Baguiati couple orders mobile phone online, gets bars of soap
Dwaipayan Ghosh | TNN | Jan 25, 2019, 07:19 IST
Picture used for representational purpose onlyKOLKATA: Online shopping gets more attractive during Republic Day, when top online retail chains offer attractive discounts and exchange offers. But it is also the time when fraudsters strike the most, said police.
A Baguiati couple — Neeraj Kumar, who works at a private firm, and his wife, Preeti, a schoolteacher — learnt it the hard way last Tuesday. The couple has now decided to approach the consumer court if the company fails to address their grievances. But they are not alone. Kolkata Police and Bidhannagar Police said they have received complaints of irregularity even from some portals.
Neeraj said they found that an online sales portal was offering a costly mobile phone at an unusually low price in return for old phones. They saw the advertisement on January 20 (the offer was available till January
23) and decided to avail the offer on the same day. “The next day, they got an SMS, informing them that the consignment would reach them on January 22. His wife was at home when the product was delivered. She matched the OTP, accepted the package and handed over the old mobile phone to the delivery boy. She first realized something was amiss when she found that the box of the mobile did not match the one she had ordered. Finally, when she opened the package, she found two bars of soap inside. When she lodged an official complaint, the mobile firm sought five days to probe it,” said a source.
Police said the trend is not new. In 2016, officials of a leading online portal told CID officers that fraudsters were using their name to cheat customers.
The cyber cell and antibank fraud section of detective department claimed that around 50% of all the cases registered under the IT Act with them are related to fraudulent sales on internet or credit card frauds.
A Baguiati couple — Neeraj Kumar, who works at a private firm, and his wife, Preeti, a schoolteacher — learnt it the hard way last Tuesday. The couple has now decided to approach the consumer court if the company fails to address their grievances. But they are not alone. Kolkata Police and Bidhannagar Police said they have received complaints of irregularity even from some portals.
Neeraj said they found that an online sales portal was offering a costly mobile phone at an unusually low price in return for old phones. They saw the advertisement on January 20 (the offer was available till January
23) and decided to avail the offer on the same day. “The next day, they got an SMS, informing them that the consignment would reach them on January 22. His wife was at home when the product was delivered. She matched the OTP, accepted the package and handed over the old mobile phone to the delivery boy. She first realized something was amiss when she found that the box of the mobile did not match the one she had ordered. Finally, when she opened the package, she found two bars of soap inside. When she lodged an official complaint, the mobile firm sought five days to probe it,” said a source.
Police said the trend is not new. In 2016, officials of a leading online portal told CID officers that fraudsters were using their name to cheat customers.
The cyber cell and antibank fraud section of detective department claimed that around 50% of all the cases registered under the IT Act with them are related to fraudulent sales on internet or credit card frauds.
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