Did you lose money at e-commerce sites? Here's how to protect yourself and your money

A PwC India and the National Association of Software & Services Companies (NASSCOM) report had claimed last year that the Indian e-commerce market of 35 billion dollars will be growing at 25 per cent in the next five years and may exceed 100 billion dollars by 2022. However, though this is a positive side of the trade through the internet, there is a dark side of it as well. The number of e-commerce sites in India are on a rise and so are the number of fake e-commerce sites. A recent Times Of India report has claimed that a fake e-commerce website has duped a consumer of Rs 52,000.

As per the report, the consumer had purchased a handbag from a popular e-commerce portal and wanted to return the product. She searched for the customer care number on Google and made a call on the number she got from some another site. The man on the other side posed a customer care representative and managed to get the account details from the consumer on the pretext of transferring the refund amount. The fraudster used various methods including UPI to withdraw money from the consumer's account. In total, the consumer lost around Rs 52,000. 

How to protect yourself?

This case shows how smart are the fraudsters nowadays as well as the negligence by the consumer. You can avoid becoming a victim of these kinds of cyber fraud by following common tips issued by banks from time to time. 

* If you are buying something from any reputed e-commerce portals, use their website only in case of return/refund issues. 

* Don't rely on numbers given at any other site. Fraudsters nowadays have flooded the internet and search engines like Google with fake customer care numbers of popular websites.

* Don't share your secret/sensitive account information like Password, PIN, UPI password with anyone.

* Before visiting any website, check whether the URL is secure or not. A secure website URL has a symbol of 'Lock' before it and it starts with 'https'. 

* If you get risk alerts on visiting the site, don't try to access it forcefully.

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* If you get a message/OTP for any transaction which is not initiated by you, immediately get your card blocked. 

* If you fear your UPI/internet banking details have been compromised, then either request your bank to temporarily freeze transactions from your account or withdraw/transfer the cash held in your account. In case your account has a large amount of money, then freezing the account or transferring it to another account will be helpful.