Customers of 4 more scam e-commerce firms to get refunds from Thursday

Starting Thursday, customers of four more scam e-commerce firms – Tholay, Anonder Bazar, Wecoom, and Bangladesh Deal — are to receive their refunds of advance payments for products ordered online that were never delivered.

With the assistance of the Ministry of Commerce, customers will get their money back, currently stuck in payment gateways, officials familiar with the matter have said.

"We could trace some money deposited by customers of these four companies back to payment gateways. We will start refunding them from Thursday," AHM Safiquzzaman, head of the e-commerce cell at the commerce ministry, told The Business Standard.

On different payment gateways, the ministry found Tk1 crore of Tholay customers, Tk9.5 lakh of Wecoom customers, Tk36 lakh of Anonder Bazar customers, and Tk22 lakh of Bangladesh Deal, according to the ministry.

The e-commerce firms in collaboration with the payment gateways prepared the lists of customers who will be refunded, the ministry said, adding that investigation was going on to find money of other such e-commerce companies on the gateways.

The commerce ministry started refunding customers of much-talked-about e-commerce firms Alesha Mart and Qcoom early this year. In phases, customers are getting back their money.

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Bank has identified 10 bank accounts belonging to Anonder Bazar, where Tk280 crore was deposited until October last year. Currently, the accounts have a remaining balance of only TK22 lakh.

It also found 3 bank accounts of Bangladesh Deal, in which Tk55.98 lakh was deposited. However, the company withdrew Tk55.36 lakh from the accounts.

The central bank could not identify any bank accounts belonging to Tholay and Wecoom.