We Goans are aware that Goa has become a heaven for conmen. The reason being that Goans are not only sucegad by nature, they have become paranoid about making a fast buck, for they see everyone is on the take and rolling in money. Therefore it is but natural that conmen have found Goa a very lucrative destination. In the bargain, have Goans lost their life savings? You can say that again. More than paranoia, Goans by nature are trusting .... and therefore thus goes this live story that happened today.
I happened to be visiting my colleague (in the Party), Mr. Mathias Vaz, more better known as 'Maureen Printers', Panjim. He took me aside saying that he had something confidential to discuss with me. So we sat in my car and he got talking. He told me that his son wanted to expand the business and wanted to purchase a new digital printing machine costing about 25 lacs. That he found this ad on the newspapers offering loans at 4% p.a. On his own the younster called up the company and was visited by the company's representative, Mr. Rocky Fernandes (not a Goan) from Mumbai. The financing plan was that the client shells out Rs. 2000/- up front as processing fees. Once the application is verified and accepted by the company (with xerox of financial details of the borrower), the financing company either sanctions the loan or does not. In that case, the client forfeits Rs. 2000/- if the loan is sanctioned (being processing fees) or gets back only Rs. 1500/- if the loan application is rejected. So far so good. But then there was, as is to be understood, a hidden cost to this transaction. The client pays 7% as brokerage fees to the representative on the loan amount sanctioned. Therefore the brokerage on Rs. 25 lacs is Rs 1.75 lacs. But this brokerage was to be paid upfront before the loan was sanctioned. By this time the father of the younster was involved and he told the company representative that the very fact that loan was sought was because there was no money. Told the rep he could go fly a kite. But the rep was very moved at with the story of there being no money and reduced the 7% to 2% saying that he understood a genuine case when he saw one. The figure came down to Rs. 50,000/- from 1.75 lacs. Still my colleage cribbed that 50 grands was too much for him to get his hands on. The rep was moved further and reduced the amount to 1%, the figure now arriving at Rs. 25 grands. Here, my colleague told me that he has stalled the rep saying that he will need time to collect the 25 grands and has asked him to come by today at 11 a.m., just the time that he was expected. Mathias, I said. This is a conman. He will fly when you give him the 25 grands. Lets go, I said. He asked me where to. To Bosco George, I said, the Superintendent of Police at the ACB (Anti-Corruption-Bureau). So we headed for Altinho. Bosco George contacted SP Bosuet D'Silva at the Dona Paula PS and requested him to take up the matter. We went there, had a brief interaction, fixed an encounter with the rep at Mathias's shop at 4 p.m. As staged, the rep walked in at 4 p.m. The cops were waiting outside. The leader cop in civies was introduced to the rep as a friend by Mathias, who also needed a loan on his flat. The rep agreed. He was nabbed and searched there and then. The Cop found many a rubber stamps of various denominations such as Director, Manager, General Manager in his bag which he could not explain. He was also found with about 12 or so other applications where he has transacted business. At the moment the rep is cooling his heels at the cop station with all the other gullible loan seekers being systematically contacted (Panjim, Mapusa, Margao etc). He will be produced in the court for remand tomorrow. Voila! This is the first of its kind, " THE GOASURAJ STING OPERATION". Public is hereby warned to be more alert. Goa has become a free for all these conmen. Maybe these charlies are paying hafta to the politicians who count. Otherwise, the politicians would have cautioned the police a long time ago. If it was Goa Su-Raj in the driving seat, each and every newspapers would be scanned for these hoax advertisements. The police party would be the first incognito client to approach the conmen. That would be 'FINITO DE LA MUSICA" for te con game in Goa and Goans would be saved from the trauma of losing their life's savings. Cheers goasuraj
