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By:

Bhaskar Nath Biswal

13 May 2026 at 8:30:30 pm

E-Commerce’s Hidden Threat

The modern Indian marketplace no longer echoes exclusively with the chaotic bustle of traditional bazaars. Instead, it thrives within the silent, instantaneous clicks of smartphone screens. From monthly groceries to high-end electronics, digital retail has fundamentally altered how households across the country consume goods. This transition has undoubtedly unleashed unprecedented convenience, democratizing access to products for millions living outside metro cities. However, this...

E-Commerce’s Hidden Threat

The modern Indian marketplace no longer echoes exclusively with the chaotic bustle of traditional bazaars. Instead, it thrives within the silent, instantaneous clicks of smartphone screens. From monthly groceries to high-end electronics, digital retail has fundamentally altered how households across the country consume goods. This transition has undoubtedly unleashed unprecedented convenience, democratizing access to products for millions living outside metro cities. However, this hyper-connected landscape has also exposed a deeply troubling reality. As digital storefronts expand, so does the shadowy ecosystem of cybercriminals eager to exploit the trust and vulnerabilities of unsuspecting shoppers. The digital transaction, once celebrated as a triumph of modern engineering, is increasingly fraught with unseen hazards. Protecting consumers from e-shopping fraud has now become an urgent national imperative. Fraud Surge The sheer scale of India’s e-commerce revolution provides vital context for why online shopping has become such a high-stakes arena. Recent market estimates indicate that India’s e-commerce economy has surged well beyond $140 billion, driven by over 300 million active digital shoppers. Projections show this user base rapidly swelling toward 400 million, largely fuelled by deep internet penetration, affordable smart phones and seamless payment infrastructure like the Unified Payments Interface across Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities. Yet, this remarkable surge in commercial volume has been mirrored by an equally dramatic escalation in cybercrime statistics. Official records from the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal reveal that citizens have filed over 3.8 million cyber fraud complaints, representing staggering financial losses exceeding Rs. 36,000 crore, with a significant portion stemming from fraudulent online retail schemes. Perhaps most alarming is the historical recovery rate, where less than one percent of stolen funds is successfully returned to victims once transactions cross cyber borders. Despite the pervasive presence of online threats, digital consumers frequently fall into predictable traps that expose them to severe risk. A primary misstep is the failure to maintain basic password hygiene, with millions of shoppers reusing weak or identical passwords across multiple e-commerce platforms and email accounts, enabling attackers to execute swift cascading breaches. Furthermore, shoppers frequently bypass critical verification steps in pursuit of speed, such as failing to verify whether a website domain uses secure, encrypted connections before typing in card credentials. Another widespread oversight is performing financial transactions over unsecured public Wi-Fi networks in cafes or transport hubs, which allows bad actors to intercept sensitive data packets in transit. Many consumers also neglect regular software updates on their smartphones, leaving unpatched security vulnerabilities wide open to malware. Above all, emotional urgency remains the greatest weakness. Impulsive buyers frequently ignore glaring red flags, such as suspicious payment requests or unverified seller profiles. Decoding Scams Recognizing that awareness is the frontline of defence, key industry players and digital safety advocates have begun taking structured action. A prominent example is the consumer handbook, ‘Your Guide to Safe Online Shopping’, developed by Safer Internet India and commissioned by Amazon. The initiative aims to demystify complex cyber security concepts and provide consumers with actionable, real-world tools to navigate the digital marketplace safely. The handbook shines a bright light on the most prevalent fraudulent tactics currently plaguing buyers. To combat these threats, the safety guide emphasizes a multi-layered approach to consumer protection. It urges shoppers to verify web addresses meticulously, refrain from sharing one-time passwords and avoid conducting transactions off authorized brand platforms. Equally important, the guide bridges the gap between technical vigilance and legal empowerment by outlining explicit consumer rights under Indian laws and detailing formal grievance redressal mechanisms. A sustainable defence against online shopping fraud requires an integrated, multi-stakeholder strategy that aligns consumer awareness, corporate accountability and robust law enforcement. E-commerce platforms must continue investing aggressively in advanced artificial intelligence tools to detect cloned websites, eliminate fake merchant accounts and intercept suspicious payment flows before they reach consumers. Concurrently, regulatory authorities and law enforcement agencies must strengthen real-time intervention frameworks, expanding initiatives like the 1930 cyber crime helpline and emergency account-freezing protocols to minimize financial damage when breaches happen. On the demand side, continuous public awareness campaigns, modelled after comprehensive handbooks, must reach deep into semi-urban and rural regions where first-time internet users are most susceptible to manipulation. Ultimately, building a safe digital shopping environment is about preserving trust. Only when digital literacy keeps pace with technological innovation can India truly reap the economic rewards of its e-commerce revolution without sacrificing the security of its citizens. (The writer is a former college Principal and Founder of Supporting Shoulders, an Odisha-based non-profit Trust. Views personal.)

