Hey, so I'm Roman Lillie currently solo traveling around India and today, I want to talk about common
Cell phone scams that are that are affecting tourists affecting SIM cards
And I'm also going to tell you not only what's happening with the with the scams, but how to get your own SIM cards
So you don't even have to worry about it. now in some countries like in Japan
I actually got a SIM card just at a vending machine
It can't be much simpler than that although I did have to then install it myself
Which was a little bit annoying. but then even in Thailand to get a SIM card all you need is a passport
But in India it is a bit more involved, but it's not so complicated that you can't do it
But there are extra steps that you need to be aware of and things that you need to have handy
That you might not think about off hand
That you would not think up off hand by the way
So if you haven't already by the way make sure you subscribe to my youtube channel
I'm always trying to give helpful tips other travelers and showing you around lots of places. I'm going right now
I'm solo traveling around India up next it's gonna be Europe
So there's a lot to see make sure you subscribe so you don't miss anything
But for now let's talk about this SIM card scam cell phone scam that is happening in India
So here's how it works and let me say something. I consider myself a very savvy traveler
I've been solo traveling for a long time. They got me okay
Here's how and why it happened.
because getting a SIM card in India is a bit more complicated than some other countries a lot of places you can just buy a
SIM card on the street from people so there are like convenience stores, they'll sell SIM cards and
Sometimes this works out well and the way it works is you just pay people a bit of a premium go get you a SIM
Card that's in their name and then put the data on it give it to you, all good
Everyone's happy no problem. now the way I got scammed with this is because I actually trusted a guy who was working at my
Hostel so I figured if this guy's working through my hostel. He's not gonna try and scam me
false
that is false and
The guy at my hostel was working with some guy and put me in touch with guys who did scam me
So um I just didn't want to be bothered and I was being a little bit you know
I'm just looking for kind of a shortcut and sometimes a shortcut winds up being a long cut when you have to redo something
So how it works is I went and got a SIM card
I paid a premium which I was okay with but by the way the premium
They charged me was too too high so actually to get your own SIM card even for a month's worth of data
That can cost you about 300 rupees which is about five dollars
You know it's not super expensive to get a SIM card. I paid double
But actually was more than double, but I was thinking you know
Helping a local business owner. I don't really mind so much
I just paid the extra money
Because I didn't want to have to go through the hassle of getting my own SIM card walking around I was in the new city
Just wanted to have a SIM card and be done with it now
Like I said some people do actually do this as a reputable business and don't scam people
I know lots of people who've gotten SIM cards this way, but the thing is when you do get a SIM card this way
You're at risk by the way, sorry
I'm dodging like this monstrous ant that was trying to crawl on me
But when you do get a SIM card this way
You're at risk because that SIM card is not in your name
So a person doesn't have to be honest with you about how much is data
They've actually put on that SIM card and they can actually transfer the data
That's on that SIM card that they've given you to another SIM card later now here are some red flags that I think in
Retrospect I should have noticed
So the guy was asking me lots of questions when I was getting the SIM card I was in Chennai at the time
So he was like how long are you gonna be in Chennai? How long are you gonna be in India?
I thought he was just making conversation and just getting some information about like you know how long I would need a SIM card in
Reality he was asking me how long I was going to be in Chennai so that he could have the SIM card work
For as long as I was in Chennai and then once I left town
He took the data away, and then I'm left with like a worthless SIM card in my phone
So that's exactly what happened, and I've heard about this with other tourists
Too where they get a SIM card at first everything is fine
They think they've bought a month's worth of data after a few days
Or a few weeks the SIM card no longer works, and what are they going to do? They're travelers.
They're visiting different cities by that point they can't go back. Talk to the vendor to get a different SIM card work it out
It's too late the money is gone
So to avoid that full scam get one yourself that way you know
What you're getting so
After I dealt with my scam SIM card. I just went to an Airtel store and to apply for a real SIM card
You'll go to an official cell phone store like the one here
You don't want to get your phone just on a little shop at the side of the road
That's where you're subject to scams you want to go to an official Vodafone or Airtel store now by the way
The main SIM cards in India, it's Airtel
There's a Vodafone and there's Jio. Jio is I've heard one of the best
But Jio does not sell to foreigners, so if you want to get your own SIM card in your own name
And you're not from India you're gonna need to get either an Airtel or a Vodafone
There might be other ones, but Airtel & Vodafone are the bigger ones now
I had a Vodafone phone SIM card last time. I was here in India and honestly I didn't love it
So I wanted to try Airtel, so here are the things that you need and it's basically the same for Airtel and Vodafone
There's some slight differences, but it's not
It's not really dramatic so of course you have to have a passport at some places you need a copy of the passport
So that they can actually take it, so I would get a copy of your passport
Just go ahead and get a copy of your visa - and by the way
Getting copies of things if you have to pay it should only cost like a rupee. It's not much money at all
I'll have to pay for copies, but maybe your hotel or your hostel can actually do it for you for free
Also very convenient. That's what I did so you need your passport. get a copy of the passport a copy of the visa page
And then you also need a passport photo so sometimes they will keep the passport photo sometimes
They will return it to you
But you also need a passport photo now in addition to those two things you will also need proof of address in
India so proof of where you're staying, I just took the
Business card of my hostel. that is completely sufficient
That's all you need but the last thing that you need which by the way
I didn't have last time but luckily I kind of fudged it. This is the tricky one which is you need
Someone to vouch for you in India over oh
my god
Bugs were crawling on me
I'm in a gorgeous area, but when you know when you're in like sunny tropical areas. There are sunny tropical bugs. Okay, so um
What you need is someone to vouch for you in India you need a local Indian reference
so you need the name of a local person who lives in the state that you're in and their cell phone number and
One place they actually called, so it wasn't just like a fake reference
It was like this person has to vouch for you and say that you're not you know like up to no good or something like
that and
The other thing that you will need to get your SIM card here in India is patience
I found that the process can be a little bit slow
Which is why
There are people who get these sim cards and by the way like I said sometimes it works out for people
But it doesn't always and it's really tough to know if you're dealing with someone who's reputable or who's not
But you do need patience when I got my Vodafone SIM card. I was in that office for like two hours
I don't know. Why it took so long and even when I was at the Airtel store
I had to wait and then there was a processing time
It took me about an hour and a half or an hour in the store
And then I had to wait for another about four hours after going through the process
So all in all from start to finish
I mean it took me about you know six hours to have a working SIM card, which is why some people like the shortcuts
But like I said with the shortcuts you lose a little bit of control. You don't necessarily know if it's actually gonna work
If someone's gonna transfer the data out of there
out of your phone and onto theirs so these things happen so you can do it yourself
You can get your own SIM cards and make sure you are
covered
So just to recap to get your own SIM card what you're going to need is your passport a copy of your passport
a copy of the visa, a passport photo
Proof of where you're staying with which to just be like the business card of the hotel or hostel where you're saying and you are
Going to need a reference in India
Take those things and the reference meaning the name and phone number of a local person if you have those things you should be set
It's a relatively smooth process although it can take quite a bit of time
But that's it you'll be good to go
And you won't have to worry about getting scammed and one of these fraudulent sim card scams that happen here
So that's it for now make sure you subscribe more tips coming up, tours of the city
I also like to share how much I'm spending on any given day so that is a
Other content that you can find on my channel so subscribe and I'll see you later
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét