Cheated by a Fake Instagram Shop? Here's What the Law Says and How to Recover Your Money

A young professional from Indore placed an order worth Rs. 4,200 on an Instagram page that sold trendy streetwear. The page looked legitimate — it had product photos, a contact number, and even a few positive comments. Payment was made via UPI to a number linked to what appeared to be a small business. The order was placed around 8 February 2025. Days passed. Then weeks. No delivery, no tracking link, no response to messages.

Gone. By early March 2025, the Instagram page had vanished entirely. The phone number was switched off. The client had only a UPI transaction ID, a screenshot of the page, and the seller's phone number saved on his phone. He'd already tried contacting the UPI payment app's grievance desk without success. A complaint to the local cyber cell had been filed, but no action had been taken for over three weeks.

That's when he approached Advocate Sudhir Rao. And here's the thing — the earlier complaint had been filed without attaching the right combination of digital evidence and had not cited the applicable provisions under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. A revised complaint was prepared, supporting documents were structured correctly, and the matter was taken up with the relevant cyber cell with a parallel notice to the payment service provider. The approach brought traction where the earlier effort had not, and the client received a refund through the payment intermediary's dispute resolution mechanism within a few weeks of the revised filing.

You can read about this case in detail at https://sudhirrao.com/cheated-by-fake-instagram-shop-online-fraud-legal-remedies-i/