S Anand

The OLX UPI con

October 11, 2022 / Interesting experiences / 2 Comments

Before moving to Singapore, we listed our furniture and white goods for sale on OLX.

Caller 1: Vinod buys a bed

On 18th April, I got a call from +91 70868 17420. He said he was Vinod, and owned a furniture shop in Ahmedabad. He wanted to buy our bed for Rs 6,000.

It was not too bad an offer, so we agreed.

Vinod: “I will pay by phone, sir. Give me your WhatsApp number.”

Me: (Wow! He’s using WhatsApp Pay? That’s a first.) “Sure. It’s 9741 552 552.”

Vinod: “I’ve sent a picture, sir. Please scan that.”

Me: “Uh… OK. I got this QR code on WhatsApp. I scanned it on PayTM. But it’s asking me to transfer to 9713902265.imb@icici. Is that right?”

Vinod: “Yes sir. Please type 6,000 and send. You will get the amount.”

He sounded so confident, I thought I had it wrong.

Me: “But this will pay you Rs 6,000. How will I get Rs 6,000?”

Vinod: “Sir, it is a business account. I sent you Rs 6,000. But you will get it only if you enter 6,000.”

Me: “Vinod, I don’t think payments work that way…”

Vinod: “Sir, I will show you. I will pay you 1 rupee. You type 1 and send. You will get back 2 rupees.”

I didn’t mind losing a rupee, so I paid his account 1 rupee.

Vinod: “Sir, now please check your account. You will have 2 rupees.”

And I did have 2 UPI credits of 1 rupee each from his account.

DateTransaction RemarksWithdrawalDeposit
18-Apr-2022UPI/210885173447/NA/BHARATPE0990555/Yes Bank Ltd/PTMF7DD556B1DFF42538B3F24D52AFD0A0F/1.00
18-Apr-2022UPI/210868024141/UPI Payment/9713902265.imb@/Axis Bank Ltd./ICId74ef953e7bd4588bbcf226880cd48641.00
18-Apr-2022UPI/210868024950/UPI Payment/9713902265.imb@/Axis Bank Ltd./ICIb8cafc942184402dafda89620319a9e91.00

Me: “Sure, Vinod. You paid me 2 rupees. But when I pay you Rs 6,000, there’s no guarantee you’ll pay me Rs 12,000. Why don’t you come in person, collect the sofa, and pay me then?”

Vinod: “What sort of man are you? I already sent you money from my account. I cannot get it back now. I will have a loss. You tell me — how will you give me back my money?”

Me: (Um… He really does sound convincing.) “Vinod, I’m really not comfortable with this. Let’s not go ahead.”

Vinod: “You’re an asshole. Get off the line!”

Caller #2: Gaurav buys a recliner

On 15th May, I got a call from Gaurav at +91 84865 47620.

Gaurav: “Sir, you have a sofa set on OLX for Rs 60,000. Can you give it for a lower amount?”

Me: “Well, I’m OK with Rs 55,000, but not less.”

Gaurav: “OK sir. I will pay by UPI. Can I make a 50% advance payment, then you can take off the listing from OLX?”

Me: “OK, sure.”

Gaurav: “What is your UPI account?”

Me: “9741552552@upi.”

Gaurav: “I have paid Rs 27,500. I have sent you a picture. Can you scan it and enter 27,500?”

Me: “I got an image that requests a payment to bharatpe09905995207@yesbank.ltd. But that’s for ME to transfer to YOU. I have not received your payment.”

Gaurav: “I have already paid the advance sir. If you type 27,500 and send, you will get it.”

Me: “Sorry, Gaurav, I’m not going to do that. Bye.” (click)

By now, I was a bit wiser.

Caller #3: Priti buys a recliner

On 15th May, I got a call from yet another person. I forget his name. It might have been Priti.

He: “Sir, I want to buy your recliner. How much is it for?”

Me: “How will you pay and how much, please?”

He: “Sir, I will pay on UPI. I can pay up to 55,000, sir. I will transfer the money and send you the confirmation code, sir”

I let out a huge laugh, and continued laughing for a good 5 seconds.

He: “Sir, what happened, sir?”

Me: “Oh, this is so hilarious. How much money do you make in a month with scams?”

He: “Sir, what sir?”

Me: “I’d love to interview you for my blog. Do you change SIM cards often? Do you use channels other than OLX? What do you do in case someone files a cyber-crime complaint?”

