Abstracts Law

Mass Marketing Frauds in the garb of Mobile Towers in India: Evolving a Framework to handle it

by HARISH KUMAR

The morning daily of a leading National Newspaper has a Business Offers in its classified which says “leading telecom company required Plot, Land, Roof for 4G & Multi-media Mobile tower installation. Advance 70 Lakh-80 Lakh, Monthly Rent 80,000/- +10 Yrs Court Agreement in 48 hrs”. Reader who would trust this business offer is the next victim of Mass Mobile Tower Fraud. Mobile tower rental business offers are new plot of Mass Marketing Frauds in India. The telecommunication infrastructure is on boom in India to meet the socioeconomic requirement of the country. The Mass Marketing Fraudsters have seen a criminal opportunity in it. Mass Marketing Fraud research indicates that frauds are often carefully tailored to the victim, and this time the Mobile Tower Installation frauds are tailored to property owners who aims to earn extra income through renting business of Mobile tower. This study relies on both primary and secondary data of victims. Total Eighty One Mobile Tower complaints which are handled by Department of Telecommunication are taken as sample. The informal interviews are conducted with victims to assess their age, area, gender, education, employment, police complaint status and other fraud related information. The victim demographic profiling and typologies are evaluated for Mobile Tower Fraud victims. It is revealed that majority of Mobile Tower fraud victims falls under category of small amount mass target victims. The geographic profiling of the victim and fraudsters is done and which revealed that Mobile tower Fraud is a transnational / interstate fraud. The fake and fictitious documents sent by the fraudsters to Victims are analyzed to see what are errors committed by fraudsters and which should not be ignored by public. The fraud techniques of Mass Mobile tower frauds are mapped to general fraud strategies and modus operandi of fraud is identified. After doing a thorough analysis of the Mobile tower frauds, it is recommended that a new agency or authority with name ‘India Fraudwatch’ may be formed in India. The ’India Fraudwatch’ will give alert service to citizen and advice on other frauds to stop victimization of general public. The ’India Fraudwatch’ will be the central agency for reporting of all types of Mass marketing Frauds. The ‘India Fraudwatch’ will also run the public education and public awareness program of various frauds.