Beware of waveking on this forum (RESOLVED)

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snorkel4u

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Okay, this might be a new one for you guys, but I thought its good to spread the information, lest someone else gets scammed by another forum member like I did.

Some may argue this forum is not to defame users, but I guess this forum is also about informing and educating others so that they stay away from traps.

Mods/ Admins may wish to move it to the Feedback section or to delete this thread altogether before others are benefited from this, please do as you please.

Let me introduce you to the accused and all the information I have of him - His name is Shubham Agarwal, goes by the nick of "waveking" on this forum. Much to your surprise he is a student of the esteemed IIT Kanpur. This was were I took the bait :sad:
Interested in Gaming, HD Movies etc.

We started our discussions and PM when I was looking around for my HT setup. Initially I was interested in Onkyo (which he had purchased) so we started talking on the PMs and chats and emails. We talked about IITs, Campus placements, Jobs, MBA, Salaries, Gaming, Jailbreaking, XBox v/s PS3, iPhones, Home theaters, Movie formats and all the geeky banter you could think of.

He seemed to be a genuine guys as so many others whom I now know personally on the forum like Kittu, mgdelhi etc.

I had a 1TB Seagate HDD with me which was working sporadically. It would work on a mac but not on a PC, or only some specific Laptops/ PCs. I don't exactly remember if he offered/ or I requested him, but he was more than happy to check out the HDD for me. I couriered him the Drive to his Hostel campus, and he received it. Checked it out and was not able to get it to work. Then he claimed he was busy in exams and studies etc so I didn't bother him much.

Once he also said it crashed his laptop or would freeze it when plugged in. Coz of his academics I didn't bother him much. But we still chatted on and off 9few times a month for sure). A few months passed by. Since he wasn't working on the HDD and it was just sitting at his place, I started requesting him to send it back. Sent him my address many times on email and chat. No replies. Earlier, when he was still talking with me(before I started insisting on returning the HDD) he committed and confirmed many times that he would do it the next day. But that day never came :sad:

Then recently, I started noticing, as soon as I would ping him on chat, he would go offline. And then one day he went offline for ever. We all know what that means. Now I was worried. I wouldn't have worried if I knew for sure it was a Dead drive. Then it would have been trash! But I knew for sure it worked well on Macs. So it was some file formatting issue. I even PMd Bala and some senior mods on this forum about the same HDD as to what they think the problem could be. My cousin who just bought a Mac, so I thought I could give him the HDD and he could use it.

Thats when I started asking Shubham to return it. Once he went offline for good, he never came back. I sent him mails after mails. No responses. My tone changed from requesting to accusing. Still no bother!

Tried calling him many times from many numbers, the phone would ring, but he would never pick up the call. Of course he won't take calls from any strange numbers. Not even from mine. (just tried one more time from my cell, before posting this article, NO RESPONSE!)

All this while, I was still not able to convince myself a guy like him could do such a petty thing. I kept thinking, may be he has an emergency or tragedy around him, for which he is occupied and away from the daily chores. Then I tracked him on Facebook, could see his recent activity. It was pretty recent I say. Then today I checked HFV and saw that he had logged in just yesterday.

That's when I realized I am scammed. No tragedy could be big enough that you can't return someone's stuff but be regular with your online presence. I had even offered to pay him the return courier charges, thinking he wouldn't wanna waste his 100-200 bucks. My emails were NOT bouncing, my sms' WERE getting delivered but not being replied to.

Then I sent him a few harsh mails. Still no reply. Then it was confirmed "I have been cheated" from an educated and professional, soon to be entering the corporate world with the IIT Tag. Another Rajat in the making I guess?

I wish he reads this before ignoring it like all the previous times. I just hope he realizes what he did and I just hope he becomes a better CON :)

And of course the main intent. I want every one else to ward away from this guy, or do it at your own risk. Also, be very cautious and not get swayed away by human emotions and judgements.

I am a techie myself and an over cautious one, from eBay to Paypal, to buying stuff online, refusing counterfeit currency notes to checking spare parts before I put in my car.... I have avoided all potential areas of getting scammed. But WTH, I fell for this one. I attribute my inability in judging people. But wait, NO, I am not bad at that. This is a one off case!
I say so coz, I know so many knowledgeable and respectful people from this forum who I could trust with anything without even knowing them in person.

Imagine people like Shubham sprawling in the Buy and Sell section. What a pity it would be then.

So just be careful guys. Don't burn your fingers like I did. And if you know Shubham, do make him read this post once. After all I made him famous :)


p.s - don't think any one would be interested, but I have all his emails etc saved for the record :)
 
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IIT-K ..... hmmm.

Since you have sent him the item by courier, why don't you post his mailing address and other FB identifications in here ........ he might get a change of heart ......... and send you back your wares!
 
Well what could I say, need to learn from mistakes :) But then the question is where to draw the line when it comes to trust someone.

