gear by keeping their hands off it are the good ones. There is another variety who have a certain contempt for branded gear. They will not desist from the unnecessary pull, push, fiddle and tinker of your expensive gear especially when you are away from it to get them some beer or coffee. Beware ! One of my audiophile friends lost some money to fix an expensive interconnect because it was pulled out / opened incorrectly by the dude because he wanted to see what is inside. By the time he was back from the kitchen with the coffee, this guy had it in his hands with the connectors ect.. opened and he was peering inside. The soldering had come off and it was some exotic connector and carefully woven wires / shielding and all that which needed very skilled workmanship to repair. When asked, the DIY dude just laughed it off saying that he can just use another local connector and will fix it in a jiffy. My friend had to send it back to the US to get it fixed in the end.

 

[pksnathan]

Really sad to hear this incident.Felt sorry for your friend and his girlfriend.As you have rightly pointed out it was heartening to note that they were not bodily harmed.I shudder to even think in that angle.It was sheer Providence that your friends only lost the gadgets and money.I pray for their well being and happiness.

pksnathan

 

[antoniodias]

Many thanks to you dear. You really have warned all of us, of danger that may happen to anyone of us. God bless.

 

[Sean de Silva]

Sad and shocking to read the OP's comments as well as the experience of others. I have had a couple of FMs over at my place many years ago. luckily for me both of them were well-known and respected on this forum, not naming anyone ..you know who you are.
I always had a hunch about fraudsters lurking on hfv in disguise and one of the FMs above has reiterated just that ! I suppose common sense and intuition should always prevail over childish enthusiasm when inviting people over for a demo etc especially if those guys don't happen to be knowledgeable and highly regarded on the forum. But then again nothing is set in stone.

 

[fLUX]

Holy cow , this incident is really shocking. I have been to houses of numerous fellow members and also have buyers come over to my place. I always use my judgement to invite people home , but in the incident above looks like my judgement also would have gone astray. Pray that such incident never occurs with anyone.

 

[arnprasad]

Sad to hear the story as one would expect such things wont happen over chats/exchanging messages on phone...etc as they can be tracked.

My story is a bit simpler and took place in Paris. Last June I took my 75 year old mom on a three week trip of Europe..Almost back packing style - except we had plenty of luggage and a huge instapot as we are vegetarians. I had only booked a ticket from Bangalore to Paris and first night hotel in Paris and return ticket from Istanbul to Bangalore and couple of internal flights from Rome to Athens and Athens to Istanbul as they couldnt be reached by overland bus. Rest of it was kept open depending on how my mom would cope. Idea was to spend 1-2 days in each city roaming during day time and take an overnight bus between cities..thereby covering as many cities as possible. Luckily my mom is reasonably fit and we were walking 12-15 kms daily (we used to buy a day pass for each city) using public transport to go around and we managed to visit Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Vienna, Venice, Rome, Florence, Pisa, Athens and Istanbul - deciding each day whether we would stay or go to the next city. Quite an experience with a person of any age!!!

By gods grace we had a great time except this one incident in Paris. Since we were giving us 1-2 day to cover entire cities..we were always in a rush. After covering most of Paris in two days, we had booked for Louvre and Versailles in advance as they have huge queues at ticket counter. So in on of the metro stations in Paris, as usual, I was few feet ahead of my mom since I had to figure things out first and guide her. Since my mom is Paranoid of taking an escalator we choose a long flight of stairs and I was 8-10 steps ahead of her. Just before this incident I asked my mom to wear her back pack to her back so that she can walk faster (she actually had it in the front like they recommend in Bangalore metro) This small backpack had her phone, money, bank cards..etc. I did two things - one smart and one dumb. The smart thing I did was to ask my mom to give her passport to me and the dumb thing, like I explained, was to ask her to wear her backpack to her back. So within this 10-15 seconds where I finished the stairs faster than her..someone had opened the zip to her backpack and took her phone, her purse that had all her bank cards, pan card, adhar.etc and also cash worth 800 EUR!!

We immediately went to the police station and spent an hour registering complaint. Of course as it happens in such large cities..we never got it back - luckily as explained, i had taken her passport earlier as losing it would have meant a harrowing experience since Paris was our first city in the tour. And after wearing backpacks for 25 years and having visited tens of countries thanks to my job - my mom was smart enough to recognize that in alien places and cities it is always smart to keep your backpack in the front to keep it secure - well you always learn!!

 

[Ravikiran 33]

Sorry to hear that incident ... hope they will get back to their normal life soon.