Reliance Retail Ltd's online grocery shopping portal JioMart has warned of fake websites seeking franchisees in its name, saying it is not operating any dealership or franchisee model at present.
"We have been informed about certain unscrupulous individuals who are creating fake websites, pretending to be us or associated with us and duping innocent individuals under the pretence of granting franchisee of JioMart services," the firm said in a notice.
Reliance Retail said it has recently launched online grocery service under the brand JioMart.
"We would like to inform the public at large that we are not operating any dealership or franchisee model currently nor have we appointed any franchisee or any agent for... appointment (of) any dealer or franchisee in any manner whatsoever," it said. "Further we do not charge any amount under the pretence of appointing a person as a franchisee."
Some of the fake websites identified and mentioned by Reliance Retail include jmartfranchise.in, jiomartfranchiseonline.com, jiodealership.com, jiomartsfranchises.online, jiomartfranchises.com, jiomart-franchise.com, jiomartshop.info, jiomartindia.in.net, jiomartreliance.com, jiomartfranchise.co, among others.
"The public, manufacturers, traders, and dealers are hereby cautioned against such unscrupulous individuals and their online fraud activities; and are hereby warned that we will not be responsible any business dealing with such dishonest individuals," the company said in the notice.
Reliance Retail has also warned that it will initiate civil or legal proceedings against those misusing its brand to protect its "goodwill and reputation"
Reliance in May started its online grocery shopping portal across India. The JioMart shopping app connects local kirana stores with consumers via WhatsApp. Within two months of launching its website, the company expanded it to across 200 cities and is reportedly seeing over 2,50,000 orders a day. The app has already garnered over 10,000 downloads on Google Play Store.
Reliance has also extended its loyalty programme RelianceOne or ROne to JioMart so that customers can earn ROne points and redeem them against transactions, apart from exclusive offers on several brands and products.