Ecommerce industry in India is at a nascent stage as of now; and the concerned companies are focussing on making their business model stronger, getting funds and rapid expansion.
But this is creating vulnerabilities in their operations, which criminals are fully exploiting for their advantage. In yet another case of such cheating, it was found that an organized syndicate in Punjab had duped Flipkart of Rs 80 lakh.
Last year, we had reported how two techies from Hyderabad had duped Flipkart of Rs 51,000, and this led to their arrest.
Fortunately, police took prompt action in this case as well, and all the gang members were arrested.
The Modus Operandi
Using different SIM cards and email ids, gang members ordered expensive mobile phones from Flipkart. After receiving them, they complained to Flipkart regarding the quality, features etc and then demanded money back.
Now, when the delivery guys came back to pick the mobiles, they used to sent duplicate/fake mobile phones using the original packing.
By the time Flipkart found the truth, they had been duped of Rs 25 lakh worth of mobile phones!
Greedy Criminals Abused The Privilege Of Ecommerce
Maybe Flipkart was attempting to be the good ecommerce firm, and they ignored to check the returned mobile phones before refunding the money. Amazon is popular for the quick refunds, and maybe they were trying to emulate their action.
But unfortunately, this gang members abused this privilege, and cheated them.
Flipkart deputy general manager Manoj Chaudhary said, “Whenever a customer contacts us to return any item, we credit the money into his account immediately and check the item later when it gets to us within a week. In this case, a number of complaints from the same area prompted us to call the Mansa cops,”
Police Takes Quick Action
After getting the complaint from Flipkart, Punjab police has arrested 5 people under under sections 420 (cheating), 465 (punishment for forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using a forged item as genuine) and 120-B (punishment for criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act.
Rs 17 lakh cash, 10 handsets and a laptop have been gathered as of now.
As per the police officers, this racket may be worth Rs 1 crore, as more evidence is being searched.
SHO Harvinder Singh Sra said, “The accused, so far, have accepted to making at least Rs 80 lakh in the swindle,”
Do you think such behaviour will deter ecommerce companies from providing better customer service and particularly money back feature? Do let us know by commenting right here.