E-commerce companies facing fraud allegations are reportedly trying to retrieve customers’ withheld funds from banks and payment gateways through fake accounts. Investigations have so far identified 20 such accounts as fraudulent, resulting in their removal from the refund list. Sources reveal that these bogus accounts were submitted by Evaly, one of Bangladesh’s major e-commerce platforms.
To address the situation, the Ministry of Commerce has written to Bangladesh Bank, requesting verification of all accounts submitted for refunds.
Sources said that due to political unrest and other factors, refunds to victims of e-commerce scams had been halted for some time. The process has now resumed, and companies like Evaly and Dalal Plus have been asked to provide account numbers of customers owed money. Evaly submitted account details for 163 customers, but verification revealed that 20 of those accounts were linked to Evaly itself—indicating an attempt by the company to reclaim the funds in customers’ names.
To prevent such fraud, two separate lists of Evaly and Dalal Plus customers were sent to Bangladesh Bank for verification, with a request to confirm whether the accounts truly belong to the complainants. Bangladesh Bank, in a recent letter to the ministry, said that verifying each bank account is necessary but will take time. As a precaution, the central bank has advised issuing “account payee cheques” instead of direct electronic transfers (EFT), ensuring that funds can only be deposited into the rightful customer’s account. It also suggested that refunds may be processed via pay orders.
According to Bangladesh Bank’s Additional Director Md. Rashed, a cheque can only be deposited into the account of the person named as the payee; it cannot be deposited into any other account. He also mentioned that payment orders could be issued to refund the affected customers.
Customer refund status
Despite collecting billions of taka from millions of customers, major e-commerce platforms like Evaly and Dalal Plus have failed to provide clear accounting of the funds. The Ministry of Commerce has so far been able to track only a portion of the money stuck in banks and payment gateways, while a large amount remains unaccounted for.
Available data shows that Evaly customers alone made mobile banking transactions worth over Tk4,000 crore, much of which remains unverifiable.
According to the Central E-Commerce Cell, Qcoom has refunded the highest amount—around Tk384 crore—followed by Alesha Mart with Tk41 crore, and Dalal Plus with Tk23 crore. In contrast, Evaly has refunded only Tk21.79 crore, the lowest among the major companies.
An official from the Central E-Commerce Cell said that over Tk5 crore of Evaly customers’ funds remain stuck in banks and payment gateways, along with Tk10 crore for Qcoom, Tk9.86 crore for Dalal Plus, and over Tk2 crore for Alesha Mart. Verification and refund processes have begun, and fake accounts have been excluded from the lists.
Bd-pratidin English/ ANI