FYI - there's a user kooldeep on this forum. Fairly new, contacted me for HD movies barter. Spoke on the phone couple of time. Just with that information, he sent over his 4,one TB HDDs with a friend, not even to my home. I went near a shop to collect them from him. He gave all his master data along with some empty HDDs too, adaptors, cables etc. In 15 days I copied him my movies and returned him the HDDs at the metro station. We're both happy and still in touch.
That prompts me to ask - How much is knowing someone, knowing them enough?
 
@avidyarthy - I could do that, but then not sure if that's against the forum rules. I have his FB profile, phone number, email ID and I guess his.. hostel address as well.
 
I had a strong closeness feeling about the people in the forum. Not to blame you, people over here (very much including me) have uncanny knack of believing each others. Hope this off case incident won't break that believe and bonding.
 
Sad to hear this. People like these make the world a bad place. Hope this guy has some shame. Blame it on his upbringing and value system in his surroundings.
 
There are few forums where IIT students gather. As you have all contact information of this person, register there and start a thread asking others to help. It works sometime
 
Thanks snorkel4u for warning forum members.

That's really unfortunate that how people change their mind for just a few thousand rupees (or product of that value). :sad:

Yes, on the forum, we start trusting people earlier than we should but that's the meaning of the forum. We are forum "members" and few people like Shubham put many others under scrutiny.

I wish Shubham reads this thread and changes his mind and return the hdd.
 
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Reminds me of a story that MadBullRam had posted a couple of years or so back...

About an audiophile in US who met another fellow audiophile in an online forum. This fellow dropped by one day to 'check' out the gear and brought some beverages along as a courtesy. The audiophile and his girlfriend had the beverage while listening to their setup with the new friend. Next thing they know is they woke up to an empty house!!!

We guys get very excited when we meet people with similar interest. In this excitement, we drop our guard and this is being exploited by a few @$$#0L3$!

Moral of the story is, this chap you are talking to over PM might appear to know a lot about tube amps and tonearms but what do you know about him??? It's better to be safe than sorry.

This IITK guy probably thinks he is so smart that he could weasel out a semi-functional HDD but the ramifications could be far reaching. Not just a loss of trust among happy forum members but also a loss of respect for alumuni of one of the most esteemed educational institution in the world...all for a broken down HDD!!! Also, if I come across this chap in my professional life, recruiting, laisoning or otherwise associating work-wise, I'd have a million thoughts before pushing ahead...a guy who could betray trust for a few thousand rupees...imagine what he would do when millions are at stake!!!
 
I can't understand how a 5k disk is more important than good reputation. Seriously what preioreties do we have in this day of age?
 
Even if HDD was crashed he could have reported promptly with apologies that HDD is crashed and would have returned in as-is condition to owner.

However, members beware of doing these kind of transaction with strangers. There is no guarantee of success each and every time.
 
@avidyarthy - I could do that, but then not sure if that's against the forum rules. I have his FB profile, phone number, email ID and I guess his.. hostel address as well.

Frankly, I don't see anything wrong, IF 'your' intent is correct!

You say he is a techie ... right? Then, you may send him a message, thats possible for you, no? A word with Dr. Karnick or Dr. Rakesh could jeopardize his career ... :indifferent14:
 
Though incidences are very few,Do we need a dedicated thread for reporting?OR a thread with only names & the link in it with detailed posts so that new members can be alerted.
 
This guy ........

SHUBHAM AGARWAL
2011 Batch
IIT-K
Belongs to . Was earlier in

So easy to track down anyone .... lemme know if you wish to ;)
 
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Frankly, I don't see anything wrong, IF 'your' intent is correct!

You say he is a techie ... right? Then, you may send him a message, thats possible for you, no? A word with Dr. Karnick or Dr. Rakesh could jeopardize his career ... :indifferent14:

you mean Dr Harish Karnick? He is a gentleman.
 
This guy ........

SHUBHAM ****** *******@iitk.ac.in
2011 Batch
Economics - Dept of Humanities & Social Sciences, IIT-K
Belongs to Jodhpur. Was earlier in BITS (2009-11)

So easy to track down anyone .... lemme know if you wish to ;)


Thanks a lot Avi, Am not sure if he is the same guy? His personal email is northzone13 at gmail. The same is his FB profile name. I checked his emails and his account is set up with the name Shubham Agrawal not Agarwal

Also coz he told me he is in Mechanical Engineering I guess, not too sure. But yes, he is in 2011 batch as last year he was trying for Internship and campus placements.

His address is Room Number G-215, Hall 9, IIT Kanpur.

May be we inform his classmates, colleagues?
 
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IIT-K ..... hmmm.

Since you have sent him the item by courier, why don't you post his mailing address and other FB identifications in here ........ he might get a change of heart ......... and send you back your wares!


+1 to that!!

Post all his personal ID details...someone should get hold of this guy! you can't let him get off the hook! who knows....there might be a bigger scam unfolding than a mere HDD
 
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