The news of another bogus company duping quite a sizeable number of people is not surprising. It is an old story and is the same as the news of fake educational or specialized training institutes turning to be fake ones. Bogus companies have a simple theory that is put into practice to lure people: the promise of more for less. The shine of easy money and little work is what gets people flocking to such ‘companies’. The modus operandi also involves a veneer of putting up a front of respectability and is aided by a façade that is aimed at befuddling the public into believing that the ‘company’ is for real. There are also common denominators at work when it comes to various fraud companies: smooth talkers being involved, promise of upgrades according to performance, benchmarks and targets for roping in new entrants into the fold etc. Called by various terms, ‘companies’ peddle household items to utensils or cosmetics to a range of products through what they call their ‘pyramid’ structure. What a person who applies to be a part of such structure is told is that he/she would need to bring in more people who in turn would have to bring in other people and son on to be able to get more profit margins. People start out by thinking they will tap into their social circles and through their professional networks. The simple arithmetic of course is that the money that is being promised is actually a fraction of the investments being made by the layers of people that are in the so called pyramid.
So long as people are willing to be lulled by the promise of easy money, there never will be any dearth of people who will tap into this human fallacy and make the most of it. For a majority of people loathe to take up labor in terms of working in fields, cleaning up roads and work sites or to sweep and swap around, such fake companies are perfect for keeping up appearances of being engaged in a blue collar job. The reality with most people in the state is that they want to say they work for a company as an officer or with some such fancy post instead of sweating it out by working. Which is why people have no qualms forking out money starting from a few thousands to a few lakhs to get ‘employed’ in ‘Company’. The most recent case of a bogus company being unraveled by the Churachandpur police has most elements of what earlier fake companies or network scams had in place. The extra added touch was the manner in which a nationally known brand BSNL (for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) was being misused by using the acronym for the company- Broadcasting Service Network Ltd. and projecting itself as a 3G Indian Mobile Service. The total lack of fact checking tells its own tale of laziness but the other side of the story which is totally unconnected to the issue of fake companies and networking franchises is that of known brand names being used or rather, misused in the state. There is the story of a popular school in Manipur named after an internationally recognized University being asked to change its name since the name violated copyright guidelines and laws. But, there are many institutions and business establishments that still continue to be totally unaware that they stand on the wrong side of the law for copyright infringements.
To get back to the issue of fake companies, the prompt action of the Churachandpur district police is commendable and they may well have saved many others from being duped as well. So long as a disgruntled police department caught on the wrong foot by the Supreme Court instituted Commission does not go about going on spree of fake companies in the manner with which drug consignments are being unearthed presently, the police investigations into the fake company will be interesting to follow. More important would be to see whether those involved in the scam would have legal action taken up against them for fraud, deception and cheating or whether it is case of token action being taken up and then a slow end of the process of giving justice.