The Boycott Crescendo

Updated: Mar 17, 2025


Crescendo
Donald Trump

Donald Trump’s tariff wars were always bound to trigger a fierce response. The U.S. president, doubling down on his protectionist instincts, has slapped levies on Canada, Mexico, China and his European allies. However, rather than reviving American manufacturing, his measures have provoked a global backlash, igniting widespread calls to boycott American goods and damaging the very industries he claims to protect. From Canadian liquor shelves to European car markets, the fallout from Trump’s tariffs is unmistakable.


Tariff wars have long been a recurring feature of global economic disputes, often with disastrous results. In 1930, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, introduced by the United States in an attempt to shield domestic industries, triggered retaliatory tariffs from Europe and deepened the Great Depression.

Throughout history, trade wars have rarely ended well for those who instigate them. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, one of the most infamous protectionist measures, was meant to shield American farmers from foreign competition but instead provoked widespread retaliation. Countries including Canada, the UK, and Germany imposed their own countermeasures, causing US exports to collapse by 61 percent and deepening the Great Depression.


World trade fell by two-thirds, and the economic isolationism that followed is widely believed to have stoked the nationalist fervour that led to World War II.

Three decades later, an unlikely trade spat erupted over poultry. The so-called Chicken War of 1963 began when the European Economic Community (EEC) imposed tariffs on US chicken imports. Washington retaliated with a 25 percent levy on European light trucks, a policy that remains in place to this day. The protectionist measure helped cement the dominance of American automakers in the pickup truck market, but it also deepened transatlantic tensions over trade policy.


During the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan took an aggressive stance against Japan, which had emerged as a dominant force in automobiles, steel, and semiconductors. Reagan’s administration imposed voluntary export restraints (VERs) on Japanese cars, a move that backfired when Toyota, Honda, and Nissan responded by building manufacturing plants in the United States, ensuring their long-term foothold in the American market. The administration also accused Japan of dumping semiconductors, leading to punitive tariffs that heightened tensions between Washington and Tokyo. The echoes of these disputes can still be seen today in the US-China trade war, with similar accusations of intellectual property theft and unfair trade practices.


One of the longest-running trade disputes in history, the US-EU banana war, lasted from 1993 to 2009. The European Union had granted preferential trade terms to banana producers from its former colonies in Africa and the Caribbean, disadvantaging American-owned companies like Chiquita and Dole, which sourced their fruit from Latin America. Washington retaliated with tariffs on European luxury goods, from French handbags to Scottish cashmere, escalating a minor agricultural dispute into a transatlantic economic standoff. Though eventually resolved, the episode underscored how trade battles can spiral into broader economic conflicts, often harming unrelated industries in the process.


In 2002, President George W. Bush imposed steel tariffs, only to be met with European Union (EU) duties on American goods, prompting an economic standoff that forced the Bush administration to retreat.


During his first term, Trump’s administration had slapped tariffs on over $360 billion worth of Chinese goods, ostensibly to punish Beijing for intellectual property theft and forced technology transfers. China responded in kind, targeting key American sectors such as agriculture and automobiles. More significantly, the trade war accelerated China’s push for technological self-sufficiency, reducing its reliance on US firms and deepening the geopolitical rift between the two superpowers.


If history is any guide, Trump’s latest round of tariffs will follow the same trajectory. Protectionism, far from making America great again, has historically led to economic contraction, job losses and diplomatic rifts. The backlash now emerging in the form of boycotts and retaliatory measures suggests that America’s allies and rivals alike have little intention of accepting Trump’s trade war without a fight.

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