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Beware of Online frauds while ordering home delivery of alcohol

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– Bhavya Desai

With the center allowing the sale of alcohol online in many states, an unprecedented rise in the number of online frauds while ordering alcohol have been reported. Most of these cases are based of social media accounts, especially Facebook where fake profiles in the name of wine shops/retailers have been created along with a number to order the products from.

The consumers call the number provided and are asked to make part or full payment of the products ordered by providing the card details, resulting in the money debited from their card by the online fraudsters.

If you are a consumer who is looking to order alcohol online then it is important to first note if your state is allowing home delivery of alcohol or not? For instance, consumers have been commonly misinterpreting that home delivery is currently allowed in all states resulting in them falling prey to such scams.



The list of the state/city and the method in which they are allowing delivery are below:

State/City How orders are taken

Delhi – E-token

Odisha – Online order and home delivery

Tamil Nadu – Online order and home delivery

Punjab – Order through call and home delivery

Pune – E-token

West Bengal – Online order and home delivery

Mumbai – Order through call and home delivery

Chhattisgarh – Online order and home delivery

Kerala – Book online and collect from store

Currently most of the ordering for home delivery across the states are being done via state govt apps or online platforms governed by the state regulators. Punjab and Mumbai are the only exceptions to this rule where the consumer can call for home delivery of alcohol.

But as reported in our previous article (see article: Maharashtra allows home delivery of Alcohol – sans Mumbai), since Mumbai is in the red containment zone there are no home deliveries that are permitted in the city. Also with wine shops not allowed to operate due to the lockdown in the city, officially they can’t deliver alcohol even if you ordered them.

Making things situation worst for the consumers currently is the reduced banking staff to report the fraudulent transactions. Consumers have had to wait for a longer time than usual while calling the banking hotlines to report such incidents on finding out that they have been duped.

Maharashtra allows home delivery of Alcohol – sans Mumbai

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– Bhavya Desai

As the biggest contributor to any States revenue, the lockdown and the closure of the liquor shops for sale of alcohol has resulted in drying the State Governments kitty, bringing things to nearly a grinding halt.

So it isn’t surprising that governments have started shifting their stance on the online sale of liquor and also its home delivery. Maharashtra is the latest State to allow home delivery of alcohol. Although it is yet unclear when this home delivery will start, the government has given a green light to the idea.

However there is a caveat when it comes to this rule. With Mumbai, the biggest market for manufacturers in the State being in the red/containment zone, is still far off from allowing home deliveries. Which means that the consumers in the city will still have to wait for clarity on when the sale of alcohol in the island city will be permitted.

Naturally the deliveries are permitted as long as it is to the home address of the buyer and safety precautions and social distancing norms are taken into account. The move comes after the government earned more than  ?100 crore in the three days that the shops were open for sale.

A few days earlier the government also gave a green light to introduce an e-token system in Pune and Nashik for buying liquor. Any customer can download an app that allows them to place an order at the closest store. They are then informed when they can come to the store to pick up their purchase.

Punjab, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh have also moved to allow home delivery of liquor with Maharashtra now becoming the fourth State to follow the suit. Tamil Nadu (capital city Chennai) is also another state where the high court stated that it was open to the idea of the State run TASMAC starting online sales of liquor by putting a required system in place.

Closer to the bigger cities of Maharashtra like Mumbai, Zomato has proposed home delivery of liquor in a letter to the International Spirits and Wines Association of India (ISWAI).