The 2020 Loss

I have a story to tell.
I thought I started working well.
It was the year 2020 (twenty-twenty),
When the world was in a frenzy.

Was the first month at that workplace,
Not even had received my first pay.
Had earned too little since Oct ’19.
With a little left to pay bills in lock-down time.

One day received an (apparently authentic) email.
In the ‘disguise’ of my ‘Boss’s name’.
I thought I was lending a helping hand.
When ‘He’ asked me some money to send.

For two days I hadn’t checked my mail.
But the third day I was under an unknown spell.
I replied like an obdient employee.
He conversed and made me agree.

I transferred a sum of thirty thousand,
On the Bank id he had provided.
I made the transactions in two phases,
Not suspecting it was a fraud case.

Nine days later I realized,
When I was not getting replies.
The email had come from an unknown domain.
Although it appeared to be Boss’s name.

I called out to my office heads.
They said that I was duped, when they checked.
I called my bank for some help,
And registered complaints for the same.

I was asked to approach the Police,
For they would surely catch the thief.
I did gather courage to make an FIR.
On the cyber cell webpage, I tried to register.

Then I had a fear—
My parents were not near.
There was no elder to guide and care.
To all, this story I could not share.

I felt alone and I freaked.
With mother on call, I cried and cried.
To my mails the bank didn’t give a supportive reply.
And my Boss, any help, he never supplied.

The office never accepted their fault and my problem.
It was a security breach in their system.
How was only I duped by a fraud?
Of course, they had a pathetic IT squad.

I didn’t go to the cops.
I never got registered the FIR.
Days passed alongside office workload.
I was highly exhausted and in fear.

Conversations after conversations,
With bankers and their executives.
I called a support staff to log my suffering.
Another manager called me twice for listening.

Days passed, I was still wondering.
To my eye had caught attention, a thing.
Going back and forth, reading, email checking.
I was on my own, investigating.

After all that I had gone through,
My thoughts brought me just one clue.
Had it happened to others too?
How can that be true?

Here’s it for the reader to ponder.
Let me know if you really wonder.
That “name”, all four owned same name—
The Boss, Bank support staff, a Manager and that Fraud.

The name, that name haunts me!
Not sure if the fraud man owns it really!
The fraud’s account was in Mumbai,
To which I had transferred my money!

I recall how I got trapped.
After all those troubles of the world,
It was the Boss’s name, in it I believed.
He was asking for a small help, it seemed.

Why am I telling my story today?
Because it is again 19th May.
I won’t forget it easily anyway,
That fraud’s mail arrived my way.

Lost with two clicks, my hard-earned money.
Left with no choice, I kept working silently.
Same office, still holds my salary,
Saying that they are facing bankruptcy.

I don’t believe them, I know it for sure.
Every one pays for their Karma here.
It did not start or end well.
But my work it was, I didn’t fail.