UP Police ties up with Amazon India to protect online shoppers from scamsters

• UP Police, Amazon India will jointly spread awareness and educate consumers about safe online shopping practices and identify bad actors.
  
• The surge in smartphone usage, availability of high-speed internet and ease of digital payment has seen a surge in e-commerce and a concurrent rise in online frauds.
  
• India’s e-commerce market is expected to hit $133 billion in size by 2025 against $72 billion in 2022, according to a recent report by brokerage Bernstein.
  

The rise in internet penetration and digital infrastructure has seen a concurrent rise in online frauds. E-commerce platform Amazon India on Tuesday said it has tied up with the Uttar Pradesh Police to tackle the menace of online shopping scams through a consumer education and awareness campaign.

Amazon India and the UP Police will join forces to educate online consumers about their rights and how they can protect themselves from bad actors, besides raising awareness about safe shopping practices. These joint projects will also include special initiatives aimed at enhancing online safety of women by creating awareness about identity theft, impersonation and online financial frauds.

“(The) internet is now seamlessly integrated into our everyday lives and it is imperative to forge such private-public partnerships to build defence against bad actors. This collaboration will not only educate a large consumer base but also enable us to … foster a secure digital experience," said Chetan Krishnaswamy, vice president of public policy at Amazon India.

The surge in smartphone usage, availability of high-speed internet and ease of digital payment has seen a surge in e-commerce. India’s e-commerce market is expected to hit $133 billion in size by 2025 against $72 billion in 2022, according to a recent report by brokerage Bernstein. And as e-commerce grows, so does the playground of online fraudsters. According to ‘The Anatomy of Fraud 2023’ report by digital solutions platform Bureau and consultancy firm Praxis, of all the reported digital payment frauds in India, over half were related to United Payments Interface (UPI), 18% were card-related and 12% related to internet banking. With internet penetration in India expected to jump from 879 million users in 2022 to 1.14 billion in 2027 and the number of digital payments expected to grow 74% from 2022 to 2027, it pays to be vigilant against online scamsters.

“Our partnership comes at a time when we are witnessing a significant surge in online transactions post-Covid, courtesy convenience of online shopping and UPI payment infrastructure. There’s an increased need for consumers to be vigilant and our joint initiatives will help us do just that,” said Prashant Kumar, special DG law and order, Uttar Pradesh.

The partnership with the UP Police will complement Amazon India’s consumer education initiative, ‘Mission GraHAQ’, that is spreading awareness about safe online shopping practices, consumer rights and more, the company said.

As part of this collaboration, Amazon and UP Police have agreed to explore several joint projects, including consumer awareness campaigns and educating women about identifying online bad actors, safe use of e-commerce and social media, preventing online scams and frauds; industry dialogues with representation from diverse set of stakeholders to identify issues impacting online consumer safety and find actionable solutions to address them, capacity building / training programmes of law enforcement agencies and stakeholders in cyber security and consumer protection, they said in a statement.