Commuters on a local train in Mumbai

Mumbai, Aug. 18: One call can change your life — that’s not the last punchline that wowed an ad jury. It’s the most common cliché in handbill-like advertisements pasted inside the city’s crammed local trains.

You can lose “5 kg in six days”, get “special massages” or join a “$2-billion MNC that has offices in 61 countries and is looking for young dynamic professionals”. All you need to have is a phone — and a ticket to ride in these destiny-shaping coaches.

“Cheer up ladies/gents”, “enjoy hot/decent friendship/full entertainment (all communities) — get maximum in minimum, call 9826934521” are among the most ingenious punchlines.

Women commuting to work are cajoled into spending just “an hour or two and make big bucks sitting at home”. None of these pioneering MNCs are named, nor is the profile of the work they offer, mentioned.

Calling up some of the numbers in these ads was an eye-opener. The “MNCs of repute” do not require qualifications, 5 kg is shed in six days without doctors or trainers, and those who have “passed Class XII can go a long way”. The technophiles in IIT Powai (Mumbai) be damned.

“Why do you ask for a doctor. It will take a long time. Let my senior handle it for you. He will come to your house and do the needful,” says the registrar of a Pune lab owner who enquired about this reporter’s height, weight and age. The lab claims to treat around 60 customers a month.

Most of the “work from home” ads promise Rs 30,000 a month and claim to hold “seminars and workshops all over the country to initiate youngsters into their businesses”.

“Yes, I worked for an MNC,” chuckles an undergraduate in a reputed city college, refusing to divulge her name “since her parents would disapprove”.

Some persistent prodding, and she drops her inhibitions. “They ask us to click on pop-ups in websites. We were paid on the number of clicks we made,” she adds. Ad revenues on websites are typically tied to clicks.

“These ad revenues are based on three things — page views, hits and stickiness (how long a customer stays on a site). Deals with clients are based on the number of hits on our site. It is the major selling point,” says Abhishekh Nichani, assistant manager (marketing and sales) of Indiantelevision.com, a television portal.

He says recruiting people to increase the “number of hits” has become a lucrative business. “These are people making money by cheating others,” says Nichani.

Most ads for these jobs seek to recruit “young, vivacious and intelligent women” but they do not only draw youngsters. Even homemakers keen on something new and some extra cash have called up and joined the pack, though most were averse to coming out of the closet.

“It’s a huge business now. They claim they can help reduce excess weight, get you friends for life or a job with a good company. But they are all taking people for a ride. We had taken action against many of these frauds but they keep mushrooming. We even sent notices. But it’s difficult to catch them,” says Pranay Prabhakar, chief public relations officer of Western Railways.