How to reduce fake cash-on-delivery orders in Bangladesh

The rider calls at 4 pm. "Bhai, customer er phone off. Teen bar call dilam." Next morning the parcel is back at your door with the tape scuffed and a return charge on the courier statement. The customer who placed it in your inbox two days ago, with a cheerful "confirm apu", has blocked your page.

Every Facebook and WhatsApp seller in Bangladesh knows this story. You cannot stop it completely while most orders are cash on delivery, because the customer pays nothing until the door. But you can make fake and careless orders rare enough that they stop eating your margin. Here is what works, in the order most shops should try it.

What does a fake COD order actually cost?

A fake COD order costs you far more than the delivery fee. You pay for the trip out, often a return charge, the packing, the time to take the order, and the days the stock sat in a courier hub instead of selling.

A hypothetical example for a ৳1,200 kurti, with made-up but typical costs:

If your profit on that kurti is ৳250, one outside-Dhaka refusal wipes out almost a full sale. A run of ten during a campaign wipes out the campaign. Use your own courier rates to redo this table; the point is that a refused parcel costs much more than it looks.

Why do customers place fake or careless orders?

Most "fake" orders are not fraud. They are low-commitment orders that cost the customer nothing to place and nothing to refuse.

Common reasons sellers see:

• The customer ordered the same item from two pages and took whichever came first.
• They ordered on impulse from an ad and changed their mind.
• The address was incomplete, so the rider could not find them.
• Someone placed an order with a friend's number as a joke or to test the page.
• A competitor or troll placed several orders to waste your money.

The fixes below target these reasons one by one. Rude follow-ups and public shaming posts do not; they just cost you real customers.

How do I confirm orders before shipping?

Confirm every order with the customer before it goes to the courier: send the items, the total and the delivery area, and ship only after a clear yes. This one step filters out the largest share of careless orders.

A Banglish confirmation inside the chat might look like:

Apu, apnar order: Black kurti (L) x1. Product 1,200 + delivery 120 = total 1,320 taka, cash on delivery. Address: House 12, Road 5, Mohammadpur, Dhaka. Sob thik thakle "confirm" likhun.

Two rules make confirmation work:

1. The customer sees the exact total. People refuse parcels when the rider asks for more than they expected.
2. No reply means no parcel yet. Hold unconfirmed orders and call them, or let them expire.

For the full workflow, with WhatsApp templates for orders that came from your website, read the COD order confirmation on WhatsApp guide.

Why does a complete address matter so much?

A complete address with area and a landmark prevents the "could not find the customer" returns, which are often counted as fake when they are really address problems.

Ask for:

• house and road number, or a building name
• area or thana, plus district for outside Dhaka
• a landmark the rider can ask about ("near Mohammadpur Krishi Market")
• a phone number that is actually switched on during the day

Check the phone number format too. A Bangladeshi mobile number has 11 digits starting with 01. A missing digit means the rider cannot call, and the parcel comes back.

When should I ask for an advance payment?

Ask for an advance when the cost of a refusal is high: outside-Dhaka orders, high-value items, first-time customers on expensive products and numbers that refused before. Keep full COD for everyone else, so you do not lose good buyers.

Most shops take the advance through bKash or Nagad and note the transaction ID on the order. Say it politely and give the reason:

Bhaiya, Dhakar baire order er jonno shudhu delivery charge 120 taka advance nicchi, baki taka product haate peye diben. bKash number: 01XXXXXXXXX.

Real customers usually accept this. Joke orders usually disappear, which is the point.

Should I keep a list of customers who refused parcels?

Yes. Your own record of phone numbers that refused or never answered is the most reliable signal you have, because it comes from your own deliveries.

Keep it simple: one sheet or one tag with the phone number, date, order value and reason. Before shipping a new order, check the number. A repeat refuser pays an advance or does not get a parcel.

Some courier panels and third-party tools let you check a phone number's past delivery success across shops. Policies and accuracy vary, so treat them as one input, not a verdict, and check what your courier currently offers.

How do ads and offers affect fake orders?

The way you sell affects who orders. Ads built for cheap clicks and "free gift with every order" offers attract people who order without thinking, while clear ads with the real price and delivery charge attract buyers.

Things to check in your own data:

• Refusals by ad or post. If one ad brings many orders and many refusals, its real cost is higher than the ad dashboard shows.
• Refusals by area. Some areas may need advance payment; others never cause trouble.
• Refusals by product. Impulse items pushed with heavy discounts often refuse more.
• Hidden charges. If the delivery charge only appears at the door, customers refuse. Show it in the ad or the first reply.

You do not need software for this. A weekly look at your courier's return list next to your order sheet is enough to spot the pattern.

What can software do, and what can't it?

Software can make orders complete and consistent; it cannot read a customer's mind. Be wary of any tool that promises to "detect fake orders" with certainty.

SaleMag's honest share of the job: its AI takes the order in chat from your catalog, the customer enters name, phone and address on an order form, and the server adds the delivery fee and shows the exact total before the customer places the order. Bangladeshi phone numbers are checked for format, and in in-chat checkout a customer who repeats the same order within 30 minutes is warned first. Each order arrives numbered, with a full address, in your orders list.

What SaleMag does not do: it does not score orders as fake or genuine, does not connect to Pathao, Steadfast, RedX or any other courier, and does not take bKash or Nagad payments. Your team still decides who gets an advance request, makes the confirmation call when needed and books delivery. The COD order confirmation page explains the workflow.

Which steps should I start with?

Start with the cheapest steps that cut the most returns, then add the rest:

1. Confirm every order with the exact total before shipping.
2. Make the address form or questions ask for area and landmark.
3. Start a refusal list today.
4. Introduce a delivery-charge advance for outside Dhaka.
5. Review returns by ad and area every week.

Returns that slip through all of this are part of COD. The goal is not zero; it is a return rate low enough that every campaign stays profitable. For the delivery side of the problem, see how to cut parcel returns (RTO), and for what the term means, read return to origin.

Next steps

Pull last month's courier return list and mark each return by reason, area and ad. Pick the two steps above that match your biggest reasons and run them for two weeks. To take complete COD orders in chat with exact totals, start free or see pricing.