With E-Commerce in India (or the world in general) being rife with scams and controversy, there needs to be an open medium in which products reviewed without bias. HelloDiya does just that and gives scam alerts so followers don’t fall for blunders on the street or the internet.

Fraud on the rise

According to a report by the Indian Ministry of Commerce in December, there had been nearly 14,000 cases of fraud since 2016. And taking look at each year, reports seem to be accelerating at a staggering rate.

Let’s also keep in mind that there are so many cases that go unreported, and sometimes undiscovered that an online product is a scam. Generally speaking, if the claims seem too good to be true, you should hold back from clicking the buy button.

Real Scam Alerts

A perfect example of a scam alert by HelloDiya would be the case involving a man getting scammed out of 95,000 Rupees from simply trying to refund a pizza order.

After reporting his pizza for non-delivery, he clicked a phishing link that appeared as the form to fill out the refund request.

The takeaway from this case is to learn from others’ mistakes and be careful what you click and details you fill out. It is better to double-check with the website owner, application support team, or Google to see if the link is legitimate.

Avoiding Online Scams

Since it’s quite easy to open up e-commerce fronts, there are scams everywhere to take advantage of unprepared shoppers.

Some tips to avoid scam websites include:

• Checking security certificates: Real online shopping platforms will have a legitimately issued security certificate, allowing users to connect with SSL (https). Websites may issue self-signed certificates to give the user the guise of privacy, but it’s not common practice in real business.
• Outlandish Claims: Products that claim better performance, returns in investment, or anything of the like that seems unrealistic probably is.
• Online Reviews: Aside from review blogs like HelloDiya, be sure to check out any other feedback score from Google Maps, Yelp, Foursquare, TrustPilot, and anything else relevant in the industry.
• Contact Details: To have a local presence in Google, a website must have clear contact details, including phone numbers, email, and a contact form. Some scam artists will fill out phony details just to give the superficial appearance of authority, so make sure to verify your calls go through.

Filing a Complaint

If you are a victim of a scam, you should take it directly to the bank, credit card company, or Paypal as soon as possible. If your details were swiped and being used for purchases, your bank will likely put a hold on your account to prevent further exploitation.

If your purchase came from an e-commerce platform like eBay, be sure to leave honest feedback and report the seller with thorough details.