E-commerce platform Paytm Mall has fired a few employees and blocked hundreds of sellers on its platform in the wake of a cashback fraud involving a few employees and merchants.
“Post Diwali, what my team saw was that there were some small sellers who were getting large percentage of the cashbacks and we as a team asked our auditors to do a deeper audit. We found out that there were some sellers who were colluding with some employees at the junior-level and they, sort of, will get more cash back on their products. We blocked those sellers and fired those employees,” Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the chairman and CEO of One97 Communications, the parent firm of Paytm.
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Without giving specific number, Sharma said that a “few hundred” sellers were de-listed from its platform and the number of employees fired would be in the “tens”.
Consulting firm EY has been roped in to undertake frequent audits to identify, analyse and monitor various in-built and outsourced processes, Paytm Mall had said earlier.
In the backdrop of the scam, Paytm Mall has also revamped its strategy and will now only allow authorised brand sellers to sell products on its platform. “We first used to believe that every seller should be able to sell on Paytm mall. Right now, we stringently clear only the authorised brand sellers. For instance, in a product like iPhone, earlier a small mom and pop store could also sell it online. All such sellers have been removed and now only authorised brand sellers would be able to sell that,” Sharma said.
While that will mean far few sellers on its platform, Sharma said it would be a better ecosystem for consumers, as well as a better system for the company to build up on.
