The Faithful Hound

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Unique business proposition for you

Where do these guys come from!!?
It seems like I always attract desi pyramid-scheme marketers in malls, gas stations, movie theatres etc. It's like I have a neon sign saying "Scam Me!" on my forehead.
Here's the general modus operandi -
You're walking through a mall and you stop outside the Aldo window, wondering how the new extra-long Nygels will look on your feet. Someone clears his throat behind you to attract your attention.
"Excuse me..." It's a chubby desi guy with a surprisingly attractive wife who's beaming away at you.
"Yes?" You slowly drag your eyes back to the guy.
"Are you from India?"
Duh!.. No, I'm Swedish.
"uh... yes"
"I think I've seen you at the temple before."
"What temple? I've never been to any temple." You don't want to seem unfriendly to fellow countrymen, so you attempt to keep smiling.
"Oh... might be someone else. " He's unfazed. "My name is Ashok and this is my wife Deepti."
"Hi Deepti" How the hell did this dimwit snag a woman like this?
After a couple of minutes of banal conversation - where from? how long in the US? etc. - he gets to the point.
"I have a unique business proposition for you." Alarm bells go off in your head. "I run my own online marketing company and I'm looking for a partner."
Sonofabitch!! They're bloody Amway scamsters! So that's why this silly cow has been grinning away at me.
"For a small fee, you can be a part of this great marketing concept." He goes on, oblivious to your red face. "You can work at it after hours, it won't take much of your time. By the way, who do you work for now?"
"I work for the INS. Immigration control. By the way, what is your visa status? Are you here legally?"
You search around for rocks to hurl at them as they flee in panic.
I mean honestly! Where do these guys come from? This is the fourth time this month, always a different approach, but always the same dumb line about a 'unique business proposition.' If you make the mistake of giving them your card they'll hound you with telephone calls for eternity, never remembering the curses you heaped on their head the last time they called.
Can you imagine their lives? Skulking around malls, shunned by family and friends, preying on the weak minded.
If you're one of them and you're reading this - SHAME ON YOU!

14 Comments:

  • At 11:01 PM, Blogger GhostOfTomJoad said…

    Sorry for not sharing your pain/irritation and for not being more sympathetic, pal...but this is seriously funny :-)

     
  • At 11:16 AM, Blogger MockTurtle said…

    @GhostOfTomJoad
    seriously funny- Is that an oxymoron or what?

     
  • At 12:31 PM, Blogger GhostOfTomJoad said…

    Testy, are we? *Sigh* Oxymoron it is.

    And, since it seems like you need things spelled out...it was meant to be a compliment, as in a good thing.

     
  • At 1:39 PM, Blogger MockTurtle said…

    @GhostOfTomJoad
    Thanks for the compliment ghost - I actually got it the first time around.
    Sorry if I came across testy, wasn't planning to. Just thought the 'seriously funny' bit needed pointing out.
    I was at your blog earlier in the day. Couldn't check out your awareness film since I'm at work. Will try to watch it when I get home.

     
  • At 9:22 AM, Blogger Selma Mirza said…

    Yes, I must agree with ghost, this is quite funny :-)

    It would piss me off if somebody spoke to me just for the sake of pyramid marketing. And I guess I would let them know as much.

    Are you a student? Just curious?

     
  • At 9:23 AM, Blogger Selma Mirza said…

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

     
  • At 12:30 AM, Blogger MockTurtle said…

    @evenstar
    I came to the US as a student, but that was a while ago.
    Really love your blog - saw that you plan to come here to study. Hope that works out well for you.

     
  • At 1:56 PM, Blogger Selma Mirza said…

    Thank you mockturtle. You were once a Mockturtle you say, what are you now?

    I am an ms-aspirant. Only God knows what awaits me on the other side of the world.