He: (click)

Cyber-crime reporting

This con is well-documented on OLX. I decided to file an online cyber-complaint at https://cybercrime.gov.in/. The process was not too painful. This is what the form asked for.

  • Category of complaint
    • Online and Social Media Related Crime
    • Online Financial Fraud
      • Business Email Compromise/Email Takeover
      • Debit/Credit Card Fraud/Sim Swap Fraud
      • Demat/Depository Fraud
      • E-Wallet Related Fraud
      • Fraud Call/Vishing
      • Internet Banking Related Fraud
      • UPI Fraud
    • Hacking / Damage to computer,computer system etc
    • Online Cyber Trafficking
    • Online Gambling / Betting
    • Ransomware
    • Cryptocurrency Crime
    • Cyber Terrorism
    • Any Other Cyber Crime
  • Have you lost money? Yes/No
  • Approximate date & time of Incident/receiving/viewing of content: 18 Apr 2022 18:10
  • Is there any delay in reporting? No
  • Where did the incident occur?
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Snapchat
    • Twitter
    • WhatsApp
    • Website Url
    • Youtube
    • LinkedIn
    • Telegram
    • Other
  • Other Media: OLX
  • Supporting Evidence (Upload Media/Image/Pdf): Uploaded
  • Please provide any additional information about the incident: …

My thanks to Vinod, Gaurav, and the third friend. I filed my first police complaint 🙂

How the police responded is another story…

Singapore Central Business District at Dusk

Moving to Singapore

August 2, 2022 / How I do things, Interesting experiences / 5 Comments

My family and I relocated to Singapore today.

Most of my major life decisions have involved the distance from Chennai.

In 1992, I wanted to study physics at IIT Kanpur or Kharagpur. My father erased the choices from my admission form and calmly said, “Tick anything in Chennai.” I ticked everything except Chemical Engineering. Prof Kalyanakrishnan saw my rank, said “You’ll get Chemical Engineering”, and ticked it for me. No one heard me say, “But I don’t like Chemical Engineering.”

In 1996, I got job offers from Ramco Systems, Chennai and IBM, Bangalore. I chose IBM partly because my mother said, “Move out of Chennai, else you’ll live in your father’s shadow.”

In 1999, I got offers from IIM Ahmedabad and Bangalore. I picked Bangalore. “You’re declining the best IIM?” my couseller asked. But it was far from Chennai.

In 1999, I lost a scholarship and was insecure during the internship interviews. I accepted my first offer (from Lehman Brothers), though it was in Tokyo. “Well, you’ve already accepted. All the best,” my father said that evening with concern.

In 2000, I declined Lehman Brothers’ pre-placement offer. Tokyo’s too far from Chennai. (60 days of Subway‘s Veggie Delight didn’t help.)

In 2001, my matrimonial profile mentioned just 2 things: “He likes curd rice and plans to settle in Chennai.” My wife, Shobana, ignored it. She had other plans.

By 2005, she convinced me to move to the US or Europe. London’s physically and spiritually closer to Chennai than New York or Seattle. So I joined Infosys Consulting in London.

By 2011, I’d had enough. After 2 months of careful planning, I walked home and told Shobana, “I lost my job. Please don’t tell anyone. Let’s go back to India.” We left 2 weeks later to join Gramener.

In 2019, I attended Landmark’s Forum and told Shobana I’d tricked her. (She didn’t speak to me for a day.) We decided to move again. Not the US or Dubai. Singapore’s physically and spiritually closer to Chennai. She spoke to my father, who was OK to move too.

COVID slowed things down (thankfully), but in 2022, my daughter would start Class 11. That’s a logical time to shift.

So as of 1 Aug 2022, we’re in Singapore as a family. At least for 2 years, until my daughter starts college. After that, let’s see.

Calvin & Hobbes Salon

June 10, 2022 / Funny / Leave a Comment

This is the Calvin & Hobbes Hair Salon in Hinjewadi, Pune.

Calvin & Hobbes fans might remember Calvin’s hairdresser, Pete, who certainly “knows which side HIS bread is buttered on.”

Maybe I too will go get “the top of my head shaved, and the sides dyed pink and cut in horizontal stripes” 😉

The signboard has a Tirupathi Namam drawn over the names of two famous theologians — both of whom had great hair. That’s a lot of hidden connections!

I was thrilled to see that it’s not the only Calvin & Hobbes salon in India. Google Maps shows almost a dozen! 😲

Old songs in my music library

June 6, 2022 / Data, How I do things / Leave a Comment

My music library has around 1,000 songs (mostly Tamil and Hindi, with some Telugu and English film songs).

