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Cellular firms warn public of fake ads for towers

Cellular companies have warned the public against fake advertisements in local dailies offering huge returns to individuals who lease out their property for putting up mobile towers.

Updated on: Oct 21, 2010, 02:15:22 IST
Hindustan Times | By , Gurgaon
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Cellular companies have warned the public against fake advertisements in local dailies offering huge returns to individuals who lease out their property for putting up mobile towers.

HT Image
HT Image

According to the companies, fraudsters, who claim to represent major telecom players such as Vodafone, Uninor, Airtel, Tata Indicom and Reliance, have duped many residents in Delhi and NCR towns.

Mithan Singh, a resident of Hari Nagar in Delhi, responded to one such advertisement that offered a monthly rental ranging from Rs 30,000 to Rs 70,000 and an advance payment up to R35 lakh for leasing out premises. He was, instead, duped of R31,000 as registration and other expenses.

“They first asked me to deposit R6,000 as registration charges. Later, they wanted me to deposit R15,000 as a statutory fee for a government survey. I had to pay R10,000 more.”

When Singh tried to contact the address mentioned in the advertisement, he did not get a response. When he contacted the firm, officials said they did not advertise any such thing.

Meanwhile, a telecom company, MTS, has published advisories against such frauds in newspapers and on its website www.mtsindia.in.

“People should always verify the antecedents of the person(s) they are dealing with,” said an MTS spokesperson.

  • Sanjeev K Ahuja
    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Sanjeev K Ahuja

    Sanjeev K Ahuja writes on infrastructure, real-estate, government and civic issues. He has been a journalist for more than two decades, and headed HT’s Gurgaon bureau before moving to New Delhi.Read More

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