Scam or Crime - What difference does it make?

Laws have traditionally been divided into two broad categories of Civil and Criminal laws, and while it may be very hard to define a very clear distinction between the two, the popular understanding (though not necessarily always true) would suggest that if the conduct affects society at large, it is a "crime" where as if it the conduct merely harms a single individual (or group of individuals), it is characterized as "civil wrong". Since crimes are an offense against society, normally the state (through its law enforcement agencies) prosecutes criminal allegations on the victim's behalf. The state, normally, does not play a role in civil cases and the aggrieved parties are expected to present the case in a court and obtain resolution. The acts considered as "crime" are obtained from a variety of sources including the most common Indian Penal Code.

Scam is a form of crime but for the sake of current discussion, let's say crime is something that results into a visible bodily harm or damage of material (e.g. murder, rape, dacoity etc), or legally speaking 'cognizable offense' where as scams are more subtle in nature. Scams are usually the result of gaps in the complex layers of the system. They are not very different from what we term as 'innovation' except that innovation leads to a value creation in the system whereas scams lead to a value erosion.

One such commonly known scam is often termed as the Ponzi Scheme in which no one really makes any wealth besides the promoter of the scheme, who is just shifting money from one hand to the other and taking a cut in-between. The only way the system grows is by means of adding more and more hands into it till comes a point where it fractures. Over the years many sophisticated variants of such schemes have come up all the way from the Bernie Madoff investment scandal in United States to the much hyped Speak Asia scam closer home. It won't be too far fetched to say that the burgeoning economic activity and rise in disposable income would attract an increase in such scams as well, as these scams are largely conducted for financial benefits and it probably would be hard for such schemes to succeed in areas that are already 'hand-to-mouth' in their economies.

Ever since India opened up its economic doors by means of liberalizing its economy, the benefits of growth have trickled to a variety of Indian cities outside of the erstwhile metros. Bangalore (a.k.a Bengaluru) probably figures on the top of the list of the cities that reaped the benefits of this liberalization and as a result the city had been on an exponential growth trajectory since then. From what was a 'pensioner's paradise', with an economic growth rate of almost 10% and a population crossing 9 million, Bangalore today is one of the fastest growing metropolis in the country. Such growth has obviously strained city's infrastructure but then at the same time spurted an enormous activity in its real estate sector. The rise in immigrants (white as well as blue collared workers) as well as business visitors into the city, caused a 'demand-supply' gap into the city's housing and presented an opportunity for the home owners in terms of choices for letting, sub-letting, guest housing or serviced-apartmenting their homes. The gap is large enough to accommodate a series of middle-men (or brokers) into the transactions between the provider and end consumer and eventually the brokers started to dominate the entire supply chain. While the brokers charge a whopping 'finder's fee', in practice that's all it is i.e. 'a finder's fee' as they assume no responsibility post that. The owner and the tenant rely on a piece a paper with a government stamp on it (and thus aptly called 'stamp paper') about each other's good will regarding the terms of agreement. The owners rely on the good will of the tenants to vacate their homes at the end of the agreed upon time and the tenants rely that the owner is not going to violate any terms agreed from his side. Should there be a violation of terms regarding the rights to stay in the house, it is largely a 'civil dispute' between two aggrieved parties as it's not really an offense against society'. Either party does realize that challenging each other's assertion in a 'civil court of law' is a gargantuan task as the wheels of justice, especially in 'civil courts' move rather slow in our country and therefore does not want to rely on it. As a consequence, for most part, the faith-based-system gets honored.

Greed is a human vice and it is this vice that the scamsters usually appeal to, in order to allure people into their schemes. An excruciatingly slow and complicated justice delivery system adds to the encouragement of the scamster.