I spent this morning tagging them by year with mp3tag. (Manually. You don’t automate the pleasures of life.)

I thought my 1990s collection would be the largest. I was in college, listening to lots of music then. But surprisingly, my collection has grown post the 1990s.

I have 3 guesses why.

  1. Recency bias. I re-built this collection recently. Maybe I forgot older songs?
  2. Digitization bias. Maybe I listened to more songs as the cost of transmission/storage fell?
  3. Worsening standards. Maybe I used to be choosier about music?

Though I’m not sure of the above, there’s another interesting anomaly.

There is a spike in the 1960s.

I don’t need to guess this one. I know why. Those are the songs my parents liked. I grew up hearing them.

The oldest song Tamil song is from Thiruneelakantar (1939). It’s from my father’s collection. I’ve heard it often enough to still enjoy it.

The oldest Hindi song is from Jaal (1952). He has a fondness for Dev Anand’s songs. So do I. This one is a beauty.

The oldest Tamil song my mother introduced me to is from Parasakthi (1952). She used to dance to this song when young.

The earliest Hindi song she introduced me to was from Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje (1955). It’s the song I grew up on, and it’s still among my favorites. What a melody!

My wife prefers newer songs. But I have low standards and few preferences. It makes my life rather happy.

So, in celebration of Make Music Day on 21 June, I’m treating myself to 2 weeks of my collection from the 1960s!

PS: My full collection is at https://gist.github.com/sanand0/877637165b17239aa27beac03749c9a6

10 years later

March 17, 2022 / How I do things / Leave a Comment

On 12 Jan 2012, on a flight back from London, I wrote:

… it was clear in my mind. I would be an entrepreneur. I would create a small company that would probably fold. Then I’d do it again. And again, 10 times, because 1 in 10 companies survive. And finally, I’d be running a small business that’d be called successful by virtue of having survived. A modest, achievable ambition that I had the courage for.

10 years later, Gramener successively crossed 10 employees, 10 clients, 10 years, $10 mn and is on its way to 10 offices.

We just opened a new office at Hyderabad.

I have the same request as 10 years ago.

It’s scary but exciting. Wish me luck!

How to find a Chinese actor to cast in Hollywood

February 20, 2022 / Data / Leave a Comment

Film actors mostly act within their own industry.

For example, Hollywood actors act outside Hollywood just 10% of the time. Chinese actors act with non-Chinese actors just 1% of the time.

So, if you’re a Hollywood producer trying to cast a Chinese actor, how would you find them?

One way is to list Chinese actors with the largest number of Hollywood co-stars. Let’s see who tops that list.

#5. Pei-Pei Cheng

You may know her as Jade Fox, the sly governess in Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), or Golden Swallow, the skilled swordsman sister in Come Drink With Me (1966), or even as the voice of the matchmaker who disgraces Mulan in Mulan (2020).

She mainly acts in Chinese films, co-starring nearly 180 times with actors like Hua Yueh, Lieh Lo, and Chung-Hsin Huang. But she’s also co-starred over 20 times with Hollywood actors like Jamie King (of Sin City), Peter Bowles (of The Bank Job), and Sandra Oh (of Grey’s Anatomy).

#4. Jet Li

You may know him as Han Sing, the martial artist and ex-cop in Romeo Must Die (2000), or Gabe Law, the former MultiVerse Authority agent in The One (2001), or Yin Yang, the unarmed member of The Expendables (2010).

He has co-starred over 100 times with Chinese actors like Jackie Chan, Simon Yam, and Sammo Kam-Bo Hung. But he’s also co-starred 30 times with Hollywood actors like Antonio Banderas, Morgan Freeman, and Sylvester Stallone.

#3. Joan Chen

She’s famous as Wanrong, the Chinese empress in The Last Emperor (1987), Josie Packard, the owner of the Twin Peaks mill in Twin Peaks (1989), or Dr Ilsa Hayden, assistant to the villain Rico Dredd in Judge Dredd (1995).

She’s co-starred over 80 times with Chinese actors like Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Leon Lai, and Tony Ka Fai Leung. But she’s co-starred over 40 times with Hollywood actors like Michael Caine, Peter O’Toole, and Christopher Walken.

