Everyone loves to do online shopping. What is much happier than seeing your ordered item at your doorstep. Online shopping sites have boomed Indian market since everyone now is depending on online shopping sites for everything. The main highlight is that we don’t need to waste our physical energy to go to the shop and buy the item, instead search for the item in any of the online shopping sites and order them. Within the given timeframe, the item will reach your destination.
Humans are finding new ways to make their life easier. The most common shopping websites used in India are:
- Amazon
- Flipkart
- Myntra
- Ajio
- Book My Show
- Swiggy
- Zomato
As the economic growth of the Indian shopping companies went up, there was an equivalent increase in the cyber frauds based on online shopping sites.
According to the records, 1370 online shopping fraud cases have been registered in 2020 under the Pune Cyber Cell group. The issue was taken into consideration by the Home Minister of Maharashtra, Anil Deshmukh and said that cyber cell group is planning to conduct awareness classes among the natives of Pune as a part of anti-cyber threat program.
Pune city has witnessed steep increase in online transaction frauds through online shopping sites. About 2,276 transaction fraud cases were found to be reported in 2020.
The awareness programs focuses on the precautions and safety measures to take while performing online transaction and about certain local deceiving shopping sites that may trap you. These classes are planned to be broadcasted through social media platforms and police department websites across the state.
The Home Minister also established 46 cyber labs across different districts of Maharashtra. Cyber labs are meant to have protective hardware tools that detect online frauds. He also ensured that special training would be given to selected police officers to crack cyber-crime cases.
The government of India has generated a National Consumer Helpline number 1800-11-4000 or 14404 to report cyber activities.
Online shopping scams
Online shopping scam involves impersonating as a genuine seller through temporarily created websites. Financial gain is the main motive of these kinds of scams.
First the scammer studies about legitimate online shopping websites. He then creates a fake one using almost similar logo and URL of the genuine website. Then they add branded items into their shopping site. Next task is to find some shoppers. For this he creates online ads and them posts them in random webpages.
By seeing the ads, people will visit the webpage and place order for the required item. These scams can happen in two ways. One, the scammer sends a fake product which looks similar to the ordered product. Second, he collects money from them and does not deliver any item. Instead of paying through cash on delivery method, he tricks the users by providing discount offers or gift vouchers if they paid their transaction online. Unknowingly many people fall into this trap.
In the recent times, the trend of online shopping scams has changed. Now the hackers construct a fake online store in social media which will be open for a short period of time. They use them to sell fake products. The only way to prevent such scams is by reviewing the product given in the site. Also check for user comments before blindly ordering the item and paying the fund.
How can we differentiate fake and genuine?
- If you see some branded items selling extremely at a low price, then there are possibilities for being it a scam.
- When the shopping site compels you to pay money online and exclaims that cash on delivery is not available, there is something fishy about the website.
- Sellers concentrating on social media are found to be fake.
Prevention
- Before placing an order from any new website, do a thorough research. Understand to compare between a genuine one and fake one.
- Search for the website’s privacy policy and read them carefully.
- Do not disclose your security number to anyone.
- Carefully check the URL of the website.
- If the discount rates seem to be unbelievable, trust your instinct, it can be fake.