                 
Armed with this knowledge, some middlemen in Bangalore's rental space have come up with a variation of the Ponzi scheme of their own. They approach the home owner and allure him into their trap by promising a high monthly rental for their dwelling and, sometimes, in return ask for the permission to 'sub-let' the premises. On the other end, they look for a vulnerable tenant and allure him (or her) into their trap by promising a 'long term leased' agreement under which a large lump sum amount is requested upfront and is promised to be paid at the end of the lease tenure. During the tenure, a minimal or no-rent is promised. Everything is promised to be agreed upon on the 'stamp paper'. The deal appears too alluring to give up to both the parties and they fall an easy prey. The agreement on the stamp paper along with the reliance on the faith based system adds to their confidence. In the end, the middleman is left with a large amount of money upfront, a part of which is used to pay the insurance deposit to the owner and then a month liability towards the owner. The middlemen uses chunks out of the lump sum to pay the owner on the monthly basis and before his money runs out, he gets another such deal executed between another pair of tenant and owner thereby getting another large sum available to sustain for some more time. The scheme keeps on growing as long as new owner/tenant pair keeps coming in but at one point the system starts to crumble. At this point, the middleman vanishes himself and the owner and the tenant get into a dispute with the piece of paper in their hands. The local law enforcement agency (i.e. the police department) finds itself incapacitated to deal with the matter as they view the matter as a contention of 'rights to enjoy the premises' between a landlord and a tenant and from their point of view this dispute being 'civil' in nature needs to be arbitrated by a competent judicial authority. However, the breach of criminal law has actually been conducted by the middlemen (under various sections of the IPC like 405, 406, 420 among others, some of which also fall under the 'cognizable' category according to the CrPC) but the issue gets completely muddled between the owner, the tenant and the law enforcement. With the owner and the tenant pointing fingers at each other for the omission of due care and trying to literally use "muscle power" against each other, the actual criminal, with a large remnant chunk of money at his disposal, manages to run scot-free between the layers of jurisdictions and the fighting tenant and the land lord.

A variety of complaints against 'one' such middleman (alleged scamster) from various independent individuals have been made in the Kormangala Police Station of the Bangalore city. And this is only one jurisdiction in a city that has nearly 40 plus police stations. One wonders if data is collected from all of them then if many such other complaints will come to the fore, or did he just chose Kormangala for it represents a suburb that arguably is representative of the growing Bangalore. Some such complaints have resulted into an FIR (the initiation point for a legal proceedings when a crime is alleged to have taken place) but only the efficacy of the investigation and the subsequent charge sheet will decide if the justice gets served in the court of law. Either ways there is little hope of the tenants or the landlords to look for in terms of recovering their lost time, energy and money.

It would be a long shot to expect that any senior law enforcement officer from the city of Bengaluru would actually read this (or read this far) but Sir/Madam if you do, the writer in his earnest requests you to consider the gravity of the matter. It is well understood that the rapid urbanization has put immense pressure on the law enforcement agencies as well. The media reports are abuzz with the crime activity of various nature that keep the under-staffed organization over-worked. But while the 'soft-crimes' or 'scams' like this may not appear as gruesome as the ones that are more 'cognizable', the impact on society's well being is no less. A fair and just intervention by law enforcement would keep such criminals in check and ascertain a healthy social fabric.

The number or the people - What's your type?

 You know how people who are bad in mathematics or logic always try to hide their dumbness by classifying mathematics as a subject of theoretical and academic pursuits only. “Oh, I am more of a creative person” , or “Oh I am more right brained”. The best one is “I am more of a people person. I understand people better than numbers. Numbers are just theory. People are more real, interesting and diverse due to their varied personalities”. 

Well, sir/ma’am, here is some news. Numbers are no less “people” than “people”. You don’t believe me? Alright then, take this journey with me.

So let’s see. At beginning we have the “whole” numbers (or the “natural numbers”). Nothing complicated about them. Simple minded folks like 1,2,3,4… Easy to add, subtract. Easy to understand. Just like that perfect boy who takes all his lectures regularly, very dedicated to his family, job, friends; very dependable; easy to hang out with; has clean ideas of fun like watching a movie or a travel with family; keeps his teeth and shoes shining all the time and can enjoy a fine wine every now and then. Some are ‘even’ and some might be ‘odd’ but overall kind of simple minded.

