“Think before you click. Verify before you pay.”
Hyderabad, Telangana — July 2026
As festive-season sales, flash discounts, and clearance offers flood social media feeds, the Telangana Cyber Security Bureau (TGCSB) has issued a fresh advisory cautioning citizens against a growing wave of fake online shopping scams designed to look exactly like legitimate deals from trusted brands.
What’s Happening
According to TGCSB Director Shikha Goel, cybercriminals are running a well-organized playbook: setting up fake e-commerce websites, impersonating well-known shopping brands, and pushing misleading advertisements across social media, WhatsApp, SMS, Telegram, and email. These campaigns typically dangle unrealistic discounts, flash sales, and “stock clearance” offers, and once a shopper is hooked, the fraudsters push them toward advance payments via UPI, QR codes, or direct bank transfers — well outside any secure checkout system.
The result is often a double blow: victims either lose money without ever receiving a product, or they unknowingly hand over sensitive financial and personal details, opening the door to identity theft as well as financial loss.
The Fraudsters’ Common Playbook
The advisory lays out a fairly consistent pattern behind these scams:
- Fake advertisements promising steep discounts on branded products
- Cloned websites designed to closely resemble genuine e-commerce platforms
- Social media pages pushing “Limited Time Sale” or “Stock Clearance” campaigns
- Fraudulent links circulated through WhatsApp, Telegram, SMS, or email
- Advance payment demands via UPI, QR codes, or direct bank transfers
- Fake customer care numbers that exist solely to extract payment or banking information
Red Flags to Watch For
- Prices that seem too good to be true
- Unverified websites or domains that were only recently created
- Requests to pay outside the platform’s official checkout system
- No customer reviews, ratings, or visible seller history
- Urgent, pressure-driven messaging like “Only a few items left!” or “Offer expires in 10 minutes”
- Sellers insisting on advance payment with no secure checkout option
- Absence of a Cash on Delivery (COD) option, often a sign of a hastily set-up fraudulent storefront
What the Bureau Recommends
TGCSB’s advice boils down to a few consistent habits:
- Shop only on trusted, official e-commerce platforms.
- Verify the website URL before making any purchase — look closely for misspellings or unfamiliar domain extensions.
- Avoid clicking on shopping links received through unsolicited messages, however enticing they look.
- Check seller ratings, reviews, and return policies before committing to a purchase.
- Never pay directly to personal bank accounts or unknown UPI IDs — stick to the secure payment methods a legitimate platform provides.
“Verify before you buy. Think before you click. Verify before you pay.” — TGCSB Director Shikha Goel
Why This Matters Right Now
This isn’t an isolated warning. The TGCSB has issued similar advisories around nearly every major shopping season this year — flagging festive scams tied to Sankranti and Holi, and warning of fraudulent sponsored ads impersonating shoes, electronics, gadgets, and luxury brands on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. The recurrence of these advisories points to a simple reality: scammers deliberately time their campaigns around moments when consumers are already primed to expect real discounts, making it harder to tell a genuine flash sale from a trap.
Bottom Line
The most effective defense against these scams isn’t a piece of software — it’s a habit of pausing. Before clicking on that “too good to be true” deal circulating on WhatsApp, take thirty seconds to check the seller, the URL, and the payment method. If something pushes you to act “right now” or pay outside a verified checkout, treat that urgency itself as the biggest red flag of all.
If you believe you’ve been targeted or defrauded, report it immediately via the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (cybercrime.gov.in) or the helpline 1930 — quick reporting significantly improves the odds of tracing or freezing fraudulent transactions.