I got conned…..Recruiters watch out!

Well almost. It started like this….
I received a call Saturday evening from a gentleman who gave his name as Ashok Jain He said he was working with Braun and they were looking at setting up a few manufacturing units across India. He said that they were reaching out to Recruitment partners who can help with the hiring
 

I told him that AceNgage doesn’t do recruitment and we were in the employee engagement space.

I gave him details of the areas AceNgage specialises in, and he said that he found what we do very interesting. A lot of people tell me that so I wasn’t surprised 😉

He said he was travelling from Delhi and was headed to Nanjangud and if we could meet on Sunday. I asked him how long he would be in Bangalore and he said he was returning the same night. Considering that he was coming from the airport. I picked the Coffee Day on Nandi Durg road and we agreed to meet at 11 am Sunday morning.
He reached at 1130 am. We exchanged introductions, he gave me his business card :

He then went on to tell me how he’d been having a bad day. He explained that he had dropped his pouch with credit cards, cash and other stuff at the Delhi airport security.On arrival at Bangalore he called Jet Airways Delhi airport and they confirmed that they had found it which was great news but he was in a bit of a fix as he didn’t know anyone at Bangalore

I kind of felt that the story was a bit fishy but thought I should give him the benefit of doubt. Was it possible? Can it happen? Surely.

We went on to speak about what he does I have to admit he was quite eloquent and did his homework about both Braun and AceNgage. Anyway, in some time I came back to what his plans were and what he was like “I’m not sure, could you give me some cash” At this point I was reasonably convinced that this was a con but for some reason couldn’t walk away saying that I can’t help him. I guess that’s how con men operate. In any case I told him that I was not carrying much and offered him Rs.2000. He thanked me, said he will manage something. We shook hands and he left.
Like I said I had this weird feeling and wanted to dig deeper. On True caller for the number +91 91306 61767 his name came up as Deep Patil

I sent an email to the id on his business card – ajain@braun.com and it bounced. By now I was sure that the man was a fraud.
I did a search on “Deep Patel conman” and bingo these 2 articles showed up

Thane executive turns sleuth to track down conman who duped him

Cops finally net serial conman

 
The image is of the person I met. He hasn’t changed much over the last 2 years.

I spoke to a friend who is a Cop and he said there’s really not much we can do to stop these guys, apart from being careful.

In spite of getting arrested they start all over again with a new Modus Operandi . He suggested that I post it on online portals so that a larger audience is made aware. Considering that he is now going to approach recruiters given his new MO I felt I should post it here.
Please feel free to share within your network and I wish Braun gets to know….
Let me know what you think too. Could I have done things differently?