Woman duped of ₹23k in Instagram shopping scam involving fake H&M sale

A 27-year-old woman from Ahmedabad has lodged a cyber fraud complaint after allegedly being duped of ₹23,040 by fraudsters operating a fake Instagram page posing as a women’s clothing retailer using the branding of fashion label H&M.

As per the FIR registered at Danilimda Police Station, Prakrutiben Jagdishbhai Vediya, a resident of Danilimda and employed at a private firm, alleged that she was cheated while attempting to purchase women’s garments advertised on Instagram.

Police said the complainant came across an Instagram page titled 'Women Garments' on April 15, which displayed the H&M logo and advertised women’s clothing for sale. Believing the page to be genuine, she placed an order worth ₹1,000 and made payment through a QR code shared by the account.

Subsequently, the fraudsters allegedly contacted her through Instagram and claimed that her order processing had failed, demanding additional payments under various pretexts including registration charges, GST, refund processing, refund card renewal and payment validation.

Trusting the assurances that the entire amount would be refunded, the complainant made multiple further transfers to different payment IDs and QR codes provided by the accused.

Police said the woman eventually realised she had been defrauded when the suspects continued demanding additional payments, including a further ₹11,500, despite repeated assurances of a refund.

She then contacted the National Cyber Crime Helpline (1930) and later approached the police after no refund was received. According to the complaint, the accused used multiple payment handles and mobile numbers while operating the alleged scam through the fake Instagram page.

Vatva police have registered a case against unidentified persons for cyber fraud and cheating, and have begun tracing the bank and digital transaction trail.