Bollywood actor Shabana Azmi on Thursday accused an alcohol delivery platform of allegedly duping her. Narrating how she became victim to an online payment scam on her official Twitter account, she warned her followers to beware of such fraudsters.
The actor Tweeted that she had ordered alcohol online from Living Liquidz, a Mumbai based alcohol delivery platform. However, despite paying the amount upfront, the ordered item was not delivered. “BEWARE I have been cheated by them. #Living Liquidz I paid upfront and when the ordered item didnt turn up they stopped picking up my calls!”, the actor wrote sharing the details of her monetary transaction with the alcohol delivery portal.
BEWARE I have been cheated by them. #Living Liquidz I paid upfront and when the ordered item didnt turn up they stopped picking up my calls!
— Azmi Shabana (@AzmiShabana) June 24, 2021
I paid Account no.919171984427
IFSC- PYTM0123456
Name living liquidz
Paytm payment bank
Replying to Shabana Azmi’s tweet, many Twitter users informed her that most of the numbers on Google are fake.
Bollywood actor Shabana Azmi urges Mumbai police and cyber cell to take action
In her subsequent Tweet, the actor clarified that she was actually duped by fraudsters and she didn’t make the payment to the platform. She tweeted, “finally traced the owners of @living_liquidz & it turns out that the people who cheated me are fraudsters who have nothing to do with Living Liquidz!”. Tagging Mumbai police and cybercrime cell in her Tweet, she urged that immediate action should be taken “to stop these crooks from using names of legitimate businesses & scamming us”.
Finally traced the owners of @living_liquidz & it turns out that the people who cheated me are fraudsters who have nothing to do with Living Liquidz! I urge @mumbaipolice and @cybercrime to take action to stop these crooks from using names of legitimate businesses & scamming us https://t.co/AUobsRg0on
— Azmi Shabana (@AzmiShabana) June 24, 2021
What appears from her Tweets is that no formal complaint has been lodged in the matter yet.
It may be noted that in Islam, alcoholic beverages are considered haram, i.e., they are prohibited to be consumed by Muslims.
Phone number of the person who cheated Azmi is listed as “Liquor Fraud”
Azmi had provided details of the phone number and PayTM account where she had sent money. A cursory search for that number in Truecaller app shows that that number is listed as ‘Liquor Fraud”.
As it is, it seems the phone number has already been flagged by several people for fraud and has been added in Truecaller as ‘liquor fraud’. Had Shabana Azmi just checked the phone number before paying for liquor delivery, she would have been saved from fraud.
Also, it is not understood why a prominent and aware personality like Shabana Azmi, who is a social activist, would not use the legitimate payment gateway of an online platform and instead transfer money to unknown people via PayTM for liquor delivery.
Bareilly Dargah Aala Hazrat opposes alcohol-based sanitisers
In fact, last year, when India was battling the first wave of Covid-19 outbreak, a prominent Islamic cleric at Dargah Aala Hazrat in Bareilly had asked all its followers and mosque heads to avoid using alcohol-based sanitisers.
Mufti Nashtar Farooqi of Sunni Markaz Darul Ifta, Dargah Aala Hazrat, said: “Alcohol is prohibited in Islam. Muslims should not use alcohol-based sanitizers. A mosque will become impure if alcohol-based sanitiser is used for cleaning the premises. We cannot make God’s home impure. Namaaz cannot be offered at an impure place. If the mosque is made impure knowingly, it will be a sin. I have appealed to Imams of mosques and mosques committees to refrain from using an alcohol-based sanitizer.”
Despite the commonly known fact that alcohol-based sanitisers do not mean it contains liquor, the cleric, being rigid in his beliefs, advised Muslims to refrain from using sanitisers instead of properly wash their hands and mosque campus with soap, detergent powder and shampoo.