Then comes “fractions”. Now things get tricky. Well, somewhat. I mean, they are not as clean as “whole” numbers but you can live with them or at least you know the ones you can live with. A “1.5”, sure I can take it. I know how to understand that. A “1.33333…”, mmm, that’s dangerous and best to be avoided. The point is you know the kinds you like and the kinds you don’t and its easy to make the choice.

For every alpha there is an omega. For every good, there is evil. For every God, there is a devil. Life works on the principles of ‘duality’ and hence for every “positive” number,  we a “negative” number. The dark side. So you have a -1,-2,-3…as well as -1.5, -1.25, -1.33. Nobody likes negativity but its a hard fact of life. The only was is learn to deal with it.

It’s easy to understand good or bad but then what happens when good becomes “irrational”. Yup, someone can be good but “irrational”. Thats where we talk of “rational” or “irrational” numbers. Mathematically speaking any number that can be described in the form of p/q where p and q are whole numbers (with a minor exception, which we will see later), it is a rational number. And anything that’s not rational is irrational. I mean, what would you say if I tell you that you can have a perfect whole number defining one side of a right-angled triangle and the exact same number defining other side but you just can not find the exact length of the third side. Pretty irrational, i would say. Similarly I give you a circle. You can see it’s circumference and measure it. You can also see that it’s diameter is a finite length. Yet you can not describe their ratio. Man, what has the world come to? How irrational can you get? As if positive and negative was not enough, now we have rational and irrational too?

Between this positives and negatives, sits the aptly neutral “0”, the Switzerland of numbers, the arya-putra. No wonder it got discovered by someone named “Aryabhat”. It’s neutrality gives it interesting properties. If you simply hang around with it (add/subtract), it doesn’t change you at all. It takes you for what you are and leaves you as it is. But it keeps its borders open so if you want to merge into it, you will become like it. It doesn’t take sides and therefore can not be used for any divisive purposes. And that’s the exception to rational numbers i.e. q can not be 0.

Alright, so we have all these positive, negative, whole, fraction …whatever. Fine, it’s tricky but it’s all real. One can see and follow these based on geometry. Of course it is, because we haven’t yet reached an “imaginary” number. Try mixing some of these irrational numbers with a negative number and you land in the territory of “imaginary” numbers. You see there is a whole number and when you multiply it with itself, you get it’s square. So for e.g. square of 2 is 2 X 2 and that is 4. Similarly square of 3 is 9, so on and so forth. For negative numbers also, the squaring results into a positive output because you know, two negatives just cancel each one out. So -2 square is also 4. Now reversing this operation is called the square root of the number. Thus Square root of 4 is 2. What would be square root of “-4”? Can’t imagine, right? That’s why they are “imaginary” numbers. Just like that childhood friend that you had but you never had. Just like all those villains whose ass you kick when you are imagining you are the superhero. They are but they are not. They exist but they do not.

Throw in an imaginary number with a real number, and what do you get? ..Gosh, can’t you keep it simple? Of course not, and thats why we have “complex numbers”. Half true half untrue. Real and imaginary. Awake and dreaming. Simple yet complex.

Tired? Oh c’mon. You maybe a people person but haven’t you seen those ‘lone rangers’ who are just happy with themselves? Very hard to read them and impossible to decompose them. Yup, they are the “prime” numbers. They are completely happy with themselves or whatever notion of unity they believe it.

Although don’t confuse the ‘prime’ types with the egoist types. The ‘primes’ are happy with themselves but the ‘egoist’ are full of themselves. Those are called the “narcissist” numbers’ i.e. a number that is the sum of its own digits each raised to the power of the number of digits. See, so full of themselves. Although be careful with the “radical narcissist” types. You never know, you know.

Boy, is their anything called perfect? Well, I don’t know about people but surely numbers can be “perfect” numbers. Beat that now. 

And then above all there is the “god” number. The one number that answers everything. The one number that answers the ultimate question of life, death, universe and everything. It took a supercomputer nearly 7.5 million years to compute that and the number is “42”. Why “42”? Well, either you know it or you don’t :)