Media reports published on Monday said a Dhaka court has placed three people including the owners of virtual outlet e-orange.shop on a 5-day remand in a fraud case filed over embezzlement of Tk 1,100 crore from consumers. It appears that some e-commerce outlets are routinely cheating customers, particularly young buyers promising huge discounts for products like luxury motor bikes, cameras, and such other artifacts. They are offering big discounts to lure buyers and then delay delivery time to end up in cheating. They are laundering money from banks and big showrooms which offer loans or products on deferred payment and then don’t make full payment as loan overdue spills over.
An e-commerce shop Evaly alone has allegedly defrauded over Tk 500 crore of customers. It is an unusual and unethical business but the noticeable thing is that it is taking place on the nose of market watchdogs. Old cases of this nature are pending for investigation with ACC and the Directorate General of National Consumers Rights Protection (DGNCRA) while new cases are piling up.
At commerce ministry’s request to investigate Evaly’s recent financial crimes unveiled by the Bangladesh Bank, an ACC spokesman said they are investigating Evaly’s last year’s allegations and would include the new allegations for investigation. We would say why last year’s allegations were not cleared as yet and legal actions not processed. Evaly would not have committed new financial crimes if it were punished for old ones. The commerce ministry early this year had frozen the bank account of Evaly’s chairman and Managing Director but surprisingly these were quickly unlocked.
Those remanded in the newest case are the owner of e-orange.com, her husband and their chief operating officer. It appears that the case was initiated in mid-August as an aggrieved customer filed a fraud case with Gulshan police station in the presence of 37 other customers equally defrauded. The plaintiff said on April 21 he ordered a product from e-organce.shop and paid in advance. But the shop neither delivered the product after several dates nor did it return the money. They cunningly changed ownership of business to escape accountability and surrendered before the court this week seeking bail.
We would say online e-commerce outlets should not be allowed to defraud customers taking advantage of a free business environment. There must be a clear regulatory system at work to protect buyers. Erring e-commerce shops should not be sheltered by powerful quarters.
