Fraud alert for Karmarkar

Karmarkar with wife Rinku

A man posing as an authorised water purifier service personnel entered Kiran Karmarkar's Kandivili home yesterday morning. He claimed to be from Eureka Forbes and proceeded to check their Aquaguard system.

Karmarkar, who was home at the time, got suspicious and asked him for his identity papers, and kept probing till he found that the man was not from Eureka Forbes. The actor then took him to the Samta Nagar police station and lodged a complaint.

People beware

"For a moment, it was very scary. Luckily, I was at home and so was my wife, Rinku. I called Eureka Forbes and they were clueless about this man's identity. On further probing, I learnt that he was just posing as an Aquaguard service personnel," says Karmarkar, who is seen in the Star Plus show Thodi Si Zameen Thoda Sa Aasman.

Best remembered for his role as Om in Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii, Karmarkar will also feature in the new Star One drama, Saathi Re.

"The reason why I want to highlight this incident is because I want to make people aware of such fraudulent people. I'm sure most people don't even bother to check the credentials of such people, and allow them to enter into their homes and even pay them for it. I want people to be alert."

Tamper tantrums

It was later revealed that the man was from a Malad-based company called Aqua Care. "These kinds of companies always mention 'aqua' in their names to confuse people. They ask for new contracts to be made and make a good amount of money in the company's name.

Moreover, I am informed that some of these so-called service personnel even tamper with the purification system and damage its parts so that gullible customers have to shell out money for its repairs. "

Incidentally, the actor had received a phone call earlier from the 'aqua' company asking him for his residential address, as their service personnel needed to check their water purification system.

http://www.mid-day.com/hitlist/2006/september/144361.htm