How Delhi Man’s ‘Gut Feeling’ Saved Him Narrowly From Cash-On-Delivery Scam After Ordering A ₹28,000 Phone From Amazon, Here’s What Happened

A man from Delhi has narrowly escaped a Rs 28,000 cash-on-delivery (COD) fraud on Amazon by only trusting his gut feelings and asking for an open-box delivery.

Incident Details

The man used Amazon’s COD option, which is common in India for buyer protection purposes, to order a high-value item. The package’s weight was way below the expected weight on the label, and, therefore, the man engaged his intuition and asked to see the contents before paying. The opening of the parcel revealed the presence of rocks or cheap substitutes inside, which is a classic fraud tactic where scammers tamper with parcels sent through the courier services during transit. 

How the Scam Works

The fraudsters take advantage of COD by sending fake or altered packages through reliable delivery services, assuming that the recipients would not check the parcels. The delivery personnel, most of the time, are not aware and thus give out the sealed boxes with the seals already tampered with. The customers pay in cash and later find out the fraud after the delivery has been made, thus having to go through the process of getting a refund. There are cases with the same pattern where Delhi delivery agents switch returns or send out unsolicited parcels to win trust for the bigger hits.

Key Lessons

Choose open-box delivery on COD orders, no matter what, especially for items exceeding Rs 5,000. Confirm the orders in the Amazon app before taking them, refuse to accept surprise packages, and report them through cybercrime.gov.in. This approach transforms potential losses into successfully stopped frauds.

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