Social commerce (F-Commerce) in Bangladesh generates billions in economic activity across Facebook and Instagram storefronts. However, because social transactions often rely on informal chat agreements and cash-on-delivery (COD) protocols, merchants face high return rates and payment disputes.
Top Fraud Vectors Facing Social Sellers
- Altered SMS Forwarding: Scammers forward edited SMS messages mimicking official banking notification headers (such as bKash or 16216).
- Partial Amount Submissions: A customer purchases a ৳2,500 product, sends ৳250 via mobile money, and relies on hasty staff verification to ship the package before noticing the missing zero.
- Refusal at Doorstep on COD: Uncommitted buyers order multiple items on COD and reject delivery upon arrival, leaving the merchant to absorb two-way courier shipping costs.
Defensive Protocols Every Merchant Must Adopt
- Require Partial Pre-Payment: Requesting a nominal ৳100 to ৳200 delivery fee advance via automated MFS verification filters out frivolous orders and cuts delivery return rates by over 70%.
- Automate TrxID Matching: Never ship an order until the Transaction ID is verified against live balance statements through structured software tooling.
- Maintain Digital Audit Trails: Keep organized timestamp logs of customer phone numbers, delivery addresses, and verified payment IDs to quickly resolve courier disputes.