BENGALURU: Sharing economy, using technology, is catching on. Bengalureans are happier to hire a ride than own a car, rent furniture than buy that futon or share an expensive piece of equipment – like a camera – than spend lakhs on one. All is well, except that the thieves are watching.They rent out high-priced goods – mostly electronic equipment like cameras – and vanish. The platforms do collect identity and address proofs from users, but they can do little if the renter simply takes off. The loaner can register a police complaint, but often they are wary of the hassle that may follow.
In a recent incident, Bengalurean Sohail (name changed) is trying to recover his DSLR camera worth lakhs from Rahul (name changed) who now refuses to respond to his calls or messages. Rahul had rented the camera about half a month ago, through a rental platform, for “two days”. Now, there is no sign of the camera and Sohail says that Rahul keeps promising to return it “tomorrow”. Tired of all the excuses, Sohail has now approached the police for help.
Few people simply give up, like another Bengalurean Bharat (name changed) who says, “I have kissed my camera lens goodbye”. The lens was collected from him and the renter initiated an online payment. But, after the renter left, Bharat got a notification of a failed transaction to his account and he has never heard from the other again.It is not just individuals who get duped, another victim Chandan says that his photography studio in Hyderabad lost a camera worth `3 lakh to one such tout.
What is worrying is that the same person can cheat different people in different states, and go scot-free. For example, several complaints from Mumbai and Hyderabad have been raised against Rahul on different online forums but he continues to ‘borrow’ and not return.Another Bengalurean Nathan (name changed) had even filed a police complaint against this very same Rahul last July for not returning his camera equipment worth `5 lakh. Rahul was arrested and the equipment was partly recovered. Vikram Franklin, moderator of a discussion forum where such experiences are discussed by photographers, says that people like Rahul operate through various websites, if he has been exposed as a thief on one.
Vikram has received such complaints from six users. The team started investigating and found that Rahul has made all the requests from the same IP address. “He usually takes equipment worth `2 lakh and more. With the threat of police complaints, he finally returned and apologised on the platform. We removed him from the platform, but I saw him again pop up on other websites. He must be selling the equipment to others.”
Companies legally liable
High Court advocate MVV Raman says in case of a theft, the actual owner can sue the company through which he has rented out the equipment. It is the responsibility of the company to recover the equipment or the cost as the actual owner is not in direct contact with the renter. He adds that to ensure that such incidents are avoided, the companies should get credit card details from the renter. But credit cards are not widely used. According to a study in 2014, CEO of GrabOnRent Shubham Jain says, only two per cent people in India use credit cards. He hopes by next month, if the UPI 2.0 starts being practised, the transaction process will improve. The Unified Payments Interface expected to be released by National Payments Corporation of India soon will include biometric authentication and pre-authorised transactions.
Renting platforms do risk assessment The owners of renting platforms say they verify user
identity on their platforms using their Aadhar card, permanent address proof or any other valid identity proof. Harsh Dhand, head of Rentsher, a renting platform, says, “In 99 per cent cases, permanent address suffices to verify the users on the platform. We also check their social profiles.” Shubham Jain, co-founder and CEO of GrabOnRent, says that they check the risk associated with the user by verifying his professional background, social profiles, credit history and ability to pay his monthly rent. “We pay additional attention to such profiles. We keep staying in touch with them getting feedback on our services and giving them gentle reminders about the due payments.”