kolkata when worried officials of a leading online sales portal sought time from cid at the end of durga puja the cops were in for a surprise what they told cops was not something new in the city but it was the magnitude that stumped them police claim that there has been several cases in the past couple of months where online shoppers have been cheated through online credit card fraud some others found their ordered items missing with often a few courier delivery boys ending up as the culprits cops thus say that online shoppers must go for cashondelivery procedure and check the received package from the courier boy only when you are satisfied should you pay for it said an officersources said that with online shopping becoming a trend now there is also a need to be careful where one is shopping the customer must try and ascertain the security of a website before sharing personal details it is also advisable to keep too much money in an account that is being used to carry out the shopping added an officer diwali for most indians sadly today is also the season for frauds and scams with many consumers spending more than usual this time of year criminals try to take advantage of them through scams such as smishing phishing through sms vishing phishing through voice calls phishing emails and the like to check this menace it is important to remain alert for scams that may arrive via email sms or even a phone call during the holiday season being aware of the traps and pitfalls is vital to ensure an enjoyable and safe shopping experience said a release from naaptol a leading virtual shopping platformso how is it done it is apparently simple the popular online sales sites are picked up and a slight change in domain name is made an addition of one character or capping of one letter there is a sharp rise in number of online shoppers who look for heavy discounts and freebies once someone fell in the trap the customers gives away vital banking details thinking that to be the normal procedure by clicking on to links that will take them away from the main site they finally end up losing huge amountsthe cyber cell and antibank fraud of detective department which has been entrusted with the task of cracking down on online fraudsters has claimed that around 50 per cent of all the cases registered under the it act with it are related to fraudulent sales on internet or credit card fraudsaccording to a source the city on an average witnesses 5080 cases of cyber fraud each week mostly the victims are occasional users of the internet and are not aware of the dos and donts of online safety keeping this in mind police commissioner rajeev kumar has asked the detective department to launch a helpline number for such victims said an officer the bank fraud section of dd