CHENNAI: With the madness over demonitisation, it is almost impossible to stop the rumors and hoax messages. It’s also very easy for the layman to get excited or worried about the string of messages that are doing rounds on WhatsApp and Facebook now.
This week, a social media message went so viral that it even ended up on the front page of our newspapers. Someone had started a rumour that there are nano GPS chips in the new 2000-rupee notes to keep a ‘check on where the money is going’. The message also claimed that the chips are ‘signal reflectors’ which would help satellites keep track of the money when a lot of it is stocked in one place, even if it’s 200 metres below ground level.
Though technology has advanced enough that we can use a dot-sized chip to keep track of clothes or watches, this news about the currency is not true. However, since a large number of people started to believe this piece of information, even the RBI issued a statement saying that this was untrue and stated that no such technology exists in the world. Yet, there were some more rumours that the RBI and the government are hiding such facts to keep a track of the money trail. But even if that were the case, a tech savvy person might have figured it out already!
So before you forward any message you get, it would be prudent to sit on it for a while and gather all the facts. For the sake of everyone’s peace of mind (especially during a time when this currency is driving everyone insane), a wee bit of caution would be more than welcome!