Fraudsters are back with their ‘home appliances business’ posing as Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel and Army officers, misusing various e-commerce sites.
It has been found that fabricated identity cards and address proofs are attached to fake advertisements to canvas buyers who are looking for low-cost furniture, home appliances, and other home furnishing articles.
Even after mass reporting by social media users and e-commerce site admins, some fake user IDs are still doing the rounds. Some of the fraudsters have recently opened accounts on Facebook Marketplace as well to canvas uninformed social media users.
A majority of fake account holders have mentioned their place as Kannur or Kozhikode because of the proximity to international airports and the presence of a large number of CISF officers at these locations. The profiles are highly responsive to chat enquiries.
“Their usual trickery is to claim at-least 20 per cent of the total price as advance. On making the payment, they will further demand money for shipping the products. It is only when these fake sellers block the chats after the fund transfers that the buyers realise the trickery,” says a police officer who investigated one such case. He points out that some of the fake ID creators have also crept into public groups on e-commerce sites to post ads and fool buyers.
Three years ago, there were a series of awareness messages on the part of the CISF to make people aware of the trickery and discourage the practice of communicating with unknown people. In Twitter messages, there were also efforts to post screen shots of various fake profiles.
“Several profiles suspected of promoting fake ads in the name of officers have been blocked by the local buy and sell groups on Facebook. However, some profiles still continue to be active,” says C.V. Jaison, admin of a local buy and sell group on Facebook. He points out that the police are not even concerned with tracking such easily visible profiles.
Meanwhile, police sources say the number of people who actually lose money to this outdated trickery is very less these days. They affirm that action can be initiated on receiving public complaints furnishing the details of suspected social media profiles.