Customers still chasing refunds after e-commerce scams

Four years after the e-commerce scams came to light, thousands of customers are still chasing refunds, with many saying they have been left high and dry.

According to officials, Tk 58 crore remains stuck in the central bank's payment gateway, as repayment efforts by the authorities lose momentum.

During the Covid pandemic lockdowns in 2020, online shopping gained huge popularity in Bangladesh, with platforms such as eOrange, Evaly, Qcoom and Alesha Mart collecting huge sums in advance from customers, promising to deliver goods at bargain prices. Instead, they reportedly siphoned off thousands of crores of takas.

After the government introduced the Digital Commerce Policy in 2021, those controversial business models began to unravel. Payments made by customers became stuck in gateways, and many never saw their goods or their money again.

A disgruntled e-commerce customer, who asked not to be named, said he ordered Tk 3.5 lakh worth of goods from Qcoom in June 2021. The goods never arrived, and he is still waiting for his refund.

Media reports suggested Evaly alone owed customers hundreds of crores. Dozens of angry customers filed cases against company owners, some of whom were arrested while others went into hiding.

Despite the scale of the scandal, the authorities have never provided a definitive estimate of how much was misappropriated.

Amid public outcry, the government later set up the Central Digital Commerce Cell (CDCC) to oversee refunds.

Md Sayed Ali, deputy secretary of the cell, said they detected Tk 534 crore in the central bank's escrow system. Of that amount, Tk 476.02 crore has so far been refunded to 95,923 customers.

"Refund from the escrow service has been delayed because in many cases the investigation is needed by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to find the authentic information and to find the original affected customers," he said.

Ali said funds outside the escrow system could not be traced. Before the gateway was introduced, no such mechanism existed under the central bank. Some of the missing money could have been laundered abroad, making recovery even harder.

AHM Shafiquzzaman, the first chief of the CDCC and now president of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh, said, "The CDCC officials have not been giving priority to paying back the money stuck in the payment gateway. Perhaps, the regular meetings have not been taking place in the CDCC to return the money to the affected customers."

Commerce Secretary Mahbubur Rahman said recovery was proving difficult because many company owners were either in jail or absconding.

"Particularly, Evaly is not giving the money and also eOrange is playing the irresponsible role in giving back the money to the customers," he said. "However, the money would be realised in phases and customers will be refunded."

Ripon Mia, owner of Qcoom, said they have refunded around Tk 400 crore to customers so far.

He claimed that their outstanding amount owed to customers is nearly Tk 10 crore now. "We want the issue resolved as quickly as possible. We hope that all outstanding payments to customers will be settled by next month."

Hasnain Khorshed, chief technical officer of Dalal Plus, another e-commerce platform facing accusations, said around Tk 10 crore of their customers' money was stuck in various gateways and banks.

"We were supposed to receive a list of customer complaints from the DNCRP [Directorate of National Consumers' Right Protection] a long time ago, but we still have not received it. This delay is affecting the refund process," he said.

So far, the CDCC has shut down more than 300 firms for failing to register or for violating guidelines, such as selling banned products. Under the new rules, every e-commerce company must register with the cell and comply with its regulations.