We are concerned at the way the authorities are dealing with the issue of e-commerce scams. Their efforts are mostly limited to preventing possible swindling in the future, while millions of defaulted customers and merchants are yet to get any sort of assurance of compensation. As of now, we have seen no visible initiatives to realise the money from the e-commerce firms to refund the victims. According to a news report on Saturday, getting back the money of defrauded customers now appears to be only a dream with little account balances and assets in possession of the scam-hit e-commerce companies against huge liabilities. Reportedly, even the commerce ministry is saying that there is little scope for them to recover the money under the existing law. On top of it, the ministry has no data on how much money companies owe to customers, making money recovery quite challenging.
Top officials of the online shopping platforms allegedly withdrew all the money received in advance payments from customers without delivering products against orders. The top executives of the companies are now under custody or on the run. Of the fraud online companies, the prospect of Evaly’s customers is even worse. Before being arrested by the Rapid Action Battalion in mid-September this year, its CEO Mohammad Rassel wrote to the commerce ministry, stating that his company owed Tk 542 crore to buyers and merchants. Even if the information provided by him is correct, it will be possible to clear only 9 percent of the firm’s liabilities to customers with the money it currently has in its 13 bank accounts. Bangladesh Bank data shows, some Tk 7,177 crore has been deposited by customers in the bank accounts of Evaly as of September this year out of which Tk 7,130 crore has been withdrawn by the company.
It further shows, 35 e-commerce companies managed to collect some Tk 21,030.51 crore from customers. Currently, the total balance in the accounts of these companies is Tk 388 crore, only 1.84 per cent of the total deposits. We think it will only be possible to pay the customers money back if the locations of money transferred are discovered and promptly brought back. The commerce ministry, it is said, has formed three committees to protect the interests of consumers and merchants. But the question is will that be enough? We want the government to come up with specific plans to recover the laundered funds.
