Based on complaints registered via Twitter, Bangalore Crime Branch took action against a fake ecommerce portal which advertised too-good-to-be-true offers, and then duped ignorant customers. The raid was well documented on Bangalore Crime Branch’s Facebook page as well as Tweeted by Abhishek Goyal who is an IPS officer with Crime Branch, Bangalore.
The Modus Operandi
BigSop.com, which is now taken down, used to advertise offers such as “You are lucky Internet winner for iPhone for Rs 599”. Tempted by such incredible offers, which is mainly driven by the huge ecommerce advertisement wave across the whole country, customers used to register on the website, and pay the sum. The website used to advertise heavily in every major search engines and portals, thereby garnering maximum eyeballs.
The payments were processed using ICICI Bank payment gateway.
Of course BigSop.com had some other plans. Once the deposit of Rs 599 was made, they used to calmly inform that the iPhone is now not available. Instead, the money was cunningly converted into their internal ‘points’, which could only be used to purchase products from their own website. And, as it was later found out after the raid, the products available were mainly sub-standard, and without any warranty or guarantee.
The Raid
The cheated customers posted several Tweets and sent emails to the Bangalore Crime Branch against this fraud ecommerce portal. Under the supervision of DCP Crime, Abhishek Goyal, they located the office premises in Bangalore (the address of which has been withheld for security reasons) and raided the premises.
Bangalore Crime Branch found Rs 75 lakh in the bank accounts of BigSop.com, which has been reportedly sealed now.
As seen in the images released by Crime Branch, BigSop.com had established a full fledged call center to receive calls and to pitch in their ‘incredible’ but fake offers.
There are some more images at the official Facebook post of Bangalore Crime Branch.
Consumers: Beware!
Kudos to Bangalore Crime Branch for taking quick action against the fraudsters and arresting them. The founders would have silently escaped with the booty, if there had been no complains registered.
Hence, there are mainly two lessons for the new age, ecommerce buyer here:
a) Don’t fall in the trap of such offers. iPhone for Rs 599 does sound fishy, and 9 out of 10 times, it will be fishy. When the offer, any offer in general, sounds too good to be true, then it probably is fake.
b) In case you have experienced such fraud, then don’t wait to complain. If the offer was well advertised, then there will be more victims, and the police will have to take action.
Have you ever fallen victim to such fake offers online? Do share your story right here!