3 meals for ₹100: How food delivery scams dupe consumers

Vibrant flyers plastered on roadside lamp posts and enticing social media ads promise the ultimate convenience: three delicious, home-cooked meals delivered directly to your office or home for just ₹100 a day. For professionals, students, and busy workers, this sounds like an unbeatable deal. However, beneath these alluring offers lies a sophisticated network of fraudsters operating lucrative food delivery and catering scams across Kerala. This criminal racket not only exploits hungry consumers but also ruins the reputation of genuine, hard-working local food entrepreneurs.

The operators behind these scams primarily target bachelors and people living alone. They display contact numbers on lampposts and public walls and run aggressive WhatsApp marketing campaigns. To convince potential clients, they share daily menus boasting local favourites like puttu and kadala curry for breakfast, a full lunch meal with fish fry, and soft chapatis with curry for dinner. To build trust, the scammers reliably deliver food for the first day or two. Once the customer is satisfied with the service, they are asked to pay a monthly advance subscription fee of approximately ₹3,000. As soon as the money is transferred, the excuses begin. Citing vehicle breakdowns, chef illnesses, or family emergencies, they delay deliveries before permanently switching off their phones. Because the loss per individual is relatively low, victims rarely approach the authorities, enabling the scammers to amass lakhs of rupees by duping hundreds of people simultaneously.

An even more heartbreaking variation of this scam targets families organising weddings. Fraudulent caterers advertise lavish wedding feasts or biryani on social media platforms at prices significantly below the standard market rate. Once the family reaches out to secure the booking, the fraudsters demand an advance payment of 50 to 70 per cent of the total contract price, claiming they need to purchase groceries and secure meat bookings. They maintain regular phone contact right up to the eve of the wedding, reassuring the family that everything is under control. However, on the morning of the wedding, the caterers switch off their phones and disappear. The family is left stranded with hundreds of guests to feed and no food on one of the most important days of their lives. To avoid falling victim to these deceptive schemes, the police urge the public to follow these essential safety tips:
• Do not blindly trust advertisements found on lamp posts or social media pages that do not display a verified physical office or kitchen address.
• Always visit the physical catering unit or office before transferring any money. Ensure that the business holds a valid food safety licence and registration from the local self-government authority.
• Never pay the entire amount or a long-term subscription fee upfront. For wedding catering, draft a formal, legally binding contract and arrange to pay the balance amount only after the food successfully arrives at the venue on the day of the event.