AGRA: Agra resident Sudhir Bhardwaj lost his trust in online shopping when he opened a box supposed to contain high-end electronic gadgets which he had ordered online, but instead found sand and empty casing.He is not alone, scores of customers across Ahmedabad, Pune, Jintur (Maharashtra), Rajkot, Surat, Sullia (Karnataka), Bharuch (Gujarat), Sikar (Rajasthan), Bhiwandi (Maharashtra), Daman, Guwahati, 24 Parganas (West Bengal) and other cities were also similarly duped, with some even getting boxes full of garbage instead of gadgets they ordered online.TOI discovered that a website, genuinedealzz.com , had been using social media such as Facebook to announce lucrative deals for expensive gadgets. On Tuesday, Agra police caught two men working for a courier service provider, who had been delivering the garbage-filled boxes instead of gadgets. The courier employees allegedly used to flee after taking cash for the deliveries. The customer service number of the website was found to be fake, and the courier firm too was found to be involved in the fraud.Police have filed a case against the website and the courier firm, ECOM-Express , and a Delhi-based firm, Om Sales Corporation, under IPC's sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 120 B (punishment of criminal conspiracy) and section 63 (copyright infringement) of the Copyrights Act.Shlok Kumar, assistant superintendent of police and circle officer of Hariparvat, said, "An online advertisement of genuinedealzz.com offered a combo of Samsung power bank, HP pen drive and Samsung memory card for Rs 1,049, after which scores of people across India fell for this offer and got cheated."Speaking with TOI, victim Sudhir Bhardwaj said, "We saw the ad on Facebook, and placed an order for the combo deal (power bank, pen drive and memory card). Later when the delivery boy came, he asked for the payment before we could open the box. As soon we paid the amount, he fled, but when we opened the parcel, we found sand in the box meant for gadgets."Manoj Yadav, an Indian Army solider posted in Pune, said, "I, too, received garbage in the box. I had placed the combo order after watching the ad on social media. When I tried to contact the company on their customer care number, it was found to be fake."Arun Chaudhary, a customer who placed the order for the gadgets on the e-retailer website, claimed, "The moment courier boy asked for cash before opening the box, I suspected something fishy and did not accept the package."Subhas Chandra Halder, another customer hailing from Dhola in 24 Parganas (West Bengal), claimed that the website and its products are both fake.ASP Shlok Kumar said, "It seems that private courier ECOM-Express, Om Sales Corporation and genuinedealzz.com, the e-retailer, are working as part of a gang to rob people, who opt for online shopping. We have arrested two men of the courier company and are interrogating them," he added.The two apprehended guys were identified as Karan Singh of Hathras, the manager of ECOM-Express of Khandari office, and Raju, a courier boy from Agra.

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