Lured by offers, many losing money to e-commerce fraud

Bhubaneswar: Sipra Mohanty ordered two sarees from an online shopping website and paid in cash. But after she opened the packet, she found only one saree, and that too of an inferior quality. When she tried to contact the customer care number, there was no response, and neither could she return the products.
It was a similar experience for Lipsa, who had ordered a cushion and received a torn piece of cloth. From dummy mobile phones to cheap wrist watches, there are endless encounters where buyers are getting trapped every day, losing money in the bargain.
“The discount was so tempting that I could not resist and placed my order for two sarees. When I received one saree against the two I had ordered, I tried to reach out to the website but did not get any response. For Rs 2000, I did not want to go to the cyber cell to lodge a complaint and kept mum,” said Sipra, a 35-year-old office assistant.
Number of cases of cheating and fraud during online shopping has increased in the last few months. Many consumers complained of not getting the items they had ordered or getting something else in return.
“Every month, at least 10 cases of fraud or wrong products are coming to my notice. Some people return the products, but many cannot due to lack of information. Many customers don’t know how to return the products,” said Pradeep Mohanty, a delivery boy with an e-commerce site.
“People are getting exposed to a lot of websites that offer lucrative discounts. Many of them are fraud,” said Prasant Sahu, a cyber expert.
Amitendra Nath Sinha, IG Crime Branch, said, “People are lodging complaints about online shopping frauds but the cases are less in number. The police have made short films involving popular Odia actors to create awareness among people regarding cyber or digital fraud.”
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