The high valuations of some of the internet sites and their purchase by companies which are seemingly not in a position to recover such amounts from revenues has raised doubts about the fairness of such business decisions, they said. The ministry has nevertheless initiated an exercise to look into these deals. The officials said sites may be valued by looking into the number of hits or pageviews they generated. While investigating charges of possible overvaluation, they would have to check if there was any deliberate manipulation of numbers related to the hits.
Valuations are, however, only one area of possible frauds in the Internet world.
Another area that has come to the notice of intelligence agencies in the country is non-delivery of consumer goods ordered online. Ministry officials said that complaints had come from both inside and outside the country. The time had come to set up a body for giving permission to internet companies to engage in e-commerce in india, said the officials. Considering the potential of e-commerce in India, protection of consumers from frauds is a necessity. Consumer complaints can be reported to its Consumer Response Centre.