#2. Jackie Chan

The most famous Chinese martial arts actor in the world, and one of the highest-paid actors in the world, is famous as Detective Inspector Lee in Rush Hour (1998), Mr Han in The Karate Kid (2010), and the voice of Monkey in Kung Fu Panda (2008).

He has co-starred nearly 200 times with Chinese actors like Sammo Kam-Bo Hung, Maggie Cheung, and Kent Cheng. But he’s co-starred over 50 times with Hollywood actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Owen Wilson, and Chris Tucker.

#1. Michelle Yeoh

You may know her as Wai Lin, the Chinese spy and James Bond’s ally in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), Yu Shu Lien, the warrior swordswoman in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), or as Eleanor Young, the domineering mother-in-law in Crazy Rich Asians (2018).

She’s an actress at the borderline of the Chinese – Hollywood clusters. She’s acted ~60 times with Chinese actors like Maggie Cheung, Chow Yun-Fat and Jet Li. But she’s acted almost as many times with Hollywood actors like Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington.

More actors

Here are half a dozen more Chinese actors that have acted with Hollywood actors often.

Chow Yun-Fat
Donnie Yen
Andy Lau
Simon Yam
Gong Li
Josie Ho

It’s interesting to see that 3 of the top 6 (Chow Yun-Fat, Pei-Pei Cheng, and Michelle Yeoh) had all acted in the blockbuster Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).

So, perhaps the simple message to our Hollywood producer is to “look no further than the cast of the first foreign-language film to break the $100mn mark in the USA.”

Increasing calendar effectiveness by 2X

January 25, 2022 / Experiments, How I do things / 1 Comment

I took a 2022 goal to be 10X more effective. In Jan, I managed 2X. Here’s how.

What is effectiveness?

I don’t know. I’m figuring it out.

But to start off, I measured the number of people my actions directly impact. For example:

Clearly, the impact is not equal. But it’s a start.

How to measure it?

Since Dec 1, I categorized all my Outlook calendar entries into one of these categories:

Red is “low reach”. Green is “high reach”. This is what 6-10 Dec 2021 looked like:

I continued this for 8 weeks.

Did effectiveness increase?

In Week 1, I reached 30 people on average. This was the control week.

In Weeks 2-3, the reach increased from 30 to 77. In Weeks 4-8, it settled at 64.

So, yes, effectiveness increased. in Jan 2022, I reached twice as many people per week as when I started off.

I didn’t measure quality/impact. One-on-one coaching has more impact than a lecture. Reach is just a crude first approximation for effectiveness.

How did this happen?

What gets measured, improves. I’d categorize each entry on my calendar. This enabled 3 things:

  1. I’d try to remove low-reach (<50 reach – red) items. This reduced rom 45 to 29 hours a week.
  2. I’d try to add high-reach (>= 50 reach – green) items. This increased from 12 to 18 hours a week.

So, I now have 10 more hours of “me time” every week, while I still reach 2X as many people.

What next?

I’m exploring better measures of effectiveness. I believe:

  • Effectiveness is goal alignment. It’s personal, and purely a function of your priorities.
  • Effectiveness is multipled by assets. Actions that create assets improve effectiveness.

Once I discover a robust measure, I will to re-categorize my calendar and re-run this experiment.

If you use a measure of effectiveness of impact, please let me know — I’d love to learn from that.

I tested the best ways to mail people

January 6, 2022 / Experiments / Leave a Comment

I emailed My Year in 2021 to ~2,700 people. It had 3 experiments.

Do friends open my mail more than strangers?

I split the list into 2 groups:

  1. My contacts: ~1,000 people I knew (I’ve mailed them)
  2. Strangers: ~1,700 people I didn’t know (I’ve never mailed them)

My guess: strangers would open the mail 30% less often.

Reality: They opened it 40% less. 50% of my contacts opened the mail, vs only 28% of strangers.

Are the first and last links most clicked?

I sent 2 versions of the email to my contacts. The order of links was different.

My guess: the first and last links would be clicked 20% more often than those in the middle.

Reality: The links higher up were clicked more often 5/6 times. Click rates drop but don’t climb up at the end.

Do provocative subject lines increase open rates?

I sent 2 versions of the email to my contacts. The subject lines were different.

  1. Bland: “My year in 2021”
  2. Provocative: “Where I failed in 2021”

My guess: the provocative title will have 2X the open rate of the bland one.

Reality: The open rates were about the same (49% for provocative, 51% for bland). Either the second title was not provocative enough, or the bland was interesting enough. I need to re-run this experiment.

Learnings

I learned 3 things.

