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Being Scammed

I watched Compliance recently and was struck by how an entire group of people could be scammed and how the same tactics worked with many such groups of people. Scamming one random person is way easier than this. Around the same time as watching the movie, I started to receive order delivery confirmations for someone in Rajasthan whose first name is the same as mine. Each time I wrote to the delivery company (yet another wannabe UberEats like startup that is dreaming of the big league) to take me off their customer database. They dutifully opened a ticket and did nothing else. The fifth time this happened I wrote directly to the CEO and got this very bizarre response from one of his underlings:

As we connected with the customer who is using your email id, it's been informed that she is your friend, also the person took the email owner on a conference call and was confirmed on a recorded call that deactivation is not required as you both know each other hence we need to connect with you over a call and resolve the issue. Kindly request you to share your contact details so that we can connect with you and resolve the issue. Awaiting your response.

I proceeded to block the company from my mailbox and reported them to FTC. If I had more time or patience to dedicate to this stupidity I may have done more to deter them from doing what they were doing. The experience left me baffled by the level of bold-faced thievery of customer data this outfit was indulging in. 

The CEO in question is considered one of the rising stars in the desi startup land (but there are countless such stars that handily turn to mud and dust). The educational credentials on the guy were stellar but the resume not as much other than this sketchy start-up that had apparently gained some traction. I hope my namesake in Rajasthan is not being robbed blind and having her identity stolen by this company for good measure.

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