To be the smartest cop in the beat needs one to think exactly like the smartest criminal in the vicinity and more importantly, think two steps ahead.
Hey don't google....thats my own quote... So can I please gloat / showboat ? Pleaseeeeeeeeeee.
A couple of days back, I got to read this really interesting post in one of my friend's blog about how he'd 'Got lucky' and would be able to lay his hands on an e-copy of HP6 on the 18th of July. Never one to easily believe such stories (Ok ok, I was plain jealous that he was more resourceful than me) I did some quiet investigation and uncovered one of the biggest and cleverest scams in cyber space. It was all dead simple. The blog, by his own admission, was 'private' and read by only us, his close friends, so credibility for the average reader was never an issue. (Who doesn't like to believe that its only he/she who is getting this great deal?) Besides all he had asked us was to give him email ids (only personal ids) to which he would supposedly send us an e-copy so that we had a little bit of protection from any possible anti-piracy action in the future - ids so secret that not many in the world knew they existed. (Of course, don't we all have such ids jes to escape from scam and read our 'valuable mails' in privacy) And so in 48 hours, he had almost 36 comments in his post with email ids including those of our friends ka friends who did not want to lose out on a steal besides half a dozen doubting Thomases who did not comment in public but instead sent their mail id to his email account. So what happened next ?
Just like the recent BPO scam, my dear friend sent an email to all these people threatening to not only sell all these email ids to e-marketeers but also to send a mail on July 18th revealing the suspense in the plot of HP6 unless....yeah, the ransom...all the people contributed Rs 20 towards his fund for buying the book in hard copy. Of course I am sure you would have been tempted to indignantly dismiss him and his threat but then you don't know him. So almost 28 people paid up and with Rs 560 in hand and only Rs 60 (the price he prides himself of never exceeding for any book) to put in from his own side, my dear friend has pre-booked HP6 from Indiatimes. So was I one of the bakras ? You've got to be a kidding. I can smell a scam a mile away and when one knows him as well as I do, I would be suspicious even if he offered to let me take his latest hotttttt Punju girlfriend (season's flavour..hahaha) out on a date. TRUST. My foot :-)
Anyway, considering I uncovered his fancy scheme, why am I revealing it here ? Coz in return for my silence I asked to be the first to read the book after him (note: AFTER HIM..I AM considerate) but since he scoffed at my 'suggesttion' and offered to 'consider' it, I havta show him I mean business.
Dude, here's an offer you cannot refuse. Give me the book or my next step would be to reveal your URL and let the whole world know about you :-) Yeah, I am a mean bastard and yeahhhhhh, I do drive a hard bargain.
