Mumbai Police says use COD for buying liquor, lists 73 bogus numbers of fraudsters

The police authorities also urged consumers to only opt for the cash on delivery (CoD) option and not to make any payment online until the liquor is home delivered.

Mumbai Police on Friday afternoon issued an advisory and put out a list of 73 bogus phone numbers of fraudsters, who have duped unsuspecting customers that placed online orders to buy liquor because of the prevailing lockdown restrictions due to coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak.

There has been a spike in fraud cases after online liquor sale was allowed from May 22 because of the prevailing lockdown restrictions in Mumbai, one of the Covid-19 worst-hit cities in the world. (ANI)

The police authorities also urged consumers to only opt for the cash on delivery (CoD) option and not to make any payment online until the liquor is home delivered.

“It has come to our notice that gullible citizens are falling prey to new types of cyber frauds. One such type of fraud is when the citizens look for online purchases of iquor and then fall prey to the bogus helpline numbers of fraudsters,” the advisory said.

It has been noticed that in many instances the consumers do not visit the authentic websites and instead collect these numbers from a preliminary web search, the advisory said.

“Eventually, many consumers are getting duped when they call up these numbers to purchase liquor online. There have been several recent online payment scams in Mumbai and many customers have lost huge sums of money due to these scams,” it added.

“The Association of Progressive Retail Liquor Vendors (APRLV), Mumbai, has also declared that to tackle these frauds, it has decided to accept cash on delivery (CoD) and not to ask the customers for online payment before stocks are delivered to them,” it said,

Vishal Thakur, deputy commissioner of police and chief of Mumbai Cyber police station, explained the reason behind issuing the advisory.

“Many people have lost their money to these frauds after the government in a bid to avoid the spread of Covid-19 allowed online booking and home delivery of liquor. We strongly recommend the consumers to go for the cash on delivery option. An investigation was conducted and 73 fake numbers were found being circulated online as wine shops. We’re taking action against these fraudsters. We also made the numbers public to create awareness against the tricksters,” Thakur said.

There has been a spike in fraud cases after online liquor sale was allowed from May 22 because of the prevailing lockdown restrictions in Mumbai, one of the Covid-19 worst-hit cities in the world.