Episode 6: The Ponzi Schoolteacher

– When Trust Wore a Saree and Taught Multiplication

Ponzi

In the dusty corridors of a government school in Cuddalore, everyone simply called her “Ma’am.”Not Mrs. Something. Not by her first name. Just Ma’am — the kind that stayed etched in school diaries and memories long after third standard.

Cotton saree, tightly pinned ID card, perfect Tamil cursive on the board — she was what every parent wanted in a teacher.

What no one saw was that after the morning bell rang and tiffin boxes snapped shut, Ma’am began her second lesson of the day — in compound fraud.

💰 “This is for women like us.”

It began innocently.

A few colleagues, a chit of ₹5,000 here, ₹10,000 there. She called it a “self-help fund” — something “just between us women. ”The idea? Pool money, rotate benefits. But this was no ordinary kitty party.

“This isn’t gambling,” she said. “This is empowerment. Housing plots. Doubled returns. Backed by LIC.”

She showed no brochures. No receipts. Only a spiral-bound notebook where she manually recorded entries with ticks, names, and blessings.

By the third month, the payouts began — exactly as promised. Trust deepened. The amounts grew. Women from nearby schools joined. Gold was pledged. Savings wiped. Word spread like wild gossip in a staff room.

And always the refrain:

“Would I ever cheat you? I’ve been here 22 years.”

📉 Then, silence.

The pay outs stopped.

Excuses came:

• “My husband’s cousin, who funded this, met with an accident.”

• “There’s a new RBI rule. Can’t do cash pay outs.”

• “Let me go to Chennai and sort this. I’ll fix it.”

  
  

Then one Monday morning — she didn’t show up to school. Her phone was switched off. By the weekend, her house was locked. A neighbour said a van had come at 3 AM and the family had left with three suitcases.

💔 What Was Lost

₹1.2 crore — conservatively. Some paid in cash, some through friends. Many didn’t even tell their families — it was “Ma’am’s scheme. ”One anganwadi teacher borrowed from a microfinance group. Now she faces default.

Worst of all? Only a handful went to the police.

“She must’ve been forced.”

“Maybe someone tricked her too.”

“She’s not like that…”

Because the biggest betrayal was not of money. It was of role.

🧠 Truth Bias in a Saree

In India, a teacher is more than a job. They’re mentors, moral voices, unpaid therapists, advisors at weddings and funerals. They’re trusted — implicitly.

So when a teacher offers a scheme — we don’t see risk. We see a safe face attached to a sacred role.

This was truth bias wearing cultural camouflage. You didn’t just trust Ma’am. You trusted the institution she represented.

🎯 Framework Snapshot

Element	Insight
Bias Type	Familiar Role Bias
Trigger	Daily presence + emotional rapport
Amplifier	Women-centric appeal + teacher authority
Medium	Word-of-mouth + hand-written registers (low traceability)

🧠 Truth Bias is the umbrella — but the triggering mechanism varies:

🔹 Episode 1 – The Fake TNEB Officer

Bias Type: Costume Credibility Bias

• Trigger: Visual cues of legitimacy (uniform, ID, clipboard)

• Trust Source: External appearance mimicking authority

• Fraud angle: Quick in–quick out (short interaction, immediate gain)

👉 This is about role impersonation of institutional authority.

🔹 Episode 6 – The Ponzi Schoolteacher

Bias Type: Relational Familiarity Bias

• Trigger: Long-term association, personal trust, moral image

• Trust Source: Reputation built through repeated, real-life interactions

• Fraud angle: Long con, emotional leverage, no impersonation

👉 This is about deep personal trust in a genuine identity, not a faked one.

🔍 So, why do both episodes feel similar?

Because they belong to the same truth bias ecosystem, but tap into different trust levers:

Episode	Trigger	Duration	Trust Lever
1	Authority costume	Minutes	Official legitimacy
6	Known teacher identity	Years	Emotional familiarity

🎯 Closing Reflection: When Truth Isn't What It Seems

When news broke that “Ma’am” — the trusted teacher — had vanished with over a crore of savings, disbelief rippled faster than outrage.

It wasn’t just about the money. It was about the rupture of a long-held truth: “She would never do something like this.”

And that’s where truth bias quietly took its toll.

We believed her because we had always believed her.We trusted her because she taught our children.We never stopped to verify because she looked like someone who wouldn’t need to be verified.

This isn’t just an isolated story. It’s part of a larger pattern we’ve been mapping all along.

🧠 A Pattern Emerges: The Truth Bias Matrix

By now, you’ve heard six stories. Six moments when someone trusted something — or someone — a little too easily.

Each time, truth didn’t arrive with evidence. It arrived with familiarity, authority, urgency, or emotion.

Here’s how these stories stack up when we start naming the bias that powered them:

Episode	Story	Trigger	Subtype of Truth Bias	What Made It Believable
1	Fake TNEB Officer	Uniform, clipboard, ID	Authority Costume Bias	He looked official
2	Susi Emu Farms	Peer success stories	Herd Trust Bias	Others were doing it
3	Fake IAS Officer	Power symbols, speech	Status-Impersonation Bias	He spoke like a Collector
4	Fake Vaccine Drive	Coats, banners, process	Institutional Trust Bias	It resembled a system
5	WhatsApp Doctor	Voice note, medical claim	Message Familiarity Bias	It felt like it came from someone we know
6	Ponzi Schoolteacher	Real identity, emotional bond	Relational Familiarity Bias	She was one of us

📌 Why We're Telling These Stories

Each story isn’t just a scam — it’s a mirror.

These aren’t tales of stupidity. They’re case studies in how the human brain defaults to belief — and how manipulators exploit that.

The real question isn’t “Why did they fall for it?” The question is “Would I have, too?”

And that’s what the Truth Bias series sets out to explore — not just with stories, but with a framework. One that helps us spot the cues before trust is misplaced.

🔜 Coming Up Next: Episode 7 – The Collector Who Never Was

A Skoda with a red beacon. An ID card that looked official. He quoted IAS ranks and district names like they were passwords.

He wasn’t real. But the obedience he commanded was.

Truth Bias returns — this time, in uniformed arrogance.

🗞️ Sources Cited in This Episode (Episode 6)

• The Hindu (March 17, 2022) – School teacher arrested for duping 20 women of ₹50 lakh in savings scam

• Times of India (November 8, 2021) – Primary school teacher runs Ponzi scheme among colleagues, arrested in Sivaganga

• Indian Express (July 9, 2022) – Retired headmistress among 34 cheated in teacher-run investment scam

• Dinamalar (April 3, 2023) – Ponzi complaint filed against government teacher in Cuddalore; over ₹1 crore involved

• BoomLive (Ongoing) – What is a Ponzi scheme and how do you spot one?