Online shopping offers convenience and a huge range of discounts. In today’s busy life, a lot of people prefer shopping online as it saves time. Through online shopping, you can buy a huge variety of products from the comfort of home. At the same time, online shopping has got disadvantages. As people who shop online increase, online shopping frauds are on the rise. Fraudsters are getting smarter each day and have come up with new tricks to cheat innocent people of their hard earned money. In this blog, we will talk about a real-life victim of online shopping fraud who lost Rs 82,000 to online fraudsters.
On November 3rd, 2018, a woman from Pune had purchased a ring worth Rs 107 from an online shopping portal. As the ring didn't fit her, she raised a return request and returned the product. As she didn't receive the refund for the product, she called up the customer care of the online shopping portal. The customer care executive who picked up the call asked the victim to provide her card details to receive the refund. She was even asked to provide her OTP. Wanting to get the refund, the victim provided her OTP. After providing the OTP thrice, Rs 1,600 was debited from her bank account.
The woman filed an online complaint on the website and was contacted by another customer care executive who asked for the details of another card. This time, the lady shared the details of her father's debit card along with the OTP.
On losing Rs 1,600 the victim filed a complaint on the online shopping website. She was later contacted by the customer care executive and he promised help in getting the refund. She was again asked to provide the details of another card. This time she gave the card details of her father to receive the refund.
After providing the card details, fraudsters sent a link to the victim's father's number and asked her to turn off the phone once the link was clicked. She turned off the phone after clicking on the link. When she turned on the phone she found that Rs 20,000 was debited from the bank account. When her father contacted the fraudsters they said that the amount would be refunded by the next morning. But, there was one more shock waiting for them. When the father checked his bank balance he found that another Rs 60,000 was withdrawn from his bank account.
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As online shopping frauds rise, it’s very important to be careful while shopping online. These are the tips to stay safe while shopping online.
1. While purchasing from an unknown online shopping portal, it is very important to do proper research on the portal. Take a look at the reviews of the company. If there are many bad reviews on the company, avoid purchasing from them.
2. Do not provide card details and OTP to anyone over the phone. No banks or reputed companies will ask for personal banking details. Always keep in mind that OTP's and card details are meant to be kept in secret and you must not disclose them to anyone.
3. Never click on the suspicious links sent to you through emails and SMS.
4. Make sure all the important details of the company like address, email, and helpline number are available.
Have a complaint against any company? IndianMoney.com's complaint portal Iamcheated.com can help you resolve the issue. Just visit IamCheated.com and lodge your complaint. If you want to post a review on any company you can post it on Indianmoney.com review and complaint portal Iamcheated.com.
As online shopping frauds rise, it’s very important to be careful while shopping online. Go through some tips to stay safe while shopping online.
