New online shopping ‘cash on delivery’ fraud that you must be careful about – Times of India

After delivering soap instead of the latest iPhone, scammers have now become smarter and have found a new way to cheat online shoppers. You may now get a call from someone claiming to be a delivery executive of an e-commerce company asking for money for a ‘cash on delivery’ order. The scam here is that you may not have placed an order for the item and the delivery executive may hand over some random parcel and demand money.
You may also get fake messages from courier companies that ask you to keep money handy and pay the delivery executive cash for an online order. As online shopping is booming in India, the scammers hope that someone may fall for the trick as people tend to forget about what they have purchased online.
The desperation of these scammers is such that they may even ask for money from neighbours or other members of the family if you are not at home.
So, if you get any call or message regarding any cash on delivery order from any unknown or little known e-commerce company then simply ignore it. Also, always check the app for your purchase history before paying any money.
Another version of the same scam involves an SMS which claims that you have a pending courier delivery and the package couldn’t be delivered on time due to the lockdown. Now that the lockdown due to Covid is over, the delivery company will claim to give you the package. However, in order to do so, the scammers will ask you for your personal details and may even charge you a minor delivery fee as well that is needed to be paid online.
The catch here is that the moment you click on the link to make the payment for your delivery, your internet banking or credit card details get stolen. Usually, the delivery fee is kept very less like something around Rs 10 to 20, so that you are curious to see what package is about to arrive and you immediately pay the fee.