Fraud path of Paytm

VIJAY Shekhar Sharma calls himself a capitalist, hippy and founder. In five years' time he now boasts of a billion dollar company in Paytm. He did not lay any brick or mortar in his climb up the ladder. He sold one website to launch another, and there he's now dipping his hands into the pockets of Jack Ma of Alibaba to become more fatter. 

Sharma comes from the city of dust and oriental learning for minority community. But Aligarh never made names internationally for either its insatiable hunger for dust or for the Muslim University, which came up with liberal British support, who in return for the favour insured "The Raj" with divide and rule policy. Aligarh made names nationally and internationally for its copyright on "Jugaad" technology.

That Jugaad is now internationally accepted as a word to describe the habit of finding a solution through whatever means speaks volume for the achievement of Aligarh. Thus, the city not only bathes each moment in swirling dust, but also sprays herself with smoke emitted by generator sets mounted on wooden carts, which outnumber the manufactured four-wheelers there.

SHARMA did not bring any innovation in his path which led him to the billionaire club. He aped what the Americans did decades back. True to all capitalist economy and consumerist society, greed comes out as surest source of success of any business. Aligarh knows the value of greed better than any other city, and so it throws all norms to the winds to get to the ends. Sharma truly belongs to Aligarh. And, thus, he made greed of the people his business model. 

Business grew and data expanded. Customers flocked for cash back offers. No technological innovation was required to become big, as telling it aloud that the App or Paytm website pays back was enough to broaden the customer base. The likes of Ratan Tata and Jack Ma of Alibaba too poured their monies to make more money by tapping the business of greed.       

The Paytm is essentially a wallet. But the greed of Sharma to become a big player took him to the path of cheating the customers. Sounds wired that a new age entrepreneur with funding by venture capitalists like Ratan Tata and Jack Ma could be essentially a crooked fellow who is out there to make quick bucks at the expanse of customers! It would not sound so, with an illustration.

YOU visit Paytm and opts for a recharge of pre-paid mobile. You pay Rs 515, the Paytm says there will be full talk-time along with extra time. But your mobile phone is actually given a talk time of Rs 1. What happened to Rs 514?

The search for this answer is through a 48-hour long ordeal. The Paytm would say, deal with the

Airtel. "We are only a payment gateway," says Rishi of the Paytm.

He's technically right, that Paytm has an RBI license as a wallet in the form of a payment gateway. But take a look at the Paytm portal. It operates and functions as an e-commerce marketplace and has an ecosystem on the lines of Flipkart and Amazaon where it allows sellers to sell their products. And, thus, it's not just a payment gateway. So, Rishi lied actually, but he's doing a job in a firm where lying appears to be a culture.

Rishi and all his associates at Paytm would so say, "go and settle it with Airtel". So, Paytm essentially is an e-commerce marketplace where it takes no accountability for false promises and failure to deliver the promised services. Thus, deception looks well-knit and camouflaged.

But, yes, what happened to Rs 514?

The answer is not yet forthcoming, and now the time has come to drag Sharma. "I really feel terrible the way one of our team member (s) took judgment on the issue," said Sharma when he was confronted. 

Then he informs that the Rs 515 paid to Paytm gave an international roaming facility to a mobile

phone which is being used in Godda and Jharkhand. The user has no plan to go abroad, and the recharge was not done for such a purpose. So, the Paytm has an extraordinary ability to give an international roaming facility when talk-time recharge is sought. He also asks the customer to talk to the cellular operator.

Thus, Sharma, who is chief executive officer (CEO) of the Paytm, is in a business where he is not accountable for false promises, cheating, deception, and fraud, but would pass on the onus to an organization whose doors the customers never knocked. Is there any better business in the world than this?

Yet, when confronted, Sharma asks for solution from the aggrieved customer asking how should the process be developed that the customers are not cheated. Thus, he admitted that the Paytm process is flawed. And, yet, the likes of Ratan Tata and Jack Ma are investing in a flawed firm.

Frogs sometimes jump off well, and think that they can own the ocean too. The internet entrepreneurs are such frogs who're taking too many customers for a ride with impunity.