Alleged Flipkart scam amounting Rs 1.3 lakh in Silchar; 11-year-old daughter gave away OTP 11 times

A resident of Shyamananda Road in Kanakpur, Pankaj Kanti Dey has lost more than Rs 1.3 lakh in a scam. According to the complaint filed by Dey in Rangirkhari Police Station, he had ordered a dress for his 11-year-old daughter from Flipkart worth Rs 289. After receiving the order, they found out that the dress is not fitting comfortably.

“Accordingly, my 11-year-old daughter who was using my phone called Flikpkart’s toll-free number 8002089898 and requested them to take the material back from us and to refund the price of Rs 289 paid by us,” wrote Pankaj Kanti Dey in his complaint.

It is worth mentioning here that Flipkart’s toll-free number as mentioned on the website is 1800-208-9898. In the number mentioned by Dey in his FIR, ‘1’ in the beginning is missing and therefore the call was not made to Flipkart.

Coming back to the call, Pankaj Kanti Dey wrote that the alleged Flipkart customer care executive told his 11-year-old daughter that they are busy and therefore they will call after some time. “12.19 pm on November 15, 2020, my daughter received a call from 7318770277 and that person asked my daughter to provide the account number of us which is a joint account of my wife Moni Dey and my daughter. My daughter (11-year-old) accordingly gave the account number,” writes Pankaj Kanti Dey.

According to the Flipkart guidelines for a refund, the order gets picked up first and it’s sent for quality check. Only after it passes the quality check and fulfills the refund/replacement criteria, Flipkart processes it. In Pankaj Kanti Dey’s case, the product was still at home.

After Pankaj Kanti Dey’s 11-year-old gave the account number, the tele-caller asked for OTP received on his phone. His daughter gave away the OTP 11 times and a total of Rs 1,36,094 was debited from the account.

“I immediately rushed to the Sonai Road branch of SBI and followed the procedure,” said Dey. When asked why his daughter was handling the entire refund process, Dey said, “Normally, she handles orders from Flipkart. However, here she thought she would surprise me by getting the refund and that is why she was proactively following the steps while I was busy with some work.”

He got to know about the unauthorised withdrawals when he went to the ATM booth and checked his mini statement.