Page 16 - March - 2025 ST

unusable. Quite simply, many of these cons could be smarter cons pervading current
do not offer the option of cash on delivery
and in a moment of want and impetuosity
many pay up the money. My friend was
disdainful and disappointed that an
educated person can do such mistakes and
expect her to effectively help when loot and
scoot is the order of the online world. There
are millions of daily transactions on the net,
many of them, if not all, heavily discounted
and sold by seamy sellers. Here again, it
is the lure of the lower prices that propel
impulse purchases, which more often than
not are unwanted.
My do-good
friend was
distraught that
people don’t seem
to be learning
in spite of all
the knowledge
dissemination
sessions and
workshops that
she has been
conducting for nearly twenty years in this
space. But she plans to carry on undaunted;
her purpose is to spread awareness and
help people as much as she can.
Today morning, I came across the news
of a septuagenarian resident of Andheri
in Mumbai losing a crore of rupees to
some scamsters who lured him with a low
interest loan of ten crore rupees. Imagine
exposing one self to such large loans so
late in life and in the bargain losing out a
tenth of the loan amount to fraudsters. I am
certain that many of these victims would
have done reasonably well in their lives
and are confident of their past successes
giving them wisdom to sense opportunities
and navigate their way around. But
obviously, they miss out the fact that there
16
times to lighten their wealth. Such frauds
have become so much common place and
easy that many actually making a living out
of conning people, to put it derisively.
I know a
person, well
past his sixties,
still dabbling
endlessly in
investments
of all kinds by
juggling his
monies around.
All for the sheer
excitement of it,
in spite of an admonishing family. He looks
at alternate investments, selectively invests
in startups, mentors some, gets involved
with social causes and education, writes
regularly and generally keeps himself busy
and his grey cells ticking. He just cannot
remain idle and finds these activities
therapeutic. He has had a successful career
and leads a decent life out of his savings
and investments. He has a comfortable
house to live in and his children are
well settled. His spouse, a well-educated
lawyer and a past corporate careerist, is
more a ‘fixed deposit’ type and hardly gets
involved in any significant way in all these
dabbling and investments, in spite of all
the counselling given to her over the years
that she should become as knowledgeable
and be in a position to handle the portfolio
herself should she outlive her husband. She
tends to be dismissive of all these counsel
as morbidity and that she will cross the
bridge when she has to. My friend would be
squirming at this riposte, I am sure.
As a contrast to this, I have an old friend,
highly educated and a respected consultant,
who does not get involved in investments