It's not your fault; you were hypnotised.

Recently I saw a notice put out by the local police station informing women about the modus operandi (two Latin words that mean that the cops know how crooks operate but are too lazy to do anything about it), of (gold) chain snatchers and road-side con men.

Since the modus operandi of a chain-snatcher is, ‘Slow down motorcycle, snatch gold chain and zoom off', the cops suggest that you, ‘Walk on the footpath’ ‘Scream if your chain is snatched’ and ‘Take down the number of the motorcycle’.

The fun begins when it comes to instructions to save yourself from the con men:

1. Do not believe it if a man asks you to remove your jewellery and hand it over to him because there is police checking ahead.

I love this: It is the closest we can get to a public admission from the cops that the man and woman in the street believe that the cops will rob them of their jewellery!

2. Do not believe it if a man tells you to remove your jewellery and hand it over to him because there are riots ahead.

As if the rioters have run out of bricks and stones and are now using jewellery plucked off passers-by to pelt whatever they are pelting – most likely cops at the police checking!

3. Do not believe it if a man tells you to remove your jewellery and hand it over to him because a little down the road a rich man is distributing free saris to poor people and your jewellery makes you look rich.

Thank heavens the man doesn’t ask you to remove your sari as well! Or maybe that one is reserved for a notice about sexual assault.

What kind of moron falls for these stories? Apparently, there are more than a few who do. There are also suggestions that these con men hypnotise you; difficult to believe because the victims remember the stories told to them by the conmen. (How else would the cops know about them? You really don’t believe the cops have caught anyone and found out? Alternately, the hypnosis stories are cooked up by the victims so they don't appear stupid.)

But then I think I know exactly the kind of moron: The one who attends the event or adds applications like, ‘NOW YOU CAN SEE EVERY1 WHO VEIWS (actual spelling) YOUR PROFILE!!’ or, ‘Who is looking my album?’ (actual grammar), on Facebook by sharing his or her profile details and friends’ lists. (Apologies to my friends who’ve added the application. And a suggestion: If the application has given you a list of your profile checkers, please call one of them and ask him/her if he/she really checked on you recently.) For my detailed post on the profile checker scam/spam, click here.

And I am looking forward to the notice the cops from the cyber crime department will send out about the Facebook scam.