Donation Scam?
Hello, good people of this sub.
I want to report an incident that happened to me yesterday morning in Hinjawadi Phase 2. I had gone to pick up my girlfriend and her roommate, and I was waiting in my car right outside their society. A black Mahindra Scorpio first stopped parallel to me and then moved ahead and stopped a few metres away from my car. It had a black tint and a number plate written in some other language (I’m assuming Marathi).
A guy stepped out and knocked on my window. Typical chapri dressing. I opened the window, he shook my hand, and asked if I was comfortable in Hindi or Marathi. I’m assuming he read my GJ number plate. I told him Hindi, and he started talking about how they were running a donation drive where they feed underprivileged children and also manage a cow shelter where they feed and take care of cows.
He showed me some photos of all this, along with some baba they were apparently serving. It was some dude wearing heavy gold chains with long hair and a beard who honestly looked kind of scary. Another similarly dressed, well-built guy came over, too. He shook my hand, asked my full name, and after finding out I’m a Brahmin, he said, “You’re our Hindu brother, you should wear a teeka.” He greeted me with a “Jai Shree Ram” and said they don’t take money directly, but instead ask people to buy them oil or groceries.
The skinny guy even tried getting into the passenger seat so he could “take me” to a nearby grocery shop, which I refused. I told him I had work. I offered ₹100 as my contribution, but they kept insisting I do at least ₹1,000. I said, “No donation is small if you’re a real Hindu,” which kind of checkmated them.
At this point, I was out of the car talking to these people when my girlfriend and her roommate arrived, so I told them I was getting late, took a picture of their QR code promising to transfer on this QR code, and left.
I later spoke to a few locals, and they told me it’s a long-running scam. Thinking about it now, I genuinely feel like I dodged a bullet.