One of my clients recently had a case which I am explaining below and if you are stuck in such similar situation, here is what to do.
Note: Due to attorney-client privilege, I cannot disclose complete case details or identify the actual parties involved. However, I am sharing the essential facts and legal approach so that if you find yourself in a similar situation, you can understand the available solutions and legal remedies.
TL;DR: Being scammed by an online seller gives you three separate remedies, and you should run all three at the same time: a police complaint for cheating, a consumer complaint for refund and compensation, and a written chargeback demand to your bank. None of them is guaranteed, and each one depends on how well you preserved your evidence in the first two weeks. Do not wait for one forum to fail before starting the next.
The parcel turned up on a Tuesday evening in late March 2025. The buyer had paid ₹200 as advance and ₹1,400 on delivery for a pair of branded sneakers ordered over Instagram from an individual seller. What came out of the box was a local lookalike. Wrong sole, wrong stitching, wrong label. He sent photographs to the seller and asked for a refund. The seller blocked him.
Then came the dead ends, one after another, over roughly a month. The courier had moved the consignment from somewhere near Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, and treated the delivery as complete. Support said there was nothing to reverse. The bank rejected a chargeback after the seller told them the order had been fulfilled. A complaint on the National Consumer Helpline sat unanswered for weeks. He had screenshots, UPI records and a phone number, and still nothing was moving.
That is when the client approached the Chamber of Advocate Sudhir Rao. The facts were reorganised into two tracks, criminal and consumer, and the chargeback was escalated in writing with the police acknowledgement attached. Advocate Sudhir Rao and his office argued that the deception began online but the wrongful loss was suffered where the payment was made, which settled the jurisdictional question the earlier attempts had stumbled on. The forum ultimately granted relief in the client's favour. Advocate Sudhir Rao's work in online fraud and economic offence matters is what made that reframing possible.
Key Facts of the Case
- Buyer based in Pune paid ₹200 in advance and ₹1,400 on delivery for branded shoes bought from an individual seller on Instagram.
- The parcel contained a counterfeit lookalike, not the product shown in the listing.
- The seller had no website and no registered business address, only a handle and a phone number, with the consignment originating near Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh.
- The courier treated the shipment as delivered and declined to reverse it.
- The bank's chargeback was rejected on the seller's assertion that the order had been fulfilled.
- A National Consumer Helpline complaint produced no response for several weeks.
- Chat screenshots, UPI payment records and photographs of the goods received were preserved.
- The matter was mixed in nature: cheating under criminal law, and unfair trade practice together with deficiency in service under consumer law.
The Direct Legal Answer
Short answer: file everywhere, at once, and in writing. A phone call to a helpline is not a complaint. An oral chargeback request is not a dispute.
Is this a crime?
Yes, on these facts it is. Inducing someone to part with money by showing goods that are never supplied, or goods different from what was promised, falls within cheating and cheating with dishonest inducement to deliver property. That makes it a cognizable offence you can report to the police.
Can I get my money back?
Refund and compensation are claimed in a consumer complaint. You can also claim for mental agony and litigation cost, though the amounts awarded are usually modest for small-value purchases.
Will the bank reverse the payment?
Only if you push it formally. The seller's bare denial is not proof of fulfilment. Send a written dispute to the bank's grievance desk, attach the police acknowledgement, and state that you will escalate to the RBI Ombudsman if the chargeback is not processed within the statutory turnaround.
What if the seller simply disappears?
That is common. The number and the Instagram handle are still leads the police can trace. Enforcement is the harder part, not liability.
Advice in Such Cases
Consult with Lawyer: The very basic and important step to start is talk to Lawyer / advocate. You should not hesitate in paying his consultation fee i.e. might be in range of Rs. 10,000 to 50,000 depends case to case. He is helping you in this situation to come out. He works in this area of law and can help you explain the procedure which you might have never explored. A good lawyer can get the issues resolved much faster than you think.
Second, put everything on paper within 72 hours. A signed written complaint listing the date of order, the amount, the handle, the number and the exact representation made by the seller is far stronger than a chat transcript is far stronger than a chat transcript with no covering note.
Third, put the loss on record with the cyber crime machinery. The National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal and the 1930 helpline exist for exactly this. Report within the first 48 to 72 hours if you can, because that is the window in which a receiving bank can still flag or freeze the beneficiary account. Once money is layered through three or four accounts, recovery turns into a tracing exercise, and tracing costs more than a small claim is worth.
Fourth, send a written chargeback dispute to your own bank. Not a call to customer care. A written dispute, with the transaction reference, the police acknowledgement and a one-line note that the goods delivered did not match the goods ordered. Give the bank thirty days, and keep a copy of everything you sent.
Fifth, file the consumer complaint online through e-Daakhil. There is no filing fee for claims up to ₹5 lakh, the form is short, and it can be filed from the city where you live or work. This is the cheapest of the three tracks and the one most people abandon too early because the portal is clunky.
Sixth, do not let the police complaint go quiet. Acknowledged is not the same as investigated. If the station sits on it, the BNSS lets you send the substance of your information to the Superintendent of Police, and after that, an application before the Magistrate asking for a direction to investigate. That is a real route, not a threat.
What to preserve before you do anything else
- The seller's profile page, saved as a full screenshot with the URL bar visible. Handles get renamed and deleted within days.
- The listing or story that showed the product, with the timestamp. This is the representation you were induced by.
