Indian online fashion giant duped of $129K by fraudsters, investigation underway: Report

While digital technology has provided us with a way to browse products and order them online, fraudsters seem to be taking advantage of the loopholes in the services that online shopping provides. In such an incident, an Indian online shopping brand has suffered huge losses as fraudsters exploited loopholes to dupe the company by claiming fake refunds.

Myntra, the Flipkart-owned fashion giant of India, discovered that it had been duped of Rs 1.1 crore ($129,600) between March and June this year after an audit was conducted. The company has lost over Rs 50 crore ($5,891,220) to scammers nationwide, TOI reported, citing a source.

According to police officials, the crooks would place bulk orders for several items available on the website like shoes, apparel, handbags, jewellery, watches, and cosmetics and make payments online or select the cash-on-delivery (COD) option.

After receiving the order, they would raise complaints about receiving less number of products than ordered. In some cases, they would make a complaint that the product delivered was fake, of the wrong colour, not the same product, or the wrong size to claim refund.

Myntra Designs enforcement officer Sardar MS told police that about 5,529 such fraudulent orders were delivered to different locations across Bengaluru.

According to TOI, the police suspect a gang from Rajasthan to be involved in the fraud. Nearly all of those orders were placed from Jaipur. The fraudsters gave delivery addresses of Bengaluru and other metros, and few were delivered to commercial establishments.

Although the online store wanted to file a complaint for all their losses, Bengaluru police have asked them to only file a complaint regarding the losses that occurred through deliveries within the city.

A case has been registered under IPC Sections 419 (cheating by personation) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), and Information Technology Act. A police investigation is underway.

In a similar incident, three arrests were made in Gujarat after e-commerce brand Meesho was cheated of Rs 5.5 crore ($648,000) through fraudulent orders.

(With inputs from agencies)