A woman, desperate to buy an air conditioner so her son and elderly in-laws could get some relief from the scorching heat, was allegedly duped when she tried to buy it online.
Purnima Barman, a resident of Ghola, on the northern fringes of the city, said she lost ₹34,000 after she unknowingly clicked on a fraudulent website.
Barman said she decided to buy the AC online after the retail outlets she visited said they would take a few days to deliver the machine because of high demands.
“I was looking for a 1-ton AC for my home. My son and elderly in-laws are suffering a lot because of the heat. I visited three stores on Park Street, which are close to my office. But all said they would a take few days to deliver the machine,” said Barman, who works in a private firm that has its office at Chatterjee International, on JL Nehru Road.
A store on Park Street told her that she would be the 31st on the list of customers awaiting the delivery of an AC.
Desperate for a faster alternative, she started browsing the internet for an online option.
“I browsed the website of a reputable AC brand. I had entered my mobile number while browsing. After some time, I received a call. The caller said he was from the AC company whose website I had checked,” she said.
The caller offered a discount of ₹1,000 and convinced her to initiate the payment right away for a speedy delivery.
Burman made the payment through a credit card.
“The moment I made the payment I realised that the money was being transferred to another portal through the gateway, not to the AC company. I tried to stop the payment but it was too late,” she said.
Burman reported the fraud to Shakespeare Sarani police station and also to the cybercrime unit of Kolkata Police’s south division on Saturday.
Many people this newspaper spoke to said they, too, were unable to purchase ACs from retail outlets because of high demand.
A store on Park Street told The Telegraph they are taking four to five days after the purchase to deliver the machines at home.
“The delivery teams are overworked. It will take us around four-five days to deliver. There are so many orders. Our delivery teams are working very hard in response to the spurt in demand,” said an official in the store.
An outlet in Behala said on Sunday they would deliver the machine on Monday but the installation would only be done around the weekend.
“We have a few ACs in stock. We can get one delivered tomorrow. But because of very high demand, it will take a few days for the installation team to set up the AC. You will be able to use your device by the next weekend,” an official at the Behala store said.
The officers investigating the fraud said online transactions should not be made through websites accessed through search engines at random. “The search engines can be manipulated easily. It is easy to place a fraudulent website on the top of a search list. One should not make a high-value purchase online from an unverified website,” an officer said.