E-commerce fraud: Whopping nearly 500% jump in online shopping fraud cases in just 3 years

Ahead of the expected launch of the highly anticipated e-commerce policy in the current financial year that takes into account the issue of fraudulent practices in online shopping, the number of fraud cases in the e-commerce sector has increased by a whopping 475 per cent between August 2016 and November 2019, according to the government data. E-commerce in India is dominated by Walmart-owned Flipkart and Amazon, and Snapdeal primarily. From 977 cases reported during the seven-month period of FY17 to 2,441 during FY18 and 4,955 in FY19, the number has risen to 5,620 cases till November in the current financial year. The cases were registered under the e-commerce platform of the National Consumer Helpline. The increase during the said periods has been 149 per cent, 102 per cent, and 13 per cent.