Dear All,
This morning I got a call stating that there was a case of fraud filed against me in Delhi court and that I'm under investigation for not appearing. The person claimed to be an inquiry officer with the Delhi court. When I told him I had no idea what he was talking about, he gave me the number of an advocate whom he said filed the complaint, a file number etc which made it sound very legal. I called this number and the person claimed that my representative had accepted several legal notices on my behalf about some a fraud case and I've not responded to them. I asked him for proof and he said the next hearing is at 12 tomorrow and if I need proof I should come to the court. He told me that if I pay Rs 9619 in a Reliance Web World the case would be dropped. He also said I should pay it within the hour or I'll miss the court deadline for cancelling the case. In fear and panic I made my wife go an pay the said sum and called him with the receipt information.
On calming down I realized I've probably been taken for a ride by a collection agent. When I saw the bill it was for an internet and phone connection I had disconnected about 4-5 years ago. In the last five years I have not received a single bill for the same. According to the records that my wife saw in the web world my account is still active and being billed. The said phone was never installed at my residence. At the time I was a subscriber of Powersurfer which was acquired by Reliance Infocomm. Post acquisition, someone turned up at my house saying I get a free phone with the internet connection. I refused the installation and sent him away. After this, I was getting calls from collection agents saying I did not pay my Reliance Infocomm bill. Assuming it was the internet connection bill I asked my mother to give the agent a check (I was mostly at work when this happened). About 3 months later I paid the internet bill myself by cheque (Powersurfer was a prepaid connection while RComm changed it to billing) so I remembered, and when they called I checked my bank records only to find I was paying twice, separately for the phone and the net for 3 months. When I called their call center to complain they said the payment for 3 months is proof of the installation of the phone even though I never got or made a call from that alleged phone. They made me pay Rs. 2.5k at the time to clear pending charges and claimed to have disconnected the phone and internet. Now they have extorted close to 10k more...
From my meagre understanding of the law, representing oneself as an officer of the court is criminally illegal. Can I request for the said submitted proof through RTI as I'm sure me or anyone of my representatives has accepted any court order or received any such bill or even signed an installation order for the said connection. Can I file a consumer court case for this issue? My wife said that when she went to pay the bill at the Web World, the person at the counter told her that many people have been coming the same way. When she asked them to disconnect the connection, they gave her the number of a sales executive who promised to email her the form in 10-15 mins. The form has still not arrived several hours later. Also, the phone number of the alleged advocate is not being answered. I'm pretty sure that even if I genuinely owed the company money such a method of collection would not be legal. Through my entire life I have never missed payment of a bill or debt. I sincerely hope that someone on this forum could be kind enough to advise me about what action to take on this issue. I don't mind incurring charges or fees to make sure that justice is served and that this issue is closed.
Thank you all for your time.
Regards,
Carl Lobo