Hosne Ara Begum, a housewife from Banasree, area of the capital, made an order to buy a second-hand fridge online after she had seen that the fridge selling at a huge discount. She contacted with the buyer and paid before receiving the product. After some time, she found that the number to which she had sent the money was closed. Besides, the account through which she spoke on Facebook was also been blocked. For this Hosne Ara lost her eagerness in the online market.
Mahbub, a resident of Khilkhet area of the capital said, ‘I wanted to buy a bicycle for a long time. I saw a page called 'Dream Bicycle Shop' on Facebook advertising very beautiful bicycles for sale at 65 percent discount for only Tk 4000 to 5000. But their condition is to send Tk 310 in advance for home delivery. I sent Tk 310 taking the risk thinking of little money. I have not been able to contact them since then. Later I saw that hundreds of pages were serving similar ads.
Shafiq Ahmed, a resident of Mirpur, said that for the past few days, advertisements have been coming from a page called Famous World selling premium subscriptions of popular OTT platforms such as Hoichoi, Netflix, Charki, Prime Video, Zee5, and HBO for just Tk 299. After sending money, no subscription was given.
In this way, E-commerce platforms are losing customers, for deceptive practices by fraudulent circles. Frauds are deceiving people via social media platforms. These unscrupulous entities advertise fake products telling those as genuine. With enticing discounts of up to 70-80 percent, consumers are enticed to make advance payments, only to fall victim to scams.
The E-commerce Traders' Association (E-CAB) highlights a surge in fraudulent activities during festive seasons, leveraging the increased online sales traffic to perpetrate scams. Nearly 800 people complained to the National Consumer Rights Protection Department after being cheated in online shopping in March alone before last Eid. However, most of the complaints are not resolved due to non-existence or address of the Facebook pages accused of fraud.
When asked, General Secretary of the E-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (ICAB) Nasima Akhtar Nisha said, that this is the world of e-commerce. There were cheaters here, and there still are. Therefore, first of all, consumers should be aware. It is inappropriate to send money if you see a low price of a product somewhere.
''Before ordering anything, check the age, reviews, and payment system of the page. Transactions cannot be made outside of merchant accounts. In most cases, fraudsters steal a lot of people's money, shut down the page, and then open a new page. If the ministry could have provided the address of a page after it was closed, legal action would have been taken against the fraudsters. To get Digital Business Identification (DBID), it was mandatory for every entrepreneur. It is being worked on; there are some decision points at the policy level. If it is operational, frauds will be reduced, she added.
ZH