  1. Strangers open my mails less than I thought. Make more friends 🙂
  2. People scan emails top-down (not top-down, then bottom-up – like I do) and click on top links. Move the main link first.
  3. I’m no good at creating high-contrast variations in content. Take help.

How isolated is Bollywood from world cinema?

January 24, 2022 / Data, Visualisation / 2 Comments

These are the major group actors based on who they act with most.

Actors mostly act with other actors in the same…
  1. Language. Not country. For example, the Spanish / Mexican group is across countries. But Indian actors divide into North Indian and South Indian. It’s language, not country.
  2. Time period. Old American actors are a separate group from Hollywood. (Naturally. Brad Pitt was born after Humphrey Bogart died. They couldn’t have acted together.)
  3. Genre. Hollywood Porn actors don’t act with mainstream Hollywood. Same with Japanese Porn, Hollywood TV, and Hollywood Horror actors.

How are these groups themselves connected? Do Chinese actors act with Hollywood often? How isolated is Bollywood from world cinema?

Hollywood is the core group

Take groups that act with other groups at least 5% of the time. Mainstream Hollywood acts with British and Hollywood TV/Horror actors. All other clusters are isolated.

Indian & Japanese clusters emerge

Let’s go more liberal. Take groups that act with other groups at least 2% of the time. Hollywood forms a big connected cluster. It includes most of Europe — British, German, French, Czech, Yugoslavian & Italian actors.

North & South Indian actors form the first non-Hollywood cross-language cluster.

The Japanese and Japanese porn actors form a cluster too. (Interestingly, it’s easy for a Japanese porn actor to act with mainstream Japanese actors. Hollywood porn actors find it far harder to act with Hollywood.)

Among groups that act with other groups at least 1% of the time, we have:

Chinese & Korean cluster emerges

Chinese & South Korean actors form the first cross-country cross-language cluster.

Hollywood expands to act with Scandinavian, Spanish, Polish, Brazilian & Nigerian films.

Other film industries (Russian, Greek, Egyptian — even Hollywood Porn — are still isolated.)

World Cinema vs the rest

Among groups that act with other groups at least 0.5% of the time, we have:

  1. Turkish & Iranian groups coming together
  2. Indonesian actors acting with the Chinese
  3. Hollywood expanding to cover Russian, Greek, Egyptian, and finally, Hollywood Porn. (It’s easier for Brazilian / Nigerian to act with Hollywood than to be a Hollywood Porn actor.)

At this point, there are 6 actor groups that act with each other at least 1 out of 200 times (0.5%).

  1. World Cinema (Hollywood & friends)
  2. Japanese (mainstream & porn)
  3. Indian (North & South)
  4. Chinese, South Korean & Indonesian
  5. Turkish & Iranian
  6. Filipino

One world of cinema

If we look at groups that act with other groups at least 0.5% of the time, we have a far more unified picture. Almost every actor group acts with another group at least 1 out of 400 times.

But even here, there’s an exception. Filipino actors — the most insular major actor group in the world.

So, how isolated is Bollywood from World Cinema? For its size, it’s one of the most isolated actor groups. (But not as much as Iranian/Turkish or Filipino.)

My Year in 2021

December 31, 2024 / How I do things / 4 Comments

In 2021, I made 3 resolutions.

  1. Lose 10 kgs. I lost 5 kg in 3 months. But gained it back by the year-end.
  2. Fail big. I practiced confronting people – and failed. I still run from fights. Even when important.
  3. Calendar integrity. I stuck to my calendar 90% of the time. But personal commitments slipped.

On learning, I discovered network clusters. My PyCon talk on movie networks is the start of a fascinating exploration of actors that I’ll write more about.

On training, I designed a Tools for Data Science Course for IITM’s Bachelor’s in Data Science. I’m now a “faculty” at my alma mater, and no longer scared of it.

On self-improvement, I completed a Landmark course and continued Pranayama. Both helped my resolutions.

I also continued 2 habits from last year.

  1. Walk 10,000 steps daily. I averaged 10,200.
  2. Read 50 books. I read 52. Here are my reviews. (Which did you like? What would you recommend?)

In 2022, I plan to:

  1. Run 50 experiments. I’ll learn by disproving my beliefs with measurable tests.
  2. Speak at 10 global forums on data stories, and spread the beauty of data.
  3. Be 10X more effective. I’ll measure the impact and stop low-impact work.

I’m curious — what’s ONE thing you’d like to do in 2022?