Yesterday I was mugged inside Reliance Webworld where I go every Sunday to check my mail and update this site. The weapon used is called ' validity ' which wiped off Rs. 400 from my account because I was a day late in renewing it. The small internet cafes are safe. They charge Rs. 10 per half hour after you finish. This weapon is used by the big boys - Reliance, Satyam and so on. They will not let you do anything unless you open an account. Then you have to buy time for example 100 minutes for Rs. 100 or whatever is on offer. You think that since you have bought and already paid for those minutes you may use them whenever you like but therein lies the catch. There is a period of validity upon expiry of which your money disappears into a black hole never to return. To keep your account valid you must renew within the stipulated period whether you have used any time or not. This is like saying that the new car you are buying will be valid for, say, two years following which, if you do not pay some more, the engine will seize up. I had renewed on the 23rd of last month and was going to renew yesterday which was also 23rd. But sadly my validity expired on the 22nd and my balance of Rs. 400 was wiped out. If this is not larceny I do not know what is. Yet it must be costing little to maintain customer accounts indefinitely. After all Hotmail is free for billions of people and this site is provided free by Google, both enormously profitable. It is just greed on the part of Reliance and a contempt for its customers. In India the customer is a sucker to be sucked dry.