Beware of discounts and gifts offered by online shopping portal IamCheated.com Research Team | January 07, 2020 9:10:am

Beware of discounts and gifts offered by online shopping portal

Online shopping is growing at an unprecedented rate all over the world. The main reason why online shopping is loved by many people is convenience, offers, and discounts. When compared to offline shopping; online shopping actually helps save a lot of money through discounts, offers, cashbacks and so on.

But, you have to be very careful about discounts and gifts offered by online shopping portals as there are chances of getting cheated. Fraudsters are using the trick of offering gifts and discounts to online shoppers with the intention of stealing money from them.

There are so many incidents where online shoppers have lost their money to fake gifts and discounts offered by fraudsters in the name of reputed online shopping portals. Recently, Hyderabad police have arrested 4 criminals for cheating people in the name of an online lottery by a reputed online shopping portal. The fraudsters pretended to be employees of the online shopping portal. According to police, 50 such fraud cases have taken place and people were cheated in the name of discounts and lotteries on shopping portals.

See Also: Things to consider before buying a gift online

Here is what exactly happened

Incident no 1

A 26-year old woman recently lost Rs 96,000 to the online racket run by fraudsters. She had received a call from someone who claimed to be an employee of the online shopping portal Amazon. She was offered OnePlus 7T Pro mobile phone at a lower price if she made purchases of Rs 5,000 on Amazon Great Indian Sale. After she made the purchases on WhatsApp, she was sent a fake invoice. She was then asked to pay Rs 96,000 as a refundable amount and other charges. But, she neither received money nor the phone.

Incident no 2

In a similar case, a 30-year-old businessman lost Rs 1.3 Lakh to a fake Big Bazaar gift voucher. He had received a message with a link. As soon as he clicked on the link, he received another message which stated he had won an LED TV. In order to receive the LED TV, he was asked to make payments towards certain other charges. He had paid Rs 1.3 lakhs in total. Sadly, he never received the TV.

Incident no 3

In another case, a woman from Hyderabad had lost Rs 2,30,000 to a fraudster who claimed to be an employee of Snapdeal. The woman had made a purchase on Snapdeal. She then received a message stating she has won Rs 6,90,000 and also a car. To receive the prize she was asked to pay certain charges. She paid Rs 2,30,000 towards charges like GST, Registration fees, RTO charges and so on. But, she did not receive any response from fraudsters after she paid the money.

See Also: How to avoid Online Shopping Fraud: Review by IndianMoney

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