A har-Vard of Caution
A personal account of being scammed
We live in a day and age where journalists end up being newsmakers as much, if not more, as they are news-bringers — be it Ravish Kumar’s explosive rants and his Magsaysay win, or Arnab’s in-flight mood or shady tampering with TRPs. And just when one thought things couldn’t get murkier for the Indian journalist fraternity, Nidhi Razdan went and shot herself in the foot.
As conversations in friends and family Whatsapp / Signal groups vacillated between ‘Poor woman’, and ‘How daft!’ to ‘There is something suspicious…’, I was reminded of a deception that I was the unfortunate victim of.
For many months, I thought of writing about it as a tale of caution, a rant on police apathy or merely a lesson in letting-go, but never did. Today, I thought why not.
The story begins sometime around August 2018, with nearly five months to go for my wedding.
Our destination of choice for our honeymoon was Maldives — this was before going to Maldives became as common as a visit to the pani-puri shop down the road.
While I usually plan and book vacations on my own, when it comes to Maldives, the internet and acquaintances told us that travel agencies help with better full-board deals and also ensure logistics are taken care of.
While evaluating our options, I connected with an old-time friend who said he knows just the right guy, who had booked their honeymoon a year and half prior. And introduced us to him. Like most eventual villains in a story, the agent was the sweetest of talkers and won us over quickly. He had a number of amazing reviews on travel sites and we also spoke to at least two of his past clients. Moreover, he wasn’t offering any too-good-to-believe deal — so there was hardly anything out of the ordinary.
In a matter of days, we were booked with the resort of our choice as confirmed by an email from them. Thanks to my distrust of travel agents, I rang up the hotel to double check and got confirmation of payment, and happily paid the agent. Air tickets were pending but we were still months away from travel.
Weeks passed by, and yet the travel booking was pending. The agent was very much in touch, assuring that he was renegotiating some contracts and would book right after. However, as October came by, we were getting anxious.
The deception begins
The agent was available but he was avoiding calls more often. Irritated by his dilly-dallying, I told him we could book flight tickers on our own since we hadn’t paid for them anyway. The eagerness with which he accepted this offer set my alarm bells ringing.
Next day, I dialled the resort in Maldives. The booking made earlier had been canceled and the resort asked us to speak to the agent for any clarification.
Much to my surprise, when I called the agent, he picked up and spoke as if nothing had happened. He said there must have been a miscommunication and he will sort it out. He kept in touch and stalled for the next 3 days, by when I was completely sure something wasn’t right, and asked him to refund our money. After a few calls of him convincing us to believe him, he relented and agreed to the refund.
A week passed, and despite messages and replies from him, there was no sign of any money. At one point, he even added my account number and assured money will be through in a matter of hours. And then nothing.
In retrospect, this tactic of him not absconding but keeping up this game caused us to somehow think things would sort themselves out.
The Police without any sting
October end, we went to the nearest police station to lodge a complaint. The agent was located in Bangalore, so the Gurgaon police was reluctant to file a case. The oddest part was when the inspector there told us that it was a weak case since we had willingly paid him. And I was like, isn’t that the textbook definition of fraud.
They did finally take up a complaint but didn’t really register an FIR. A few followups later, we realized the police had zero intent to look into this matter. This was despite mail and SMS trails, legitimate bank transfers presenting enough and more damning evidence.
Letting go
We were in the middle of prepping for our December end wedding. And we realized letting this experience mar our once-in-a-lifetime wedding would be foolhardy. So, we booked the same resort by November with all travel confirmations.
“Never trust anything online”
When the entire piece was blowing up, I found all earlier agency sites were now down. The agent’s page on Travel Triangle remained — it still does — but there was a small note now that said it had been de-empanelled. Too little, too late.
In retrospect, we also realized the last reviews were from a year before we started booking. So seemingly, somewhere due to unknown circumstances, the agent went rogue and we willingly walked into his trap.
Back to the present
I found a few parallels in this to the Nidhi Razdan incident — origin in a seemingly trustworthy source inspiring confidence, little to no red flags for a really long period, and distraction due to externalities — in the Harvard case, it was the pandemic, and in my case, this was in the middle of hectic wedding planning.
However, while there was a very tangible monetary gain for the agent in my case, the incentive for the Harvard fraud is hard to figure. Whether it was an attempt to get money which didn’t succeed or a very convoluted way to tarnish her reputation, which might have partly transpired — we may never know.
One thing is certain, though. Many cases of fraud are hard to decipher when they are happening to you.
And hindsight is 2020. Quite literally, for Nidhi Razdan.
