Stolen mobile phones of famous brands like Apple, Samsung and HTC are being sold online through different e-commerce sites, including ClickBD, ekhanei.com (previously Cellbazaar) and Bikroy.com.
In almost all such cases, customers remain unaware of whether the products they are buying are stolen or not. Having made the purchase, they are often subjected to legal hassles.
Several buyers said police traced their location and called them a few days after they had bought the devices. They were interrogated and had to return the phones to their original owners afterwards.
These days, it has become very easy to sell stolen and illegal phones through different websites because the sales process does not require any verification, said Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Masudur Rahman.
Rafeen Bashar, a student at a private university, said he bought an iPhone 4S on April 12 this year.
“I first saw the advertisement on Cellbazaar and contacted the seller. He identified himself as Md Riad and said he studies at a private university. I paid Tk18,500 for the phone and I was given headphone, data cable and charger with it,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
“He, however, did not give me the phone in its box. He said he purchased it from Bangkok and lost the box,” Rafeen added.
Two days after buying the phone, police called him and interrogated him. Rafeen then came to know that the phone was actually stolen a month ago from a person named Anu, who lives in the capital’s Dhanmondi. Anu also filed a case with Dhanmondi police station in this connection.
Rafeen had to submit the phone to the officer-in-charge of Dhanmondi police station. He also managed to convince the official that he was a victim of deception and did not steal the gadget.
Seller Riad told the Dhaka Tribune: “I bought two iPhones from someone named Rohi through the website ClickBd. I bought each of those for Tk17,000.”
“After purchasing, I sold one to Rafeen and began using the other one. After a few days, police called and interrogated me. I was then informed that the devices were stolen from Moghbazar and their real owner Ibrahim lodged a general diary in this connection,” he added.
Another buyer Rohim Uddin, a shop owner by profession, was also deceived in a similar fashion after purchasing a Nokia phone for Tk16,000 through Bikroy.com.
Masudur Rahman said: “We regularly carry out drives to catch criminals who sell stolen mobile phones. In general, the person who is caught with a stolen phone is considered the wrongdoer. However, sometimes innocent people become the victims of deception and we do not send them to jail.”
The official said they have planned to conduct drives against the illegal practice of selling stolen mobile phones through websites. “But we will request everyone for not buying phones this way. They should buy from authorised shops.”
Section 411 and 412 of the Penal Code 1860 say anyone carrying stolen properties will be subjected to legal actions, Masudur added.
Md Sohel Rana, marketing and sales manager of ClickBD, told the Dhaka Tribune they have methods like e-mail and contact number verification on their website that aim to prevent such illegal acts.
“Yet, there are some isolated incidents. If the government exclusively formulates a policy on all types of online stores, rate of such crimes will drop,” he said.
“We inform police and try to help them with information if we receive any such complaint. However, I will add that customers themselves should also maintain precautions to avoid getting caught up in such situations,” added Rana.
“We are very aware that stolen goods are attempted to be sold through different online platforms. To ensure that fraud and trade of stolen goods does not happen on our site, we use advanced software to auto-detect potential fraud. More importantly, we have highly experienced and specially trained moderators who check every submitted ad very carefully against many criteria and reject every ad that seems suspicious. Despite all our efforts, we do also encourage our users to immediately report unserious advertisers so that we can investigate and act immediately,” Head of ekhanei.com said in an email response.
Customer Care Executive of Bikroy.com Samiul Arafat said this was the first time they received such complaint.
“In the past, we never got any such complaint from anyone and this is why we did not require taking any step,” he said.
Arafat, however, refused to disclose contact number of the firm authorities despite repeated requests.
Source: Dhaka Tribune