IndiaMart — imore store listed on indiamart

I wanted to buy an av receiver. So i found one on indiamart. The seller's name was imorke store. It was a onkyo tx-nr676 av receiver. Along with that i ordered a subwoofer amplifier acoustic audio ws1005. The total cost that was negotiated was rs. 33, 000.

I called indiamart to check if the seller is verified to which i was assured that the seller is indeed verified and they will help me with any problems i face.

I did upfront payment for rs. 10, 000 and the seller shipped those items from usa and provided me with a tracking number. The logistics website is: http://transroyallogistics.com

A couple of days later the shipment reached mumbai customs. Here the actual fraud started. Oblivious to the fact that this could indeed be a fraud, i kept giving them money. The seller kept literally begging for money as he "wanted" to get these deliveries done as soon as possible.

1. First they asked for more money to pay the custom duties. Rs. 13, 000
2. Then they realized that they "accidentally" sent an iphone x and asked for more money to pay customs duty for it. Rs. 15, 000
3. Then for getting the tax clearance certificate from customs. Rs. 15, 000
4. Then some other "transport" asked for money to do the transport and delivery which never happened. Rs. 7, 000
5. I was asked to buy the iphone too, which i did because i just wanted to get this over with. Cost was rs. 48, 000. At this point i had already paid rs. 60, 000. So to complete the payment for all three items, i paid another rs. 21, 000

In total, i bore a loss of rs. 81, 000. While writing this i am realizing how good to be true these offers were and how foolish i was to pay the money.

The tracking website, them asking me to submit the payment slip copies after payment were some things that made me believe that this was still real, because if you were just after the money, why would you ask for slip copies!!

Most of the communication happened over whatsapp. Some over email. I tried calling the whatsapp numbers, but all of those were switched off. Below are the details of these fraudsters:

Email ids: [protected]@gmail.com, [protected]@gmail.com
Whatsapp numbers: [protected], [protected]

Bank accounts:
Name:gopinath ganesan
Account no:[protected]
Ifsc code:barb0n0rthb
Baroda bank

Name: vanlalh ruaii
Acc: [protected]
Ifsc: ucba0000861
Branch: aizwal
Uco bank

I have already raised an official complaint with indiamart and provided them with the proofs of paymemt and whatsapp chat records etc.

I need a refund for my losses. This all started with the product that was listed on indiamart.

Also i need indiamart to take more strict verification steps when adding sellers. They need to ensure periodically that the phone numbers and addresses listed are valid.