     
  • At 2:28 PM, Blogger MockTurtle said…

    @evenstar
    Actually I was once a real turtle, but am just a mock turtle now. Shadow of my previous self - so on and so forth.
    ...and you're an MS aspirant wondering what awaits you? There's so much I want to tell you, but I wouldn't know where to begin. For now let me just ask - are you travelling to escape from the present or to search for the future?
    -MT

     
  • At 4:28 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    मेरे साथ भी ऐसा हुआ।
    Ok I have had similar experience(s).
    Interesting thing to note that here in jersey these desi MLM
    Scammers tend to lurk in bookstores like Borders Barnes and Noble, on one occasion I did notice one fella at a dunkin donuts and another time while walking on a beach.

    The 1st time a fella got me.
    His name was Vishal Shah.
    I was researching some UNIX API with a friend for a school project at borders (The one on Route 18, East Brunswick, NJ)
    There this fella snuk up and started asking UNIX realated questions and asked for book reccomendation.
    Then he chitchatted with my Indonesian friend about tourism in Indonesia.
    Then he said hey I work for IBM, and we have a conference where I may be able to hook you guys with a job for the summer. He took our email address and sent us direction.
    Some thing was odd already that was in a Sheraton!
    I was confused. But my friend and I got our resume ready and showed up.
    There was a huge crows, a good deal of them were immigrant types.
    And I met Vishal who gave us two tickets and said to another desi fella put me down for 2.
    Later we were asked to sit in a crowd and a desi fella named Kaanti Gaala got up and started to speak and laid down his sorry life story until he started to work with quixtar and now how wonderful his life is b/c of this….
    My friend and I got up and left cause we realized where this was heading.
    I got to my school and wrote an angry mail to Vishals IBM account it was shah.vishal@ibm or shah.vishal@ something. Ibm. Com….
    I wrote saying that you lied that it was an ibm related thing for summer jobs.
    He wrote back it was! And if I had stayed longer he would have helped me but now wont.
    I forwarded that mail to IBM, who clarified that quixtar resells ibms pc.
    I wrote about mr shahs false representation and said that it could hurt ibm b/c this fella goes around claiming that its ibm.
    Any ways this guy is an asshole and I wrote about him to name names to shame these assholes. This guy had mentioned that he worked at lucent for IBM. IBM used to maintain all the PCs for lucent.
    If you know him do let him know that he is an asshole.
    I’d suggest Desi fellas to write down names of such assholes.
    After that I sort of had my guard up regarding these activities.
    I had observed another desi fella doing the same tactics with Borders, Barnes and
    Nobel. I was sitting at a dunkin donuts and a desi dude who along with his wife were looking for a mark. He came to me and gave me his business card(yeah slick so you learned what a printer is) and said if I would be intereseted in a business deal, I told him, abbey madarchod to phut yahan se nahin to main tere bibi ko asli mard ki tarah chodunga
    His face went white and I grabbed my box of joe and stepped aggressively towards him, he moved backwards hitting chairs and I just walked to my car cockily with a tough mofo swagger.
    You know it was exam week and I had been jacked up on caffeine and was cramming a semesters worth of knowledge into my brain, so the distraction was quite annoying but it was worth it.

    मनु छिब्बा

     
  • At 1:27 AM, Blogger Punjabi Assassin said…

    Yeah, I've met them too... In San Diego...

    Sigh...

     
  • At 4:26 AM, Blogger Selma Mirza said…

    Yes, I am an ms-aspirant. I'm finding it difficult to leave this life behind. I travel to escape from the present and to make sure the future is the dream i have envisioned. i want the future to be my dream, not somebody else's dream enforced on me. I travel to be free, to see new horizons. Maybe what I think is the enclosure is merely a shell to protect me. Maybe I shall miss the shell I am leaving behind. I am so lost!!

     
  • At 12:40 PM, Blogger MockTurtle said…

    @Badliar, PunjabiAssasin, ManuChibba - I share your frustration. Maybe we can get some "No Quixtar" T-shirts printed.

     
  • At 5:44 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    @ manu chibba
    Bravo manu for showing what you are worth ! :(

     

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