Amid the restrictions in place if you are planning to get liquor delivered to your doorstep make sure you take all precautionary measures. The cases of online liquor purchase-related fraud have increased four-fold since 2019 in Pune city, according to Pune city police’s cybercrime complaint records.
From 440 cases in 2019, the city has recorded 1,595 cases from January 2021 to July.
The lockdown restrictions that necessitated the online purchasing of commodities was seen as the cause of this exponential rise.
“It is not just liquor. Necessities also needed to be purchased online. Malls are shut even now, where did all these vendors go? They had to do something. Even a small-time “pani-puri” vendor can take his business online now and so did the liquor vendors. So people started searching for liquor stores near them,” said Bhagyashree Navatake, deputy commissioner of police, cybercrime and economic offence wing (EOW) of Pune city.
The cases had increased in 2020 itself as the lockdown extensions started setting in. However, as the pandemic-related lockdown made staying indoors mandatory, the online orders went up.
“I had called a store that is located in my area. The shop is genuine. But this man had tampered with the phone number registered with the wine shop on Google maps. I called the number and ordered wine and hr asked for payment before delivery. Because I knew about the shop, I agreed, and he sent me a QR code. I scanned and made the payment only to see that it had debited more than ₹16,000 from my account. I called him and he kept saying that the transaction never went through and that I must have received the text by mistake. I lost more than ₹1,16,000,” said a 30-year-old man who had ordered alcohol in Viman nagar in May 2021.
{{/usCountry}}“I had called a store that is located in my area. The shop is genuine. But this man had tampered with the phone number registered with the wine shop on Google maps. I called the number and ordered wine and hr asked for payment before delivery. Because I knew about the shop, I agreed, and he sent me a QR code. I scanned and made the payment only to see that it had debited more than ₹16,000 from my account. I called him and he kept saying that the transaction never went through and that I must have received the text by mistake. I lost more than ₹1,16,000,” said a 30-year-old man who had ordered alcohol in Viman nagar in May 2021.
{{/usCountry}}“The number of these cases have shot up in May and April this year. And this year the cases are even higher than the previous year,” said police inspector Vidya Jadhav of unit 2 of the cybercrime cell of Pune police.
The fraudster blocked the complainant’s number and was later found to have been active even after a police complaint and a subsequent first information report (FIR) was registered at the cyber police station.
As a solution to such frauds, Navatake said, “The only solution is to not make the payment before you have physically seen the product. Always buy only from known platforms that have grievance redressal systems in place. The money is hard-earned and therefore should not be handed over to unknown platforms or people. Awareness is the only solution.”
Year/Liquor-related online fraud cases
2019: 439
2020: 1,368
Till July 30, 2021: 1,595
(Source: Pune city police cybercrime )
Take these precautions
*Make payment when you physically see the product
*Buy from known platforms that have grievance redressal systems
*Be aware while buying online