• Fraudsters abuse customer-friendly return/refund policies of e-commerce companies.
• They place multiple fake orders, claim missing or damaged items, and get refunds without returning the product.
• This leads to significant financial losses for companies.
• Example: Myntra Refund Scam – ₹1.1 crore lost due to repeated false refund claims.

1. Myntra Refund Exploitation Scam (2024)

Steps of the Fraud:

1. Bulk Ordering: Fraudsters placed large orders on Myntra, purchasing high-value items in bulk.
2. False Refund Claims: Upon receiving the products, they filed complaints claiming items were missing or incorrect, exploiting Myntra’s customer-friendly refund policy.
3. Refund Processing: Myntra, aiming to maintain customer satisfaction, processed refunds without rigorous verification.
4. Repetition of the Scheme: The fraudsters repeated this process multiple times, placing over 5,000 fake orders.

Detection and Reporting: Myntra identified the suspicious pattern and reported a loss of ₹1.1 crore to the Bengaluru police.