Marketing frauds are increasing immensely are people are ready to sell their honesty for the sake of money. Recently, A mass-marketing fraud by the name of Reliance Jio is faking across the country, duping them of lakhs of rupees.
These frauds are increasing rapidly expanding mobile market. People are getting trapped seeing offers to “lease” out their land at rents (Rs 15-35,000 per month) for setting up mobile communication towers, along with lucrative one-time advance payment (Rs 10-25 lakh).
Unlike other Internet-based frauds, which are often run by unorganized groups for short term benefits, the ‘Jio tower scam’ appears to be a highly efficient, organised racket.
It follows a well-planned strategy, fail-safe contingencies and a modus operandi designed to evade legal and police scrutiny as far as possible.
How does it work?
The first step of the scam involves calling people from the so-called “Reliance Jio 4G Tower” department, sending out “lottery” letters announcing selection of their property for the towers, reaching out via bulk SMSes and even enticing people through advertisements in national dailies.
If you search “Jio tower” on Google, it gives a flurry of fake websites misleading people as authentic Jio portals. For example, fake websites such as “jiotowerinstallation.in” and “jiotowerindia.in” are cheating. To look authentic, they have official logo, name and in some cases, even the colours of the original website.
To get on the first page of Google search, it just requires to pay few bucks to Google ads. For initiating the process, victims are asked to deposit ‘processing fee’ of up to Rs 50,000.
“Since the Reliance Jio users are struggling with data speed and network problem of Reliance Jio, the company Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited has decided to install more than 6,000 North Infratel across the country and shall shortly issue the detailed official guidelines to install Jio tower in your Plot, Rooftop, Field, Market etc, places (sic),” reads one of the websites.
Jio’s action
Jio hasn’t provided any official comment on the scams, but the company has warned people about these scams – via SMS communication, a cautionary notice on their website, and public notices in newspapers etc.
