Sally
was taken to a shop called 'Jewel Home' where she met
Munrad and his family. Munrad and his family owned the shop and appeared to be
very well off. The family quickly befriended the unexpected
tourist, and soon they were cooking her meals and showing her
the surrounding
tourist sights. Sally was even invited to a family
wedding!
After
trust was established between Munrad and Sally, Munrad
mentioned a business arrangement he often made with his
travelling friends. His
friends would purchase jewels on visa card and then
send them onto a GPO of another country for collection
later on in their journey.
There the
travellers would be refunded the money from Munrad’s
contacts, plus a little extra for their trouble.
Sally
was informed that exports in India generated high taxes so
she would be helping to avoid this. After some hesitation
and after doing much research and getting written
guarantees, she agreed to do this. Sally was heading to
Tokyo, Japan.
Sally
left Agra
and started travelling around
India. Soon after this she met some other travellers and
she happened to borrow their Indian travel book. As she was
looking through the book, it suddenly opened to a specific
page, like an Act of
God. Glancing down the page she read the paragraph:
“Beware of scams in Agra and Jaspur.” Amazed Sally
continued to read: “Jewellers will try to con you into
buying their jewellery by saying they have contacts in other
countries where you can sell their jewels and so make a
profit for yourself.”
Sally
was still not sure if she had been conned or not. The
jeweller and his family had been so nice to her, she
thought. She decided not to go straight back to Agra, but
to wait until she reached Madras where there was a Japanese
Embassy. There she could check the business contacts
she had been given.
Sally
arrived in Madras,
went to the Embassy and there she found out that the contact
addresses were all false. Immediately a flush of panic
swept through her body. But luckily for Sally she met Geoff
soon after this shocking discovery. Geoff was an
Australian tour guide who told her he would be in Agra
at the same time she planned to return. He offered his
assistance with getting her money back.
A couple
of weeks later Sally returned to Agra and went to the
jewellery
shop. To her surprise the jewellers there admitted to everything except it
being a scam. Munrad said he’d gladly refund Sally the
money if she returned the jewels. These goods had
already been sent
to the GPO in Tokyo.
Geoff
arrived that night and informed Sally he had a dictaphone so
they could tape the jewellers' conversation. The next day
they both went to jewellery shop. Again, the jewellers
admitted to everything including giving Sally the addresses
in Tokyo, having contacts in Tokyo that would pay for the
jewels, and so on. Sally secretly managed to record
them stating this.
Sally
took her evidence to the police station and requested to see
the head of the police, the Superintendent. She was told
that he was at an important meeting. Sally demanded that he
be interrupted as she had important business to attend to.
Reluctantly the officers did interrupt the meeting and Sally
walked in. To her surprise there were ten uniformed police
who were all decorated like generals. It was quite obvious to Sally
that this actually was a very important meeting!
After
composing herself Sally spoke to the
Superintendent explaining her situation. He delegated this
matter to the Assistant Superintendent Mr Raja, who
indicated that there was probably nothing he could do. Sally then
told him she had the jewellers recorded. Mr Raja indicated
that this would be a good start.
A meeting
was set up with the jewellers, Mr Raja and Sally. The
recording was played and Mr Raja disciplined the jewellers.
Mr Raja was not impressed especially when the recording
displayed the jewellers stating they were ‘untouchable’ and
‘owned the Agra police’. Later Mr Raja told Sally the
jewellers couldn’t be charged but if anything it might scare
them enough to refund her money.
Mr Raja
was correct and Sally’s complaint against the jewellers
ended up being reported in the local newspaper. The
jewellers eventually agreed to reverse the visa transaction
to credit Sally the money. Did the reverse transaction
get Sally’s money refunded and did Sally end up collecting
the jewels in Tokyo? Well, that is another story!
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