Evaly scam: Payment gateways asked to provide info on stuck funds


FE Report | Published: January 09, 2023 08:59:32 | Updated: January 09, 2023 14:09:03


Evaly scam: Payment gateways asked to provide info on stuck funds

The government has asked different payment gateways to submit detailed information of the stuck funds of the crisis-stricken e-commerce platform Evaly's customers.

The info including name of customers, volume of money, mobile number, address and transaction ID will have to be submitted to the ministry of commerce (MoC) within January 22 next.

The ministry has issued letters to the payment gateways like bkash, SSL, Nagad, Upay and the payment gateway of Southeast Bank, according to a commerce ministry official.

In November last year, the central e-commerce cell of the MoC had asked Evaly to submit data within December 11 about the number of its customers and the amount of money stuck in the payment gateways.

But, the company failed to comply with the instruction, prompting the ministry to seek the info from the gateways.

Earlier, the authorities concerned took the decision to refund money of customers of various scam-hit e-commerce companies including Evaly. The companies are yet to pay around Tk 3.0 billion back to their respective customers, sources said.

Evaly has more than 200,000 customers, it told the ministry. To date, over 7.0 million products against purchase orders have been delivered 'successfully', Evaly added in a document.

The volume of customers' stuck funds with 27 such online shopping platforms would be around Tk 5.25 billion, according to the central bank data. Thirteen companies returned around Tk 3.25 billion of the total blocked money to 37,333 customers until January 03 last, according to the commerce ministry.

Evaly, however, resumed its operation on October 28 last year following an order of the High Court. A new five-member board of directors was also formed to run the company.

The new board included former chairman of Evaly Shamima Nasrin, Shamima's mother Farida Talukder Lily, and her sister's husband Md Mamunur Rashid.

The MoC started refunding the money in January, 2022.

The government authorities concerned have taken multiple steps in the wake of various scandals by dubious e-commerce platforms.

rezamumu@gmail.com

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