India is currently under lockdown due to COVID-19 and scammers are finding it easy to grab hard-earned money from the people. The latest news is that Xiaomi has busted a fake Xiaomi India authorized online store, which is mi-home.in and the company has warned people against the portal. As of this writing, the site has been taken down and not available for public viewing.
After lockdown, Amazon and Flipkart have stopped selling products. Hence, fake online websites have erupted via various platforms. These websites claim that they sell products even during lockdown. The intention of the company is to lure customers with non-existent attractive offers.
Xiaomi is a premium smartphone and accessories manufacturer. The company is selling products via offline retail stores and Mi.com, which is the official online store in India. If you would like to buy smartphones, you should navigate to mi.com.
According to XDA Developers, the mi-home.in looks identical to that of the mi.com/in website. Moreover, the creator has termed the site as a Mi India Authorized Store. The website has currently put up for sale the latest smartphones such as Redmi Note 9 Pro, Redmi K20 Pro including Mi LED smart TVs. The site also lists Mi Band 3 and Power banks. Interestingly, the fake shopping portal also lists Poco X2, which is unrelated to Xiaomi.
Commenting on the development, Xiaomi India category head Raghu Reddy confirmed that the mi-home.in is indeed fake. The company is internally conducting a detailed investigation and action will be taken. Moreover, Manu Kumar Jain also took to Twitter and added that he is taking up the matter with the cyber police. The move is to ensure safety and security of customers who would like to buy genuine products.
In December 2019, over 2000 fake Xiaomi products work Rs 13 lakh were seized from four shop owners in Gaffar Market, New Delhi. You should note that fake products pose serious threat to health and safety of consumers. Moreover, customers are themselves putting data into a risky position.
The fake products could also probably explode causing serious damage to the people. We recently saw a series of fake Facebook ads prompting users to click. These ads look similar to that of Flipkart and if you buy something by clicking, then you won’t receive any products. You will also stand to lose money and bank account information.