- The complete chat, exported rather than screenshotted in fragments. A partial chat is easy to attack.
- UPI or bank records showing the beneficiary name, the VPA or account number, and the reference number.
- Photographs of the parcel, the courier label and the contents, taken before you throw anything away.
- The courier docket number and the delivery confirmation message.
- A short dated note in your own words setting out what was promised and what arrived. Written while it is fresh, it is worth more than a reconstruction six months later.
I have been scammed by an online seller — what should I actually file first?
Nothing. First, spend two hours assembling the evidence above. Then file all three tracks within the same week. The order matters less than the simultaneity, because each forum moves at its own speed and none of them waits for the others.
The criminal track
The deception here fits Section 318 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which covers cheating, including the kind where a person is dishonestly induced to deliver property. Where the seller used a fake handle, photograph or identity to pose as someone else, Section 66D of the Information Technology Act also applies, and it carries its own punishment. The offence is cognizable, so a station is obliged to record it.
Where it gets argued is jurisdiction. The seller is one state away, the courier moved the goods through a third, and you are in a fourth. Courts have not been uniform on this in online transactions, and the answer usually turns on where the inducement reached you and where the money left your account. Getting that framing wrong in the first complaint is what causes a station to send you elsewhere. Reporting the loss to the cyber crime portal first gives you a national reference number that is harder to turn away.
The consumer track
You are a consumer, the seller is a service provider or trader, and selling a lookalike against a branded listing is both an unfair trade practice and a deficiency in service under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. You can ask for the refund, interest, compensation for mental agony, and the cost of the litigation.
Two points people miss. First, under Section 34(2)(d) of the Act, a complaint can be filed where the complainant resides or personally works for gain — so the buyer in Pune is not required to travel to Jhansi. Second, the limitation period is two years from the date the cause of action arose, under Section 69. A complaint filed at four years is dead on arrival, however strong the facts.
An individual Instagram seller with no registered address is the difficult part. If you have a name, a phone number, a VPA or an address from the courier label, the Commission can proceed. Without any of those, you may be left with an order you cannot execute. That is an honest assessment, not a reason to skip it.
The bank and chargeback track
A chargeback is a contractual process, not a legal right, and banks decide it on the paperwork in front of them. The seller's assertion that the order was fulfilled is not evidence of fulfilment. Your written dispute should say plainly that the goods delivered were not the goods sold, and should attach the comparison photographs.
If the bank rejects the chargeback without a reasoned reply, escalate to the Reserve Bank's Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, 2021. The usual route is a written complaint to the bank's grievance redressal first, a wait of thirty days, and then the Ombudsman. Keep the dates of each letter in a single sheet.
Can you sue the platform?
Generally, no. Intermediaries such as social media platforms enjoy protection under Section 79 of the IT Act for third-party content, and a platform is not treated as the seller merely because the sale happened on it. Your claim lies against the seller, and in some cases against the courier for deficient service. Naming the platform as a respondent is usually a waste of a hearing date.
Timeframes you should plan around
- 48 to 72 hours: the realistic window for a bank freeze through the cyber crime route.
- 30 days: the period to give your bank before escalating to the RBI Ombudsman.
- Two years: the limitation for a consumer complaint, from the date of the transaction or the refusal to refund.
- Three to eighteen months: a realistic range for a small-value consumer complaint to reach an order, depending on the Commission's docket.
- Longer: a criminal trial. Investigation can be quick, the trial rarely is.
What this does not fix
Liability and recovery are different problems. Establishing that the seller cheated you is usually straightforward. Getting ₹1,600 or ₹50,000 back from a person who has no known address is where most of these matters stall. If the seller is untraceable, the practical outcome may be a police record, an order and a chargeback that never comes. On those facts there may be very little left to argue. That is worth knowing before you spend more than the claim on fees.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is ₹1,600 worth filing a consumer complaint for?
The filing fee is nil up to ₹5 lakh, so the cost is your time and any professional fee. If the seller is identifiable, it can be worth it. If not, the police and bank routes are where the effort belongs.
Can I file from my own city?
Yes, for the consumer complaint. Under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 the complainant may file where they reside or work. For the criminal complaint, expect a jurisdictional argument, and lead with where the payment was made and where the inducement reached you.
I paid by UPI to a personal number. Is that a problem?
It makes the chargeback harder than a card transaction, because person-to-person UPI transfers have a narrower dispute mechanism. It does not affect the criminal or consumer remedies, and the VPA is itself a lead the police can trace.
Do I need a lawyer for a small claim?
Not always, but the framing of the first complaint decides how the next six months go. A one-hour consultation to get the jurisdiction and the sections right is cheaper than refiling.
Will the seller be arrested?
For a small-value first offence, arrest is unlikely. The value of the police complaint is the record it creates, the acknowledgement you attach to your bank dispute, and the pressure it applies.
What to send us
If you are in this position, write to /contact-us or book a consultation at /book. Send four things: the order or listing screenshot, your payment record showing the beneficiary, the courier docket or delivery message if you have one, and a two-line note saying when you paid, what arrived, and what the seller said afterwards. If a police complaint exists, attach the acknowledgement. That is enough for a first view of whether the criminal, consumer or chargeback route is the one worth your money.
This is general information about Indian law and is not legal advice on your own situation. Every matter turns on its own facts and the forum in which it is filed.
Advocate Sudhir Rao, Supreme Court of India