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Founder of India's $4 Smartphone Firm Arrested on Allegations of Fraud (reuters.com)

Posted by msmash on from the fraud-alert dept.

Remember the $4 smartphone from India? Yeah, things haven't really materialized. Reuters reports: The founder of an Indian tech firm that shot to prominence by offering a $4 smartphone has been arrested on allegations of fraud, after a handset dealer accused the company of not refunding him for an unfulfilled order, the police said. Mohit Goel, the founder of Ringing Bells, was arrested Thursday afternoon in Uttar Pradesh and will be produced in court later on Friday, said Rahul Srivastav, a police spokesman from the northern Indian state. Goel and his company made headlines last year with the "Freedom" smartphone, which was priced at 251 rupees ($3.77), attracting strong demand but also widespread scepticism and scrutiny from regulators even in price-conscious India, where cheap smartphones are big sellers. The founder was arrested after a dealer said he had paid 3 million Indian rupees for an order of handsets but had received only a fraction of the order. He further said some of the phones received were defective, according to the police.

4 of 25 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Wait, $3.77? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 4, Funny

    At that price, you could almost heat up your house with these in a wood stove. Real burner phones!

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    #DeleteFacebook
  2. Re:No wonder by GuB-42 · · Score: 3, Informative

    $4 is just a token price. The government is expected to pay for the bill.
    It is less than the BOM of a Nokia 105 ($13.50), a dumb phone that retails for $20.

  3. Missed a y, claims honest typo. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 4, Funny
    The founder of that company claimed that he was merely smart person and a phony dealer. He meant to register "Smartphony" as the brand name to hawk "Rs 251 Smartphony". Once you pay 251 rupees and get a brick you would realize the device was phony not phone. And the buyer will learn the lesson, become smart and not fall prey to such scams in the future.

    But the autocorrect changed it to smartphone and caused all this misunderstanding. He plans to sue to auto correct software vendor for defamation, slander and scurrilous calumnies.

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    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  4. Re:This only happens in India by Maritz · · Score: 2

    And what a *SURPRISE*, they both make Android phones.

    You sound smart. Not quite smart enough to realise that everyone makes Android phones, but smart nonetheless.

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    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.